TDEE sedentary + eating back calories?

KatrineJensen

Hello all
I was wondering if you prefer to include your exercise in your TDEE on here, or set it to sedentary and eat back exercise calories?

I've been doing the latter, and eating back around 75-85% (to have a margin of error) of the calories my HRM tells me I burned every day.
I figured this was more accurate, since my lifestyle is pretty much completely sedentary apart from my workouts (insanity), and because my burns vary a lot. But is it better to average out the calories and find a daily goal?
I think I'd have a hard time eating more calories than my HRM showed on a given day, even if I knew it would even out in the end. It's a mental thing for me, I struggle with restrictive patterns and getting enough calories (but I'm working on it and pushing myself, promise). I like knowing what I burned and making sure I eat that back, it's less of a mental strain for me.

What do you find is best, and why?

sijomial

Activity level and exercise are separate items when following the MFP (NEAT) method - so it's not just people with sedentary lifestyles that should be eating back exercise calories.

Really if your exercise calorie estimates are accurate either as an average (TDEE method) or MFP method (after the event) then your calories would work out the same over the course of a week.

So the choice is personal preference and fuelling your workouts properly. If your daily/weekly exercise is fairly predictable then TDEE wins on simplicity. If your daily/weekly workouts vary a lot or you have very large burns then (IMHO) MFP method wins for fuelling workouts, motivating people to exercise and accuracy. In both cases you can and should adjust your goal based on actual results.

My workouts vary daily from zero to several thousand cals (I cycle) and 3,000 to 6,000 in a week so no surprise I choose the MFP method.

KatrineJensen

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. And thanks for clearing up the whole MPF vs TDEE method, I was a bit confused.