Calorie Intake Advice

aphrogirl

I am trying to figure out how many calories I should be eating. There is a lot of information in this section and I want to make sure I am comprehending everything correctly.

My BMR is 2190 and TDEE is 3394. I have at least 100 pounds to lose. I have a weak knee and tendonitis in my foot, but I am in the gym 3 days a week doing high intensity interval training on the stationary bike (30 minutes) and some of the machines (weight training). I have factored this into my TDEE.

I have been yo-yo dieting for the past 6 months. I will eat 1200 - 155 calories for a number of weeks and then I will go through periods where I stop tracking and just eat whatever. Right now I am just eating whatever.

Despite this, I have lost about 30 pounds over the past year.

How many calories should I be eating? I know that a 15% reduction would put me at 2885 calories if I calculated it correctly. Does it really matter how many as long as I am somewhere in between my BMR and TDEE? Should I do a metabolism reset?

Any advice you can provide me with would be greatly appreciated.

heybales

Last time you logged food, did you lose the expected amount of weight for how much you ate - now that you see what your TDEE was?

Like you ate 1200, sounds like burning 3400, so during those weeks should have seen a loss of 4.4 lbs weekly with 2200 cal deficit.

Or did you follow MFP correctly, and eat back your exercise calories, meaning the actual daily eating amount was ..... ?

Then have to redo the math from 3400 to see if it matched what you actually lost.

Because if you did not lose that much, or anywhere close to it - then your body probably adapted very quickly and you weren't actually burning around 3400 TDEE.

While inaccurate logging could have wiped out some of that deficit - not the majority of it.

Also, you don't log what you eat during the weeks you don't try to maintain anything - how do you know how much you eat then?
It could be at your suppressed metabolism level, so really those weeks of eating unknown more is no recovery, it's just not the same level of craziness the body sees other weeks.

What may have help if the no-logged eating level was high enough, was that you got resets all the time. Which is actually a good way of doing it - with a more reasonable deficit of course than 65%.

And yes, it does matter the level of eating and deficit - because reasonable doesn't mean bare bones lowest possible eating level, hoping it'll keep the body healthy.
It means enough to get the most out of the workouts (why do them otherwise than to benefit from them) while trading off some performance gain for fat loss.

I do wonder about your selection of Moderately Active TDEE though, with only 3 x weekly of exercise that doesn't sound like over 3 hrs.
Unless you are more active than sedentary on your job or daily life.

And a recommendation, since HIIT, even when it's actually done right, is merely an attempt to get the benefits of strength training in a cardio only workout (bigger fat burn after the workout, stronger, ect), and you don't appear to be opposed to strength training - skip the HIIT - do the real thing, give more time to lifting full body, working around your knee issue.
Still warm-up and cool-down with a little cardio, but if time limited, get more bang for your time with lifting.

aphrogirl

I just calculated my TDEE and BMR a few days ago.

I forgot to mention that when I was eating 1200 - 1500 calories a day, that I was eating an unrestricted amount of food on Saturdays and not tracking. I would lose an estimated 2 pounds a week doing this. On the days I was tracking I did not eat back exercise calories.

I wondered about the selection of my activity level as well. I believe I read on this forum that I should be moderately active based on my calculations. I was leaning toward the level below it. My job is sedentary. I am trying to increase my workouts. This week for example I've already been to the gym 5x. I am not sure I will do that every week, but know that I can commit to at least 3x. I enjoy weights and have read in so many places that heavy lifting is the way to go. So I plan on incorporating it into my routine.

Thanks!

heybales

So it's a total crap shoot then without accurate figures.

If not doing strength training earlier, then the 1 lb lost would have included muscle mass, and therefore the 3500 calories per pound of fat don't apply.
Muscle mass when used for energy only supplies 600 calories - so very easy to lose a lb of muscle of a lb of fat.

Use this if between hrs of activity.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1018770-better-rough-tdee-estimate-than-5-level-chart

aphrogirl

I appreciate your help!