so I should eat my tdee to maintain?

jane1099

im 10 and a half stone, 5 foot 3ish and want to maintain til after christmas, my tdee is 2029. atm im eating about 1200 cals, 2000 and over seems impossible to me. i eat enough to keep me full through the day, i have fruit, veg, meat etc. no crisps, fizzy drinks, chocolate and things like that, i can't imagine cramming over 2000 cals into my day.

im starting my diet again in feb, so how much should i cut from my tdee?

prokomds

Drastically increasing your calories like that is really difficult (and probably not great on your body, but that's just my opinion). What I would suggest is up it by 200ish for 2-3 weeks, then another 200 or so. You may bounce around on the scale some as your body settles down, but you should be able to get up to around your TDEE that way

And yes, that's the number you should eat to maintain. It's an estimate, obviously, but the right number is probably within a few hundred calories of that (1800-2200ish?)

Some of the easy ways of eating more calories is to swap out the low-calorie versions of things for the regular versions, add more healthy fats like olive oil into your cooking, have less lean cuts of meat, etc. It's quite easy to eat more, I'm 5'6" and eat around 1700 calories when I don't exercise (and I'm slowly losing weight). You'll be fine

Sincere24

if it helps you can slowly try adding calories each week until you hit a comfortable range. Plus there's no harm in having a 200 or so deficit especially if you're planning on starting back up again in february.

Ps. you can also try calorie cycling during the week if that also helps so that that you hit a particular calorie target ie 1700-2100 over the course of a week. I know especially with the holiday seasons it's easy to clock in calories!

Cheers,

jane1099

thanks.
if my tdee is 2029 and my bmr is around 1400, how many cals should i cut from my tdee [when i start my diet and exercise again] to start losing weight again? my exercise is about 40 mins on a exercise bike 5-7 times a week, ive had people telling me to go to a gym and weight train and stuff but thats out of the question, i have no way of doing that.

mgobluetx12

You just have to figure it out through trial and error. Most people say cut 20% from your TDEE, but that didn't work for me. I wasn't even losing a pound a week. My TDEE is 2920 and I net 1200-1400 cals a day and am still not even losing 2lbs per week. You just have to figure out what works for you.

prokomds

When you don't have tons of weight to lose, it's best to lose it slowly. I wouldn't really suggest cutting more than 20% off your TDEE, which would put you at about 1620/day (if you follow through the math, that brings you losing just less than a pound a week, which is a good rate of loss, I think). When you found 2029, is that your "sedentary" TDEE, or does it include your exercise? If it does include your exercise, obviously don't add in your exercise again -- if it doesn't, I'd suggest eating back at least some (at least half) of your exercise calories.

And you said weight training at the gym is out of the question - if you have the ability to purchase some weights (3-5 pounds if you feel your arms are weak, 5-10 if you're a little more confident), there are a lot of free workout videos on youtube that you could do from home. The 30-day shred videos are up on youtube, for example. If you don't want to lift weights, that's fine, but not being able to go to the gym is not an excuse to avoid strength training

Sorry if you were done with this topic - I checked back this morning and saw your unanswered questions. Good luck!

weird_me2

thanks.
if my tdee is 2029 and my bmr is around 1400, how many cals should i cut from my tdee [when i start my diet and exercise again] to start losing weight again? my exercise is about 40 mins on a exercise bike 5-7 times a week, ive had people telling me to go to a gym and weight train and stuff but thats out of the question, i have no way of doing that.

One thing I did notice was that you said when you start your diet and exercise again. If you are going to be reducing your activity during this time, you will need to recalculate your TDEE. If you are going to be mostly sedentary at this time, your TDEE may be closer to 1700, not 2000+.