End of the day and not enough calories?

mg1123

TDEE - 20%, or -15%, or -10% is just the mechanism to calculate your deficit. TDEE is the amount of calories you burn in a day, doing everything you do. Breathing, working, eating, sleeping, working out, etc. So if you eat at your TDEE, you should in theory, maintain your weight. Subtracting 20% is what is usually recommended if someone wants to lose about a pound a week. But since TDEE includes your estimates of your exercise burn, you don't log your workouts and eat back the calories. A lot of people still log their workouts, but enter them at 1 calorie, just to track what they are doing.

1200 cal/day is pretty low for a TDEE of over 2000. That would put you losing about 1.5 lbs/week. which is probably too aggressive for your goals, and also, you aren't even reaching that 1200 minimum number all the time.

Thank you, that helps. I think I had accidentally left it as 3 days a week exercise when plugging it into the TDEE calculator, but it's really 6 days. I have been letting MFP put it as sedentary and then logging workouts. I don't try to make up for exercise calories, but do try to meet the minimum.

Kalikel

I'm another who sees no reason to add junk food you don't want just to eat up to a number. If you're eating healthy and you're full, you're full.

Ask your doctor, of course. See what they say. They know best.

But there is no way I'd eat empty calories just because of some number unless a doctor told me to do that.

I also don't do any of the math, follow the acronyms or anything.