Up my calories? To What?

Options
2

Replies

  • jeremy_c
    jeremy_c Posts: 21
    Options
    If you work out your TDEE and deduct 15-20% you will lose weight.
    I love numbers and for me I believe using the % defict is a better way than just deducting the 500 calories. 500 calories from someone with a low TDEE can be too aggressive whereas for someone with a high TDEE 500 calories may be too little.

    When calculating my TDEE should I do so w/just my normal routine (desk job) and then still log exercises and allow MFP to add more calories for the day that I can eat? My daily exercising varies from ~350-500 calories, sometimes more than 500 but rarely below the 350. (BTW, I opened my diary but am still back logging from my previous logging app).
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Options
    I set my calories manually for 20% less than TDEE (which includes my workouts).

    I do log exercise just for accountability, but I then do not pay attention to what MFP says my Net calories should be, I ignore that number and eat to my own goal.

    If I don't work out that day, I eat less.
  • astrampe
    astrampe Posts: 2,169 Member
    Options
    If you work out your TDEE and deduct 15-20% you will lose weight.
    I love numbers and for me I believe using the % defict is a better way than just deducting the 500 calories. 500 calories from someone with a low TDEE can be too aggressive whereas for someone with a high TDEE 500 calories may be too little.

    When calculating my TDEE should I do so w/just my normal routine (desk job) and then still log exercises and allow MFP to add more calories for the day that I can eat? My daily exercising varies from ~350-500 calories, sometimes more than 500 but rarely below the 350. (BTW, I opened my diary but am still back logging from my previous logging app).

    yes
  • jeremy_c
    jeremy_c Posts: 21
    Options
    When calculating my TDEE should I do so w/just my normal routine (desk job) and then still log exercises and allow MFP to add more calories for the day that I can eat? My daily exercising varies from ~350-500 calories, sometimes more than 500 but rarely below the 350. (BTW, I opened my diary but am still back logging from my previous logging app).

    yes

    When doing so, say my TDEE is 2,000 and I exercise 400 away, thus my TDEE for that day is really 2,400. Therefore, should I eat 20% of 2,400 or 20% of 2,000 ?
  • murta74
    murta74 Posts: 1
    Options
    Personly, I find a combination of increasing calories and exercise helps. Work out the calories burnt during excerise, half it and eat that figure. This way, your increasing your deflicit while eating more.
  • jcpmoore
    jcpmoore Posts: 796 Member
    Options
    Okay, I'll finally confess this has confused me beyond imagining since I joined in January. I've plateaued for three weeks now and am ready to try this correctly. Here's my info:

    I'm 39 yo
    weight: 206
    height 63 inches
    BMR 1579

    I typically exercise 5-6 days per week, roughly 40-60 minutes depending, for around 500 calories burned or so. (I use an HRM when I remember.)

    So if I want to be eating the right amount to lose the weight, I should do...? Do I set my daily calorie goal to 1579 and then eat that plus exercise calories when applicable? is that the idea?

    Thanks for the help.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Options
    When doing so, say my TDEE is 2,000 and I exercise 400 away, thus my TDEE for that day is really 2,400. Therefore, should I eat 20% of 2,400 or 20% of 2,000 ?

    Your TDEE means Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is your TOTAL NEEDS including exercise. If your TDEE is 2,000, then you eat 20% less than that. Forget the 400 you exercised, it is already figured in to the TDEE.

    If you are setting it up according to MFP, this is set up to not include exercise, and that is why people add in their exercise calories.
  • madeinforks
    madeinforks Posts: 50 Member
    Options
    My BW was 191lbs. and I kept my calorie goal at 1500 daily..I do 3-4 hours exercise weekly and include some strength training in that and I have lost steady for the past 3 months..So up your calorie intake and maybe add some strength training with your cardio.
    Muscle burns fat faster than fat burns fat so try toning up and see if that helps some! It sure has helped me!
  • Hoakiebs
    Hoakiebs Posts: 430 Member
    Options
    Try going here and listening to audio clip 2 on breaking plateaus for the reasons why.

    Www.fat2fit radio.com
  • tinamina78
    tinamina78 Posts: 241 Member
    Options
    There are so many ways of doing this, it really is personal preference, I think. However, I think that MFP calculates calories a little bit low for people. I've checked a lot of other sites for calculations and they are more consistent and make more sense. This website is really helpful in calculating and explaining a lot of things. Good luck!!

    http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators.html
  • tinamina78
    tinamina78 Posts: 241 Member
    Options
    Try going here and listening to audio clip 2 on breaking plateaus for the reasons why.

    Www.fat2fit radio.com

    This one's also really good!
  • tinamina78
    tinamina78 Posts: 241 Member
    Options
    When doing so, say my TDEE is 2,000 and I exercise 400 away, thus my TDEE for that day is really 2,400. Therefore, should I eat 20% of 2,400 or 20% of 2,000 ?

    Your TDEE means Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is your TOTAL NEEDS including exercise. If your TDEE is 2,000, then you eat 20% less than that. Forget the 400 you exercised, it is already figured in to the TDEE.

    If you are setting it up according to MFP, this is set up to not include exercise, and that is why people add in their exercise calories.

    You are one smart cookie!! I love the way you explained this. Best answer yet :flowerforyou:
  • Hoakiebs
    Hoakiebs Posts: 430 Member
    Options
    Okay, I'll finally confess this has confused me beyond imagining since I joined in January. I've plateaued for three weeks now and am ready to try this correctly. Here's my info:

    I'm 39 yo
    weight: 206
    height 63 inches
    BMR 1579

    I typically exercise 5-6 days per week, roughly 40-60 minutes depending, for around 500 calories burned or so. (I use an HRM when I remember.)

    Yes. If you burn calories through exercise, your body needs to replenish that energy. Your weight loss is programmed into th 1579
    So if I want to be eating the right amount to lose the weight, I should do...? Do I set my daily calorie goal to 1579 and then eat that plus exercise calories when applicable? is that the idea?

    Thanks for the help.
    No, you don't base anything on your BMR, but on your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). If you followed the wizard to arrive at your goal, that is what your body requires to function @ your job. Your daily goal will be 500 cals. (1 lb./ wk) or 1000 cals. (2 lbs./wk.) below your TDEE. This is your daily goal. If you exercise, you need the additional energy for that exercise, as your weight loss is already programmed into your daily goal number. Any daily exercise has to be fueled by additional eating, and you will still lose at your desired rate of loss.

    Hope this helps clarify things.
  • jeremy_c
    jeremy_c Posts: 21
    Options
    When doing so, say my TDEE is 2,000 and I exercise 400 away, thus my TDEE for that day is really 2,400. Therefore, should I eat 20% of 2,400 or 20% of 2,000 ?

    Your TDEE means Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is your TOTAL NEEDS including exercise. If your TDEE is 2,000, then you eat 20% less than that. Forget the 400 you exercised, it is already figured in to the TDEE.

    If you are setting it up according to MFP, this is set up to not include exercise, and that is why people add in their exercise calories.

    You are one smart cookie!! I love the way you explained this. Best answer yet :flowerforyou:

    This isn't quite true, at least how I believe MFP would work. My TDEE changes on a daily basis by possibly 300 calories based on what exercises I did on what given day. I run every other day and do other exercises on off days. Some of my runs are hard, others are easy. Thus, the way I understood things from this thread is that I should compute my TDEE as a desk worker (as I am). My BMR is 1800 and a sedentary life style to get a TDEE is a 1.2 multiplier, thus my "base" TDEE is 2,160.

    Now, I tell MFP that I want to eat 2,160 calories a day and I'll manually stay 20% below that. On days I exercise hard, MFP will list the 2,160 goal plus my *additional* exercises, it may go as high as 2,760 for a given day. I don't want to calculate an average TDEE and plug it in, eating more than I should on one day and less than I should on another because it can vary quite a bit.

    Thus, I believe I want to compute a TDEE based on my "normal" life and anything "abnormal", or widely varying, I'll log and add in to change that particular day's TDEE.

    Is that right or did I miss it totally?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Options
    You can do it whatever way you want. As long as you have a calorie deficit off of your TDEE, you will lose weight. How much weight you lose depends on how much that deficit is. 500 calories for 1 pound a week. However, creating too large of a deficit sometimes does not work, in cases where you are eating at or below BMR and you do not have a large amount of weight to lose.

    So, you can let MFP set up your goal for you and eat to NET calories, or you can create your own way of keeping track that makes sense to you that takes into account eating above BMR but below TDEE.
  • jcpmoore
    jcpmoore Posts: 796 Member
    Options

    No, you don't base anything on your BMR, but on your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). If you followed the wizard to arrive at your goal, that is what your body requires to function @ your job. Your daily goal will be 500 cals. (1 lb./ wk) or 1000 cals. (2 lbs./wk.) below your TDEE. This is your daily goal. If you exercise, you need the additional energy for that exercise, as your weight loss is already programmed into your daily goal number. Any daily exercise has to be fueled by additional eating, and you will still lose at your desired rate of loss.

    Hope this helps clarify things.

    Yes, and no. I appreciate your help, but with alphabet soup I get lost. I know what TDEE stands for, but that doesn't tell me how to calculate it. I do not do the same exercise every day, so that will always be calculated and added separately. How can I easily calculate the TDEE? I have a lazy desk job and I exercise in addition to that. I do not spend my day on my feet otherwise. So can I calculate a base TDEE and add my exercise calories burned on top each day?

    thanks.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
    Options
    When doing so, say my TDEE is 2,000 and I exercise 400 away, thus my TDEE for that day is really 2,400. Therefore, should I eat 20% of 2,400 or 20% of 2,000 ?

    Your TDEE means Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is your TOTAL NEEDS including exercise. If your TDEE is 2,000, then you eat 20% less than that. Forget the 400 you exercised, it is already figured in to the TDEE.

    If you are setting it up according to MFP, this is set up to not include exercise, and that is why people add in their exercise calories.

    You are one smart cookie!! I love the way you explained this. Best answer yet :flowerforyou:

    This isn't quite true, at least how I believe MFP would work. My TDEE changes on a daily basis by possibly 300 calories based on what exercises I did on what given day. I run every other day and do other exercises on off days. Some of my runs are hard, others are easy. Thus, the way I understood things from this thread is that I should compute my TDEE as a desk worker (as I am). My BMR is 1800 and a sedentary life style to get a TDEE is a 1.2 multiplier, thus my "base" TDEE is 2,160.

    Now, I tell MFP that I want to eat 2,160 calories a day and I'll manually stay 20% below that. On days I exercise hard, MFP will list the 2,160 goal plus my *additional* exercises, it may go as high as 2,760 for a given day. I don't want to calculate an average TDEE and plug it in, eating more than I should on one day and less than I should on another because it can vary quite a bit.

    Thus, I believe I want to compute a TDEE based on my "normal" life and anything "abnormal", or widely varying, I'll log and add in to change that particular day's TDEE.

    Is that right or did I miss it totally?

    Well, I wouldn't say you are sedentary as you exercise every day, but if you want to go with that setting, you deduct 20% from your 2160 to create your defict, (1760) and set MFP to that, plus exercise calories.

    or go with the more active multiplier, deduct 20% and eat the same every day.
  • kpwatson
    kpwatson Posts: 60 Member
    Options
    I am in the same boat. I have been eating 1200-1300 + exercise calories. mfp suggests 1200, bmr says 1374. I need to lose 30 more lbs ( down by 5). I want a steady 1-1.5 loss a week. I am tempted to increase to 1350- 1400 this week plus exercise just to see what that does. Add me if you want and we can compare.
  • JennetteMac
    JennetteMac Posts: 763 Member
    Options
    my BMR according to mfp is 1134

    How do I get my TDEE ? I am totally incapable of doing percentages etc. Is there a tool for this?
    Recently (8 days ago) upped my calories from 1200 to 1350. Not had a disasterous weight gain so far, been a bit up and down, like before really. That was the reason I decided to try upping.
    Am I doing this right?

    Help
  • Spritezero
    Spritezero Posts: 2
    Options
    I have looked at lots of calories based diet websites and books. The most recent book I looked at was the biggest loser and they say for my weight (205) I should be eating around 1700-2000 calories (i think, I did the calculation whilst in the book shop) plus exercising regularly. I think that MFL sets very low daily calories - it says I should be on 1200 calories which is just impossible. You cant fit in a decent dinner and have a snack on this and all the diet websites say you should try and fit in a healthy snack to stop you pigging out later!

Categories