Am I understanding correctly?

liz77095

Hello and thanks in advance for your advice and help.

I wanted to be sure that I understand this and know how to apply it to myself before I give it a fair chance.

So about me:
Female
34 years old
248 pounds currently
Goal Weight: 190ish
Body fat percentage: 37.5 on the scale and 32% with calipers at the gym.

I have been doing 4-5 workouts per week for 2.5 months. I usually do 2-3 spin classes and 2 Cardio strength classes (tabata or HIIT style with hand weights)

Katch has my BMR as 1892.

I selected my activity level of 3-5 workouts per week of moderate exercise which gave me a TDEE of 2553.

So a cut of 15% would leave me at 2154 each day.

I am wanting to set my macros to the endomorph of 25% carbs, 35% protein and 40% fat. Also, my doctor had suggested lowering carbs since I have PCOS and insulin resistance.

Am I missing anything? Any suggestions?

heybales

Daily life outside the exercise is sedentary desk job/commute for 45 hrs weekly, no dogs or kids to spend other energy on?

Because the TDEE table is ONLY about exercise and assumes sedentary lifestyle otherwise.

Also, a better site would mention 3-5 hrs weekly, not days.
Because obviously a person doing 7 days x 30 min daily walks is a far cry from someone doing 3 x weekly 2 hr runs.
On your chart, that would be 7 days and 3 days. Totally reversed for who is doing what.
On better chart, that would be 3.5 hrs and 6 hrs. That makes sense.

So you still in 3-5 hrs weekly with that workout schedule?

In addition - you did not select the correct level anyway.
TDEE 2553 / 1892 BMR = 1.35 - That's Lightly Active, not even Moderately Active. Or you are using some fouled up site for TDEE chart.

1892 x 1.55 Mod active (if true) = 2933

And if you are NOT actually sedentary work/commute and you do have kid you are active with and many walking errands, that puts your non-exercise level already at Lightly Active all by itself.
Exercise would just add to that, so you would actually be Lightly active for daily life and Moderately Active for exercise, making Very Active with the 2 combined.

1892 x 1.725 = 3264
3264 x 0.85 = 2774

Yep. You got the ride idea, just the wrong application.

Jennbecca33

Hi Liz and welcome to EM2WL! Great job on working through your numbers. It does seem your numbers are a little off though. I'm not sure what site you used to calculate your TDEE, but use this link here:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

I agree with Heybales. You would need to choose at least 3-5 hours moderate activity with your workouts (I'm assuming your exercise classes are an hour each?) With a 15% cut, this is going to tell you to eat quite a bit more than you previously calculated. Your workouts alone put you at the high end of this 3-5 hour activity level, so again, like Heybales said, if you have more than a sedentary lifestyle outside of your workouts - even just a lot of walking/moving around - this could easily push you up into the next activity level (5-6 hours exercise), so do take that into consideration. It's really important to choose the correct activity level, or else you are just under eating and creating too large of a deficit for yourself.

I hope this helps! Be sure to post back if you have any other questions. You can also check out EM2WL.com for the main forums and additional support along your journey! Feel free to add me on MFP for support as well.

liz77095

Thank you both for responding. I am glad I asked before I tried. I stay at home and take care of my 18 month old son, so I am fairly active between chasing him and taking care of a lot of housework and errands. So, Should I choose moderately active or highly active? I am realistic enough to know that I am sometimes sitting but also active off and on most of the day.

The number seems so high. I am a bit scared to eat that much! I have dropped 50 pounds and am concerned about gaining it back. On the other hand, my net calories on MFP for the past 120 days have been 1350. Which does seem low.

I had mentioned the macros before too. Do the macros I listed make sense?

I will keep reading more on how it all works and I am sure I will have more questions.

Thanks!

Jennbecca33

So yes, if you plan to keep your current exercise level plus your additional daily activity, I would move up to the 5-6 hour level. I know it seems like a lot at first, but that's only because we've been taught to eat so little to lose weight...if your BMR is in the 1800s and you've been netting only 1350, you can see how extremely low this really is and will really hurt your metabolism. You really do not have to starve to lose weight. You need much more! I'm a stay home mom too and the extra activity really does count.

Another option would be to decrease some of your cardio exercise. The weights/HIIT is great, but you could decrease your cardio and this would allow you to keep your activity in the 3-5 hour range if you think those calories would be an easier goal to reach food wise. Either way, you need to eat according to your activity level. If you are doing the exercise classes because you think it will help you lose weight, you can decrease some and still achieve weight loss with your calorie deficit in place. Do what is sustainable for you and do what you enjoy.

You can increase your calories slowly to give your body time to adjust. Add 100 per day every week until you reach your calorie goal. The scale may fluctuate some....that's normal. Just let your body get used to increased calories. You'll start feeling much better and have more energy.

I think your macros are okay. It sounds like you need to adjust them a little for health reasons. Make sure you really focus on hitting that protein goal - the protein is most important! If any other moderators see this post, perhaps they can comment on macros.

There is a $5 starter kit at EM2WL.com which is a great tool to have and it has all the information in one place if you want more reading material, and you can always post back with more questions!