eating at maintenance and exercise

jasveersingh925

Has anyone had success with weight loss by eating their maintenance calories and creating a calorie deficit through exercise? How much did you exercise and what was your routine like? The reason I ask is that I tend to have less control over my calorie intake than other dieters and thus it is higher overall (due to social events and inaccuracies with calorie amounts). I do know that I can exercise more and also create a deficit that way. Thanks!

VelveteenArabian

If you use the TDEE method, you don't eat back your exercise calories.

Figure out your daily caloric intake with this calculator: http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

Just remember to NOT eat back your exercise calories.

ana3067

This method will be a lot harder to control your deficit with. Might as well just figure out your regular exercise schedule, include it into your TDEE estimate, and then subtract 20% from that. If your TDEE without exercise is 2200 and you eat 1800 then you will lose weight and 1800 will probably not feel too low because you are not working out and don't need as much food. If you eat 2200 and exercise, your TDEE might actually increase only to maybe 2400 on average. And it will be harder for you to figure out how much you need to eat if you wind up unable to exercise, or if you switch to maintenance.

Your reasons for having less control can be eliminated or significantly reduced, very easily. Don't eat out as much when doing social things. Eat beforehand so you have a reason to say no to food. Ask ahead of time what will be consumed, or if you go out to a restaurant pre-log what you plan to order. I have no idea what "inaccuracies with calorie counts" means but it's likely something that is easily resolved as well.

If you choose to use exercise to create your deficit, you'll probably need to do a lot of cardio since most people only eat back 50% of the calories, assuming that MFP is overestimating the caloric burn by up to 50%. So that 400 calorie burn from cycling might only be 180, or 220, etc.

Kellyfitness128

To be honest I'm not even sure what my maintenance calories are, but I eat 2,000 calories a day to lose weight and I run 3x per week, do lots of walking and light weight lifting on the days in between, and I lose weight from that. I think it's important to keep calories up and create a deficit through exercise mainly to keep your body's metabolism from slowing down! One reason why I'm so shocked that so many people on here are eating only 1200 calories a day... completely unsustainable and detrimental to their health.

jasveersingh925

bump, thanks for the replies!

jasveersingh925

anyone else who has lost weight by eating at maintenance and working out?

canadjineh

anyone else who has lost weight by eating at maintenance and working out?

Haven't lost weight but I have toned up (lost inches in waist & hips) and gotten stronger and lost body fat %.