Questions about TDEE and ALL THAT JAZZ

kitka82

Okay, so I *think* I've figured out how many calories to eat, by calculating my BMR and TDEE and all of that. Here are my stats:

Age: 30
Gender: Female
Ht: 5'7"
Wt: 169
BF%: 33-34%

BMR: 1465

I lift heavy 3x a week and do a mixture of HIIT and steady cardio 4-5x a week. I figured this would make me "moderately active", so my TDEE is 2198, based on that number. If I were sedentary, my TDEE would be 1758. I'm currently eating at 20% less than TDEE.

Here's the question: Do I eat at my moderately-active TDEE minus 20% (1758) on the days I work out, then at sedentary-TDEE minus 20% (1407) on my rest days? Or does "moderately active" account for my 1-2 rest days?

It may even be too soon for me to ask this, as I just started this process a week ago. :-p

Momowink

Your TDEE accounts for all the workouts you have in a week too, so it's what you eat every day - you don't eat back exercise calories either

Greenrun99

You would eat the moderate amount everyday as mentioned without adding exercise calories.. You should look at what you want to do, are you looking to lose weight or body fat.. I would increase your lifting and decrease all your cardio and eat at a lesser cut if your looking to reduce body fat, which at your height/weight you may want to consider doing.

neandermagnon

what do you do when you're not working out? That makes a difference to whether you're lightly or moderately active

me, I sit around far too much (yes I know I should move more) but I go heavy on my workouts, but this really averages out at lightly active, not moderately active. (this is going by real world results i.e. what calorie values I actually maintain at or lose weight at)

moderately active = on your feet all day (e.g. job where you have to be quite active, i.e. not a desk job) + regular heavy workouts. (usually, but everyone's different, so I'm not saying you're not moderately active... just something to consider)

IMO getting the right activity level may take some trial and error. It may seem like the long winded way of doing things, but I think just pick whatever activity factor you think is right for you, and see if you lose weight eating that amount. If you are experiencing problems related to undereating (e.g. lack of energy, tiredness, grumpiness, excessive hunger, desire to binge, food cravings, etc) then raise the calorie number until you don't get those problems. If you're not losing any weight then lower your calories, you can either subtract 200 and see how that goes or you can recalculate your TDEE for a lower activity factor.

I always ate the same calories every day, because the TDEE number is an average over a typical week at this activity level. IMO that's why it's important to take into account your job and what you do all day, rather than just what you do for your actual workouts. But with questions like this, there's no one right answer. Sometimes it's a question of try it and see what happens, and adjust it based on your real world results.

kitka82

what do you do when you're not working out? That makes a difference to whether you're lightly or moderately active

me, I sit around far too much (yes I know I should move more) but I go heavy on my workouts, but this really averages out at lightly active, not moderately active. (this is going by real world results i.e. what calorie values I actually maintain at or lose weight at)

moderately active = on your feet all day (e.g. job where you have to be quite active, i.e. not a desk job) + regular heavy workouts. (usually, but everyone's different, so I'm not saying you're not moderately active... just something to consider)

IMO getting the right activity level may take some trial and error. It may seem like the long winded way of doing things, but I think just pick whatever activity factor you think is right for you, and see if you lose weight eating that amount. If you are experiencing problems related to undereating (e.g. lack of energy, tiredness, grumpiness, excessive hunger, desire to binge, food cravings, etc) then raise the calorie number until you don't get those problems. If you're not losing any weight then lower your calories, you can either subtract 200 and see how that goes or you can recalculate your TDEE for a lower activity factor.

I always ate the same calories every day, because the TDEE number is an average over a typical week at this activity level. IMO that's why it's important to take into account your job and what you do all day, rather than just what you do for your actual workouts. But with questions like this, there's no one right answer. Sometimes it's a question of try it and see what happens, and adjust it based on your real world results.

Thanks for this. I have a sedentary job (5 days a week). My workouts are intense (lifting plus sprints or moderate cardio). I rest on Tuesday or do yoga, and then I rest on Sunday. I am out and about. I don't sit all day... I have a 4 and almost-6 year old... sitting around doesn't happen much lol.

kitka82

You would eat the moderate amount everyday as mentioned without adding exercise calories.. You should look at what you want to do, are you looking to lose weight or body fat.. I would increase your lifting and decrease all your cardio and eat at a lesser cut if your looking to reduce body fat, which at your height/weight you may want to consider doing.

Yeah I don't eat back calories. I aim to eat 1700, and leave it at that. On my rest days, I've been eating 1400.

To lose weight or body fat? Why can't it be both lol? I started at 224, three years ago. I set a goal of 150 pounds. I know I definitely need to lose body fat. I am afraid to give up cardio, because I like running. And I'm afraid of gaining more weight. Because what will I look like at 170-ish at 21% body fat? I don't want to be as big as I am. I mean, I'm a size 10 which isn't HUGE but still..