Do I have this right or not?

I am 4'11 and 137.2 lbs. I am doing Insanity 6 days a week and burn 300-500 cals a day. I used that road map thread thingy to tell me my BMR (1395) and my TDEE (1918)<
If I use lightly active. So then I subtracted 20% of my TDEE and got (1534). So my question is do I just eat 1534 TOTAL and not worry about exercise cals. Or still worry about netting below my BMR (1395)? Because if I eat 1534 then exercise and burn 400 I will net 1134. Or is the 1535 # already accounting for my exercise because it is 20% below my TDEE? Help please :)

Replies

  • Bump because I'd love to see the answer to this :)
  • justmyalias
    justmyalias Posts: 153 Member
    this may not be technically correct... but simpler math...

    if you eat 1500 cals a day (rounded)
    and your TDEE is 1900 a day (rounded)
    then you are net 400 per day, or net 2800 a week - so you should lose 0.8 lbs a week...
  • prokomds
    prokomds Posts: 318 Member
    Worry about the exercise calories -- definitely eat (at least some) of them back, but be careful, MFP tends to overestimate how many calories you burn exercising. Netting below BMR isn't a great idea, regardless of if you're exercising or not
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    1534 total and not worry about exercise calories. They have already been accounted for.
  • prokomds
    prokomds Posts: 318 Member
    1534 total and not worry about exercise calories. They have already been accounted for.

    Depends on how the TDEE was computed. Did you compute it as "sedentary," "lightly active," or what? If you put it as sedentary, your TDEE will be lower than if you put it as active, and thus you need to eat the calories because they haven't been accounted for

    Edit -- I see you put lightly active, my mistake. That probably implies that some (but not all) of your exercise calories are accounted for
  • IamOnMywayNow
    IamOnMywayNow Posts: 470 Member
    1534 total and not worry about exercise calories. They have already been accounted for.

    Thank you!! Makes sense now lol:)
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    1534 total and not worry about exercise calories. They have already been accounted for.

    Thank you!! Makes sense now lol:)

    No probs.

    I think prokomds has a point though though as you could probably do the calculation using at least the moderately active setting given you are working out almost every day.

    If you do recalculate then again you don't need to worry about eating back exercise calories as they have been accounted for. Don't get too hung up on the exact numbers though. They are simply estimates to shoot for. You may need to raise or lower intake depending on results. Don't be afraid to try different levels to see what suits you best.

    Good luck.