I have some questions :)

grover0ca
grover0ca Posts: 568 Member
I am trying to wrap my head around all of this and have read the stickied posts a few times..I guess I am just not good with numbers..who knows!

Do I have this correct, you can either eat your BMR plus your exercise calories..in which case you would adjust your mfp net calories to your bmr?? Or you can eat your TDEE and not worry about accounting for your exercise calories unless they are really high? Which way is better? I am so used to calculating it the "mfp" way that I feel I can comprehend it easier to eat back my calories..so is there any benefit to calculating it via TDEE that I may be missing?

I see many people posting that they are heavy lifters as well..I am not heavy lifting and won't be, but I train at taekwondo a minimum of 4x a week (75 mins each) and try to get in other exercise as well, p90x workouts, walking, and just this week jogging again (only 3kms at a time though)..so I guess my question is--this way works for those who are not heavy lifting??

Sorry..I know this was long and rambly..I hope it makes sense! I really want to do what is best for my body and I like what I have been reading in this forum..thanks for all the great info & inspiration :)

Replies

  • helened
    helened Posts: 42
    You've got it.

    Ideally you want to make sure that you eat a minimum of your BMR calories as your final NET number. For that you need to eat your workout calories if you set MFP just at your BMR. What really matters is that it averages out to the right amount week after week. I don't think you need to worry on a day to day basis as long as you are in the ball park. That's where TDEE comes in. You can just use TDEE minus 10%-15% and don't worry about workouts from day to day. I don't think there is a "better" way, but some people feel like they don't know how to appropriately choose their activity level when calculating TDEE and use the BMR approach. It's just a matter of choice. What I like about using the TDEE is that you try to eat about the same everyday rather than have different intake based on that day's workout.

    Your workout schedule sounds just fine and fun.
  • grover0ca
    grover0ca Posts: 568 Member
    Thank you for the information! I am really excited about doing this change and seeing what it does for me.
  • ANewLucia
    ANewLucia Posts: 2,081 Member
    Yes I so agree with Helen...eating the same amount daily to me also gives the body consistency. I really like doing it this way.