TDEE/MFP

africanmasq
africanmasq Posts: 53
in Food and Nutrition
I assume I'm not the first to ask this, but are you guys using MFP's recommended calories or TDEE's? There is a 200 calorie difference for mine, so I just want to make sure. I've changed mine to the TDEE recommendation for now, but I feel like it might be too much. Thoughts?

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    if you have the settings right on MFP, that number plus exercise should be about the same as your TDEE - a %...
  • africanmasq
    africanmasq Posts: 53
    Oh. I'm an idiot. I had it set to sedentary lifestyle instead of lightly active...whoops. That fixes that problem. Thanks!
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    Oh. I'm an idiot. I had it set to sedentary lifestyle instead of lightly active...whoops. That fixes that problem. Thanks!

    If lightly active takes into account your exercise activity on top of non-exercise activity, then do not log exercise. MFP uses NET calories, meaning how much you expend every day without any planned exercise. Most people are actually likely active even if they consider themselves sedentary. So if you choose the activity level that matches up with your daily living activity minus exercise, then you will log exercise and eat back calories.

    So you need to choose which method works better for you: eating at a consistent baseline + addinh in exercise calories on days you exercise and eating back those cals (caloric intake will thus vary from day to day) OR eating the same amount of calories every day that is averaging out your weekly daily activity + weekly exercise activity over a 7-day period. I choose the latter.
  • africanmasq
    africanmasq Posts: 53
    I'm lightly active without exercising - my university campus is sprawling and built on a mountainside, so there are tons of steps and lots of walking is involved just to go to the library (not to mention the cafeteria...I feel like they planned it that way). At the moment I can't do hectic exercise anyway, but once I start exercising more regularly, I might do what you're doing. Thanks for the advice!

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