Help with TDEE

rrhennen

Repost from food and nutrition, hopefully some feedback here!

I'm on the fence as to which calculation to figure my TDEE off of. I prefer to stay mostly consistent rather than eat back exercise calories. My BMR for height/weight is 1600. During the day I'm incredibly sedentary between commuting for 90 minutes and a desk job. I try to get out most days to stretch and walk during lunch (30 minutes). Just started 1/2 marathon training and my evenings are very busy between two young kids and riding/training horses. It is a rarity to sit on the couch and watch TV outside of the news!

Would you consider me to be moderate of heavy exercise? My inclination is towards moderate since the evenings are a general lifestyle that I've long been adapted to. But I don't want to undereat and not loose either. If I'm truely hungry I eat, but get nervous when calories start to creep up towards 1700/1800. By TDEE my daily needs are 2480 at moderate and 2760 at heavy exercise. Goal is to loose 30 pounds.

Thoughts? Am I on the right track?

AthenaArcher

when you are training the horses are you walking the horses a lot? and how long are you riding them? if they are trotting for 30 minutes that is about 200+ calories just doing that.

weird_me2

I'd use the calculator on this site and go with 3-5 hours/week moderate exercise:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

How many hours a week are you spending exercising? The next level up on this calculator is 5/6 hours/week strenuous exercise. You could start by trying using the moderate calculation and if you find that you are too hungry or losing too quickly, up the calories by a couple hundred.

rrhennen

when you are training the horses are you walking the horses a lot? and how long are you riding them? if they are trotting for 30 minutes that is about 200+ calories just doing that.

It really varies. Some workouts I do a lot of trotting, sometimes the colts getting lighter lessons working on technical stuff. Could be loping and rollbacks, etc. It all gets mixed up. I do try to do quite a bit of trotting on my mare that races though.

rrhennen

I'd use the calculator on this site and go with 3-5 hours/week moderate exercise:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

How many hours a week are you spending exercising? The next level up on this calculator is 5/6 hours/week strenuous exercise. You could start by trying using the moderate calculation and if you find that you are too hungry or losing too quickly, up the calories by a couple hundred.

On a light week I'd say about five hours formal exercise + anywhere from five to ten hours in the barn. The calculator is what has me hung up! It's a lot of hours, but I wouldn't necessarily call it strenuous other than some of the formal workouts. It's just all so frustrating. I've been here before and feel like I should know what works, but always second guess myself! Maybe I should just invest in a Fit Bit!!

Greenrun99

Ya know even with moderate setting, 1700-1800 is still pretty low calories and if you get nervous there, what are you eating now 1300/1500? You will need to start eating more to have a sustainable weight loss

weird_me2

I'd use the calculator on this site and go with 3-5 hours/week moderate exercise:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

How many hours a week are you spending exercising? The next level up on this calculator is 5/6 hours/week strenuous exercise. You could start by trying using the moderate calculation and if you find that you are too hungry or losing too quickly, up the calories by a couple hundred.

On a light week I'd say about five hours formal exercise + anywhere from five to ten hours in the barn. The calculator is what has me hung up! It's a lot of hours, but I wouldn't necessarily call it strenuous other than some of the formal workouts. It's just all so frustrating. I've been here before and feel like I should know what works, but always second guess myself! Maybe I should just invest in a Fit Bit!!

Well, if you are concerned with how over/under the TDEE calculations might be, you could try going to caloriesperhour.com and using their activity calculator. You can enter every single thing you do in an average day (including sleeping, eating, sitting quietly, etc.) and see what it gives you for your average burn. I did that the other day and was amazed when I came back to MFP and put my goal to lose 1 lb a week and it was EXACTLY 500 calories less than I calculated my daily burn on that site to be. I didn't add the exercise in, though, because I don't like to eat exactly the same every day, so I add them in later.

rrhennen

Ya know even with moderate setting, 1700-1800 is still pretty low calories and if you get nervous there, what are you eating now 1300/1500? You will need to start eating more to have a sustainable weight loss

1600-1800 is a normal day, 1600 being on days that I just don't have an appetite. LIke I said, I eat if I'm hungry, just makes me paranoid when I stare down the journal. Last night I even consciously ate dinner beyond feeling full knowing that I needed it with both strength and cardio in the same day plus another double workout day today.