Double Check my math, thoughts on activity level?

Telsera

Hi everybody,

I used fitnessfrog to calculate my TDEE at a moderate activity level and got a TDEE of 2262 calories. (I'm 5'9, 139lbs, with a small frame, trying to firm things up all over.)

So with the 15% cut this becomes 1924 calories for my workout days, yes?

Do I add back the 15% on non-workout days to get 2262? That's where I am getting confused. Also I don't really have non-workout days because I am alternating Stronglifts 5x5 with Couch to 5k (so I am running on the rest days from Stronglifts, and lifting on the rest days from C25k). And I do martial arts classes tues, weds, and thurs. Tues/Weds tend to be a lot more strenuous (easily 400-600 calories) than Thursday. So is this probably moderate because I sit at a desk all day? What do you think?

Thank you so much for all your help

gemiwing

I would easily say moderate. Make sure you take a solid day off from all exercise too- give your body a chance to heal up. On non-workout days keep the 15% below still- that's your deficit. What you'll need to be careful of is to make sure your NET on workout days is high enough since you exercise so much. If you exercise more than 200-300 calorie burns, then eat 2-300 cals more to keep your NET well above your BMR.

ANewLucia

You eat that 1924 every single day and on high burn days, you make sure to eat enough to net no less than your BMR.

tangiesharp

I would easily say moderate. Make sure you take a solid day off from all exercise too- give your body a chance to heal up. On non-workout days keep the 15% below still- that's your deficit. What you'll need to be careful of is to make sure your NET on workout days is high enough since you exercise so much. If you exercise more than 200-300 calorie burns, then eat 2-300 cals more to keep your NET well above your BMR.

I've seen this advice on some other posts ("if you exercise more than xx, then eat to net BMR") and I'm always confused about how that number is calculated. Are you looking at the difference between BMR and the cut (15% of TDEE)?

Thanks for the info.

gemiwing

I've seen this advice on some other posts ("if you exercise more than xx, then eat to net BMR") and I'm always confused about how that number is calculated. Are you looking at the difference between BMR and the cut (15% of TDEE)?

Thanks for the info.

heya

Kiki and Lucia explain this sooo much better than I do.

I personally make a TDEE average for the week and eat the same amount every day because I have a very set workout schedule. When my workout schedule varied- I would figure my TDEE for the week- this meant that some workout days I'd have eaten up to my regular cals but ended up burning tons more in a workout because I hadn't planned 'well'. So I had to add more cals to the day to insure I stayed above my BMR- an easy way to do that is to toss a few hundred cals at it. Usually the burn wasn't so extreme that I'd be surprised by it- I mean if I'm doing a 5k I tend to know about it first lol. So it's more like taking a walk after dinner when I hadn't planned on it, or playing in the park half an hour longer than I planned- those add up and I don't want to drop below my BMR, 200-300 is just an easy figure for me personally.