Variable exercise making eating right harder. Do TDEE?

Linnaea27

I just started trying to maintain my weight about 2 weeks ago. I got to my goal (105 lb, 5'1" small frame) after a couple weeks of slowly raising my calories. I've been attempting to maintain since then, but I'm finding the eating aspect of it weirdly challenging. Throughout my weight loss I've used MFP's way of adding exercise calories/eating them back, as I tend to vary my activity level throughout the week.

When I started losing weight in the winter, my activity level was fairly steady. I'd come home from my desk job every weekday and workout at home for a while, and weekends weren't as active. I figured MFP's way of doing calories/exercise would be the easiest for me. But now that it's summer, I spend the entire weekend being extremely active outdoors, while some workdays involve sitting at a desk all day long and others (not a set number per week) involve a few hours of hiking or walking. So now that I am doing so much outdoor stuff, I have some days when I'm supposed to eat almost 3000 calories to maintain, and then some days when I only need 1600. I was accustomed to eating 1500 or so, so for a while I wasn't eating to my maintenance level, which got me down to 103 lbs, where I am now. But after a few days of extremely intense and long-duration activity, when I was snacking all the time and eating a LOT to keep up my energy, I'm now no longer used to eating less! Instead I have been eating several hundred calories more than I should on less active days even if I meet my goal on my very active days.

Blah! I guess my appetite/stomach readjusted to a bunch of food faster than I thought they would.

Because of how variable my activity and my calories are from day to day, I'm wondering if it would be simpler and more doable for me to switch to the TDEE method.

Any ideas, advice, etc.? Should I do TDEE instead of MFP's method given my situation?

heybales

Just means you'll have more of a chance of being hungry on the really active days where your real TDEE is much higher than weekly averaged back out to daily level.

Then you'll have days where the real TDEE is much lower than that average.

It is good to learn to eat a set amount daily - but it's even better to learn how to eat correctly for your level of activity.
And since some activity does have repair that can be happening 24-36 hrs later - you can indeed feel hungry the day after.

I'd say if you want to do the TDEE method, take whatever has been your average gross eating level so far for the week in total - divide by 7. Eat that daily and see how it goes.

Then adjust as you go on, like do a past 4 weeks moving average.
If total average was say 2250, and you gained 1 lb slowly of not just water weight (valid weigh-in days only) over that 4 weeks, then you know real TDEE for that level of activity was 125 less, or 2125.
So then eat that for a week and see what happens.

Or just figure out you need this big of a snack for 1 hr of hard activity, this big for 1 hr easy activity, normal breakfast, lunch, dinner, if really busy day extra dessert or evening snack, ect.

Linnaea27

Just means you'll have more of a chance of being hungry on the really active days where your real TDEE is much higher than weekly averaged back out to daily level.

Then you'll have days where the real TDEE is much lower than that average.

It is good to learn to eat a set amount daily - but it's even better to learn how to eat correctly for your level of activity.
And since some activity does have repair that can be happening 24-36 hrs later - you can indeed feel hungry the day after.

I'd say if you want to do the TDEE method, take whatever has been your average gross eating level so far for the week in total - divide by 7. Eat that daily and see how it goes.

Then adjust as you go on, like do a past 4 weeks moving average.
If total average was say 2250, and you gained 1 lb slowly of not just water weight (valid weigh-in days only) over that 4 weeks, then you know real TDEE for that level of activity was 125 less, or 2125.
So then eat that for a week and see what happens.

Or just figure out you need this big of a snack for 1 hr of hard activity, this big for 1 hr easy activity, normal breakfast, lunch, dinner, if really busy day extra dessert or evening snack, ect.

Hmm, this is really helpful. I'm going to come back to your advice in the morning/sometime tomorrow as I just hit the wall and am too tired to think/look at the computer anymore tonight! Thank you, and I will give all that lots of thought!

sijomial

My take on it is that TDEE suits people best who have a regular exercise/activity pattern and MFP eat back exercise calories method works best for people that have big variations day to day or week to week.

Do understand what you mean about adjusting to a particular volume of food though - that can have unwanted impact on your eating habits and portion sizes.

I average about 5,000 exercise calories a week but as I cycle I can have days where I'm burning several thousand calories in just one day of riding (recent highest 3,338). Obviously I need to fuel these rides but I also "borrow" calories from one day to another so that over the course of a week so it evens out.

Personally I prefer the flexibility of the MFP method for being able to smooth out calories in/out both from exercise and social events. A fixed allowance feels more restrictive to me but it is personal preference plus how it supports your lifestyle and exercise routine.

darrensurrey

Wot 'e sed!

As for me, I just use MFP to make sure I eat a certain amount a day. I try to make sure I train the same amount week.

I did use to calorie cycle but it's a hassle changing the daily food plan to suit the goal. It would make more sense if I were training for a fitness competition or something but I'm not so it's a bit OTT in my view.

SezxyStef

The only reason I switched to TDEE was because my exercise was consistent and remains consistent.

If my exercise was variable then I would do NEAT.

IMHO I think that doing TDEE has it rewards but I also feel it's not something that everyone should be doing.

Since I do TDEE I don't log those odd things I do such as prepping my gardens in the spring, or getting the wood in for the winter.

That is the down fall...but it's fine as they are not regular in my routine.

TDEE can also mean on a hungry day (which I still get) I don't have that option of "eating more", so I have to eat "differently". Such as getting in more protien and hopefully fibre to help me feel fuller longer.

Francl27

The other solution is to eat a bit under TDEE so you have extra calories on days when you are really hungry. It's pretty much what I've been doing, although not really on purpose.

The_Enginerd

My exercise is variable as well, so I don't use TDEE. But I do average throughout the week, and don't eat my "goal" everyday. The weekly average graph in the MFP app makes this easy.

For instance, yesterday was my long run day, and I burned 1300 calories. I ate 500 under goal, but I'll make up for it by eating over goal this weekend.

Linnaea27

My take on it is that TDEE suits people best who have a regular exercise/activity pattern and MFP eat back exercise calories method works best for people that have big variations day to day or week to week.

Do understand what you mean about adjusting to a particular volume of food though - that can have unwanted impact on your eating habits and portion sizes.

I average about 5,000 exercise calories a week but as I cycle I can have days where I'm burning several thousand calories in just one day of riding (recent highest 3,338). Obviously I need to fuel these rides but I also "borrow" calories from one day to another so that over the course of a week so it evens out.

Personally I prefer the flexibility of the MFP method for being able to smooth out calories in/out both from exercise and social events. A fixed allowance feels more restrictive to me but it is personal preference plus how it supports your lifestyle and exercise routine.

Good points, and you sound kind of similar to me in how your exercise patterns work. I do try to think of my intake as cumulative over a 7-day period, so "borrowing" calories does seem to work well. I guess I will try harder to do it that way!

Sounds like the consensus so far is that TDEE is not suitable for me at all. Maybe I was just being a little numb last night since I was quite tired when I posted this!

Thanks everybody. I appreciate your input!