Calorie Calculations

Larnen

Hi,
This is probably a dumb question and Im overlooking something but:

1) My BMR is 1698. Ive said I want to lose 1.5 lbs a week.
2) My understanding is that each lbs is a 500 calorie shortfall, so 1.5lbs should be 750 below BMR, ie 948
3) Ive also said I do 4 sets of 45m a week workouts
4) MFP recommends a daily calorie target of 1360, which is 412 calories above the 948 above.
5) That suggests that its calculated my 4 workouts to burn (412 * 7) / 4 = 721 a session

Now that seems high as an assumption although as it happens 760 is about my average per workout - but I do pretty high intensity and I didnt say that anywhere.

So my question is - wheres my error. Im guessing its that Im using BMR as the baseline and that MFP uses a higher value than BMR when it starts subtracting calories to find your target.

My second question. When I DO a workout, MFP changes my calorie target up by exactly the amount I enter. If thats the case my 1360 above excludes any workouts, which makes an even higher value, but also makes me wonder why it asks how many workouts and what duration I did when setting goals.

Could someone shed a little light on this? My suspicion is my calorie targets exlude workouts and that a value higher than my BMR (412 above) is being used, but confirmation of the former and an explanation of the latter would be welcome

Thanks!

elmsallmissile

Your BMR is what you would burn spark out in bed! your calorie deficit is based on your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) what you burn doing NORMAL daily activities of living, these are added to tour BMR then your calorie deficit is subtracted from this, exercise calorie burn is seperate.

It only adds exercise cals when you actually do the exercise what you say will do doesn't matter a jot! The only reason it asks this is so it can give you a report as to what you planned to do and what you actually did!

Larnen

Yeah that was what I figured by the BMR calc, but how does one work out the TDEE? In my case it seems to be BMR + 412 but would love to know how that is derived. Is it just a preset per activity level? Or calculated based on the BMR?

I guess I dont technically need to actually know that as its answered my question already, but Im a naturally curious person

Thanks for the reply though Elmsallmissile, confirms my suspicion

Of course doing 760 cal workouts means Im way below my recommended calorie intake, but eating sticky cakes to make it up seems counter productive

elmsallmissile

I don't know what MFP uses as basis for it's calcuation for calories used for "normal activities but you could work out your own level if you were that bothered using various online tools.

the idea of eating back your exercise cals helps ensure you get enough calories to get sufficient nutrients which you don't get on many starvation type diets, which means you don't harm yourself or get fed up of being hungry and jack it in!