Up my calories? To What?

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Replies

  • tinamina78
    tinamina78 Posts: 241 Member
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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

    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
    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
    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
    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
    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!
  • JennetteMac
    JennetteMac Posts: 763 Member
    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


    Ok found a website and calculated TDEE. depending on whether I set my execise level to light or moderate I am given 1650 or 1861 as a figure. I am a teacher, walk about 40 mins most days, do a bit of other stuff inc zumba here and there.

    Someone please tell me how many calories to eat if I want to lose about a lb per week. I only have 4lb to lose. but have been stuck for ages now.
    Any good ideas?
  • fragilegift
    fragilegift Posts: 347 Member
    My MFP calculated BMR is 1460. The average of other sites is 1584. For me to lose 1lb a week, MFP says to eat 1400cals.

    I walk everyday, once on Sun and Wed (3.5km), twice on the other days (8.5km), but I still chose sedentary on the calculators.

    A new calculator (http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm) [I realise they vary] says - when I use 'hard exercise 6/7days a week):
    Caloric Need:
    Estimated Base BMR: 1268 Calories.
    Estimated TDEE: 2188 Calories.
    Estimated Daily Caloric Need For Weight Loss: 1688 Calories.

    And if I use little to no exercise:
    Caloric Need:
    Estimated Base BMR: 1268 Calories.
    Estimated TDEE: 1522 Calories.
    Estimated Daily Caloric Need For Weight Loss: 1022 Calories.

    Just to confuse me more, another one (http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html) when using exercise 6/7 days a week to eat 2677, or 1862 at little/no exercise.

    Arrrgghh!

    I am pretty sure I should also up my cals, but I have no clue to what number!
  • JennetteMac
    JennetteMac Posts: 763 Member
    Arrrgghh!

    I am pretty sure I should also up my cals, but I have no clue to what number!
    [/quote]

    ^^^^^^^^
    THIS.

    Help please:cry:
  • Natalie182
    Natalie182 Posts: 61 Member
    i find this so confusing someone help me

    Im 23,
    5'2
    126lbs

    GW 120lbs

    My BMR is: 1,280 calories/day

    Im currently doing 30 day shred so atleast 20 mins a day for about 5 days a week.
    I also have a young baby so spending the day lifting her and on my feet, do a little bit of walking etc

    MFP has put my daily calori intake at 1350 to lose half 1b a week, does this sound about right?

    I obviously dont have much to lose and would prob be happy with just toning up? x
  • jeremy_c
    jeremy_c Posts: 21

    Ok found a website and calculated TDEE. depending on whether I set my execise level to light or moderate I am given 1650 or 1861 as a figure. I am a teacher, walk about 40 mins most days, do a bit of other stuff inc zumba here and there.

    Someone please tell me how many calories to eat if I want to lose about a lb per week. I only have 4lb to lose. but have been stuck for ages now.
    Any good ideas?

    I would use a TDEE calculator such as http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html and choose Light Exercise. i.e. you do walk around during your job, unlike a desk worker. Then as you exercise log it here on MFP and let it take care of adding calories for you.

    From what I have read, though, if you only have 4 pounds to loose, loosing 1 pound a week is not realistic. You probably need to set your goal for 1/2 pound a week, or 250 calories a day below your TDEE, but make sure you eat at least your BMR.

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