Success with TDEE -20%

SheriKCourtney

Bump for later

xLyric

There are other metabolic functions it would also like to perform, like keeping you warm, growing nails/skin/hair, improving your body.

That's a great way of explaining it, haha.

If I take my maintenance (2020) and take off 20% I get 1616. It says my BMR is 1618. So that's basically eating at BMR plus exercise calories... Should I do 18% or something to give me that buffer you talked about?

xLyric

If not getting the full 20%, you must be within 40 lbs of goal weight and doing no lifting, just cardio.

That's helps not risk losing muscle mass.

What does this mean?

xoemmytee

just switched to TDEE -20%, looking for peeps on the same plan as me for motivation!

heybales

If not getting the full 20%, you must be within 40 lbs of goal weight and doing no lifting, just cardio.

That's helps not risk losing muscle mass.

What does this mean?

Not sure which part referring to. I was merely guessing why the Simple Setup tab would give a deficit less than 20%

The more you have to lose, the bigger the deficit can be. As you come closer to reasonable goal weight, the less the deficit will be.

Too big a deficit makes it easier to lose muscle mass, and may have been a reasonable amount with more fat to lose is not later.

Also, cardio doesn't help retain muscle, lifting does, so less deficit for that reason too. Actually, wrong on too long cardio risks muscle.

Makoce

So my BMR is 1502. My TDEE IS 1654. If I exercise a lot does that mean I should eat more? Basically never go under 1500?

xLyric

I just ask because I'm ~30lbs away from my goal. So too much cardio is bad? I'm doing 30 Day Shred which has a little bit of weights, plus another video which is mostly cardio. I'm completely out of shape though so even my piddly little 3lb weights wipe me out near the end.

heybales

So my BMR is 1502. My TDEE IS 1654. If I exercise a lot does that mean I should eat more? Basically never go under 1500?

You used the calculator wrong, there is no TDEE level that is that low over the BMR.

The premise is correct, but if you want your body to actually make improvements that exercise could call, body has to have something to work with, if the exercise by itself just burns off extra calories, what's left?

Use spreadsheet here for easier to work it.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

heybales

I just ask because I'm ~30lbs away from my goal. So too much cardio is bad? I'm doing 30 Day Shred which has a little bit of weights, plus another video which is mostly cardio. I'm completely out of shape though so even my piddly little 3lb weights wipe me out near the end.

Cardio does not help retain muscle mass. Done wrong it can encourage burning it.

Some resistance is better than nothing.

You can wipe your arms out curling nothing if you do enough reps, that's not lifting weight to failure. That is failure of endurance system, and that's what will be improved, not strength system.

Makoce

So my BMR is 1502. My TDEE IS 1654. If I exercise a lot does that mean I should eat more? Basically never go under 1500?

You used the calculator wrong, there is no TDEE level that is that low over the BMR.

The premise is correct, but if you want your body to actually make improvements that exercise could call, body has to have something to work with, if the exercise by itself just burns off extra calories, what's left?

Use spreadsheet referenced above.

I put in my stats on the scoobyworkshop site and got the following for 1-3hrs/wk of light exercise ( I do 30DS, walk for 20 minutes, and go to the gym every other day for an hour only sometimes. 30DS is my main thing right now. Somedays I do just that and nothing else the entire day. Somedays I do that plus walk, plus the gym, some days I just rest. It depends. )

I got the following:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) 1503
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE) 2067
Daily calories based on goal in step 6 1654

Its set to 20% calorie deduction. Did I do something wrong?
Should I bump it up to moderate exercise? Because someone told me that was too high for the amount of exercise I do, and would give me 1864 calories a day. Which someone just got done telling me was too high for my TDEE and the amount of exercise I do. Im confused all over again!

Mighty_Rabite

At one point I used MFP's calculations which said I should be taking in somewhere around 2500 calories per day. I don't really recall if that was my TDEE (I'm thinking it might have been), but I arbitrarily lowered my daily goal to 2000 calories and have made it a point to eat at a ~500 surplus each on Saturday/Sunday, go for pretty good deficits Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday (between -300 and -800 daily), and a bit closer on Thursday/Friday (around -100 to -200).

Down 15lbs in five weeks, and I haven't really been at a physique where I've needed to lose a whole lot >__>

heybales

So my BMR is 1502. My TDEE IS 1654. If I exercise a lot does that mean I should eat more? Basically never go under 1500?

You used the calculator wrong, there is no TDEE level that is that low over the BMR.

The premise is correct, but if you want your body to actually make improvements that exercise could call, body has to have something to work with, if the exercise by itself just burns off extra calories, what's left?

Use spreadsheet referenced above.

I put in my stats on the scoobyworkshop site and got the following for 1-3hrs/wk of light exercise ( I do 30DS, walk for 20 minutes, and go to the gym every other day for an hour only sometimes. 30DS is my main thing right now. Somedays I do just that and nothing else the entire day. Somedays I do that plus walk, plus the gym, some days I just rest. It depends. )

I got the following:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) 1503
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE) 2067
Daily calories based on goal in step 6 1654

Its set to 20% calorie deduction. Did I do something wrong?
Should I bump it up to moderate exercise? Because someone told me that was too high for the amount of exercise I do, and would give me 1864 calories a day. Which someone just got done telling me was too high for my TDEE and the amount of exercise I do. Im confused all over again!

Ok, you said your TDEE was 1654. Which would imply then taking 20% off.

Your TDEE with deficit, or your eating goal is 1654.

So does all your exercise add up to 1 to 3 hrs a week more often than not? And besides your exercise, a bump on a log?
Or are you actually 3 -5 hrs easily most of the time.

If even 4 hrs easily, right at Mod Active. If 3+, then round down from Mod Active to nearest 100. If usually 3 hrs but may be more, then round up from Lightly Active.

But be honest. No need to shoot your body in the metabolism thinking you are playing it safe. Or use spreadsheet with exact timings.

xLyric

Your spreadsheet gives me a BMR of 1523 as opposed to MFPs 1616. I put 14 hours a week standing/on feet because of walking around school and walking at work. That's purely walking from class to class, not the time sitting there, obviously. I put 2 hours a week of the second row, moving a lot/lifting things because of a lab class. I didn't put anything in any other box in that section because any exercise I do I plan to log separately.

It gives me a TDEE of 2013 and a calorie goal of 1563. This makes me want to do 1600 a day plus exercise calories like I thought before.

Did I do this right? I don't want to mess myself up by putting too much/little.

amandaj1966

Sorry folks, but I am a bit confused with this -20%

I only have 7 lbs until my goal but my weight hasnt moved much for a few months.

I've worked out my calories etc... which is
Estimated BMR 1213 calories
Estimated TDEE 1881 calories
Estimated Daily Caloric needed for weight lose 1381 calories.

I am on 1200 calories a day but eat back roughly 200 calories from exercise.

So advice needed on how many calories I should eat per day and what about calories burnt from exercise.

My diary is open so please have a look, maybe not yesterday as no really exercise and out for lunch.

Makoce

So my BMR is 1502. My TDEE IS 1654. If I exercise a lot does that mean I should eat more? Basically never go under 1500?

You used the calculator wrong, there is no TDEE level that is that low over the BMR.

The premise is correct, but if you want your body to actually make improvements that exercise could call, body has to have something to work with, if the exercise by itself just burns off extra calories, what's left?

Use spreadsheet referenced above.

I put in my stats on the scoobyworkshop site and got the following for 1-3hrs/wk of light exercise ( I do 30DS, walk for 20 minutes, and go to the gym every other day for an hour only sometimes. 30DS is my main thing right now. Somedays I do just that and nothing else the entire day. Somedays I do that plus walk, plus the gym, some days I just rest. It depends. )

I got the following:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) 1503
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE) 2067
Daily calories based on goal in step 6 1654

Its set to 20% calorie deduction. Did I do something wrong?
Should I bump it up to moderate exercise? Because someone told me that was too high for the amount of exercise I do, and would give me 1864 calories a day. Which someone just got done telling me was too high for my TDEE and the amount of exercise I do. Im confused all over again!

Ok, you said your TDEE was 1654. Which would imply then taking 20% off.

Your TDEE with deficit, or your eating goal is 1654.

So does all your exercise add up to 1 to 3 hrs a week more often than not? And besides your exercise, a bump on a log?
Or are you actually 3 -5 hrs easily most of the time.

If even 4 hrs easily, right at Mod Active. If 3+, then round down from Mod Active to nearest 100. If usually 3 hrs but may be more, then round up from Lightly Active.

But be honest. No need to shoot your body in the metabolism thinking you are playing it safe. Or use spreadsheet with exact timings.

The 1654 is with the 20% off. The site does it automatically. As for exercise that's why in so confused. Some weeks it's easily over 3 hours some weeks it's barely 1. With the 30ds it'll put me at about maybe 2 hours by default without anything else. Should I up it to the 3 - 5 for the 1800 calories? I have such a hard time eating 1500 in a day. 1800 is so hard and the number itself is scary.
I'm just confused. I guess it's better to start too high than too low?

heybales

The 1654 is with the 20% off. The site does it automatically. As for exercise that's why in so confused. Some weeks it's easily over 3 hours some weeks it's barely 1. With the 30ds it'll put me at about maybe 2 hours by default without anything else. Should I up it to the 3 - 5 for the 1800 calories? I have such a hard time eating 1500 in a day. 1800 is so hard and the number itself is scary.
I'm just confused. I guess it's better to start too high than too low?

You do realize you are not limited to selecting between just 2 numbers, right?

There is a 300 cal spread between levels that sounds about right. 1650 of course being in the middle.

If exercise is that variable, or half of it is, again, check out the spreadsheet, fill in the activity calculator with whatever is constant, and then go to the MFP Tweak tab.
Use the Katch BMR shown, use the BMR multiplier from the activity calc shown, then use the goal shown.

Any exercise done beyond what you included is handled in table at bottom of that tab. You eat back calories with deficit taken out of it too.

heybales

Your spreadsheet gives me a BMR of 1523 as opposed to MFPs 1616. I put 14 hours a week standing/on feet because of walking around school and walking at work. That's purely walking from class to class, not the time sitting there, obviously. I put 2 hours a week of the second row, moving a lot/lifting things because of a lab class. I didn't put anything in any other box in that section because any exercise I do I plan to log separately.

It gives me a TDEE of 2013 and a calorie goal of 1563. This makes me want to do 1600 a day plus exercise calories like I thought before.

Did I do this right? I don't want to mess myself up by putting too much/little.

You got it right. Honest evaluation of daily activity too.

You might check out the MFP Tweak tab.

Because you can put your exercise calorie burns there, and it'll remove the same deficit and show you the eat back you should log.

That's the way the total TDEE would work, everything gets the deficit.
No need missing out on the deficit on exercise calories.

xLyric

Your spreadsheet gives me a BMR of 1523 as opposed to MFPs 1616. I put 14 hours a week standing/on feet because of walking around school and walking at work. That's purely walking from class to class, not the time sitting there, obviously. I put 2 hours a week of the second row, moving a lot/lifting things because of a lab class. I didn't put anything in any other box in that section because any exercise I do I plan to log separately.

It gives me a TDEE of 2013 and a calorie goal of 1563. This makes me want to do 1600 a day plus exercise calories like I thought before.

Did I do this right? I don't want to mess myself up by putting too much/little.

You got it right. Honest evaluation of daily activity too.

You might check out the MFP Tweak tab.

Because you can put your exercise calorie burns there, and it'll remove the same deficit and show you the eat back you should log.

That's the way the total TDEE would work, everything gets the deficit.
No need missing out on the deficit on exercise calories.

Great, thank you SO MUCH for all of your help. And for taking what I imagine was quite a bit of time creating that spreadsheet. It's a lot of help!

heybales

Sorry folks, but I am a bit confused with this -20%

I only have 7 lbs until my goal but my weight hasnt moved much for a few months.

I've worked out my calories etc... which is
Estimated BMR 1213 calories
Estimated TDEE 1881 calories
Estimated Daily Caloric needed for weight lose 1381 calories.

I am on 1200 calories a day but eat back roughly 200 calories from exercise.

So advice needed on how many calories I should eat per day and what about calories burnt from exercise.

My diary is open so please have a look, maybe not yesterday as no really exercise and out for lunch.

TDEE - TOTAL - didn't you include exercise in this? You selected Moderately Active, so it sounds like you included 3-5 hrs weekly.

500 calorie deficit you took is too much though. That's not 20%.

Even the 20% would put you at 1505.

And since you are so close to goal weight, you should actually be at 10%, 1693.

1693, call it 1700, each and every day. If you miss a planned workout, skip 200 calories that day. If you make it up, 200 more that day.

Since already eating around 1400 calories basically, eat at 1500 for 2 weeks, then 1600 another week, then 1700.

Depending on your exercise, your body may be thrilled to actually get enough calories to improve your body, which while it may be fat loss, is usually not weight loss, but needed water gain.
That should just happen in first 2 weeks, but then nothing if your metabolism gets fired up.

fruitloop2

Here's a better option, uses the best BMR estimate if you provide BF%, and you put in actual time in levels for activity calc, based on more recent research.
Explains what to change, and track progress.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

According to that spread sheet, I should be eating 1929 calories (1800 for a -20% deficit). That's a lot! the other sites were about 1500-1600ish calories...1 being almost the same as the spread sheet. That's about 500 calories MORE than I'm eating now! Yikes! If I'm eating this I do NOT eat exercise calories right?

That either means you have a better LBM than other BMR calcs are giving you, or you got something in the TDEE calc entered wrong.

Or you have non-desk job and on your feet more, and the other TDEE calcs don't make it easy to figure out how to do that, so you correctly filled in work time standing/moving on feet.

If not getting the full 20%, you must be within 40 lbs of goal weight and doing no lifting, just cardio.

That's helps not risk losing muscle mass.

Well, I work with kids (I run a day care in my home) so I'm on the move all day pretty much, up and down from standing to being on the floor and then when it's nap time, that is when I do my workout. I am doing the 30 day shred at the moment and then run on my treadmill for 20 minutes or so. I do this at least 3 days/week...sometimes more. It gave me a 12.9% deficit I think it was because I only have about 15 pounds left before reaching my goal. I did the 20% figuration on my own. If this is accurate then I better be upping my calories today! I'll up them slowly (probably 200/week or so) until I get to the right amount. I'm still losing where I'm at now but it's really really slow...about half a pound a week it seems.