varying calories daily based on TDEE

myfitnessval

does anyone try eating according to their TDEE instead of just an estimate?

for example on days i work and workout my tdee is in the 3000+s and if i was following the 1000 cal deficit to the T, on those days i'd be needing to eat almost 2000 cals instead of my usual ~1600... but on my days off when i'm a lazy bum my tdee is barely hitting 2000 on a good day so i'd have to be pretty strict with my intake to maintain a daily deficit.

or should i just continue letting it all balance out at the end of the week....

I guess what I'm REALLY asking is should I vary my calories according to my TDEE because it will achieve greater results or will i still get the same results doing what I'm currently doing, which is eating consistently around 1550-1650 cals a day and losing around 1.5-2 lbs a week.

What do you guys do? any input from the EM2WL crowd?

cmriverside

The EM2WL Group has it's own "group" - you could go there and ask.

They generally say "eat 15-20% less than your TDEE," and by using that type of calculation you don't eat the additional exercise calories persay, you calculate your TDEE and eat 15-20% below that every day - and it 's consistent number - you don't add the calories in on a daily basis. So you would pick the number, and eat that every day.

You have enough weight to lose that either way will likely work for you - I'd stick with the 1600 cals until you get much closer to your goal - or until you plateau for 3-4 weeks. That's when the EM2WL 'rules' actually make a big difference.

myfitnessval

yeah i've pretty much been waiting to hit a plateau to really hit up EM2WL, i was just kinda curious if i could be losing more efficiently or not. thank you!

cmriverside

You are losing 1.5-2 lbs a week. You don't get much more efficient than that!

Good luck.