Eating at TDEE-20% question

JAT74

I don't want to calculate my TDEE including all my activity because I don't think I'll end up eating correctly that way. Each day is different for me and some days I work out twice and burn off 700 calories, other days it's once and 300 calories and other days I do a load of cleaning, workout, walk the dog and burn over closer to 1000. Then I can have another day when I do nothing but be lazy and burn no extra calories.

I think for me it's therefore better to add on my exercise calories so I can eat accordingly. Yes it's a bit of a pain that way to eat more or less each day but at least I know I'm eating enough if I exercise more. I don't want to do it based on an average which may not be accurate and then find I'm eating the same every day and not losing anything because of it. In the past I know I've found it hard to be consistent with my workouts but so far I'm on my 4th week of training 6 days a week and have managed to stick with it and do more than I'd originally planned.

I just want to see the scales and the tape measure start moving a bit more although I must admit I do feel a bit stonger after doing all this training.

TR0berts

If the way you're doing it isn't working - don't do it that way anymore.


Do it the way it's been recommended by several people that have found success doing it that way.

JAT74

Can you elaborate? You're not making any sense? What exactly is the way that's 'been recommended by several people'? I didn't say what I was doing wasn't working, I was just looking for a little reassurance that what I'm doing is right and to see whether anyone had any recommendations.

If you eat the same day in day out and do the same exercise (or not) day in day out then calculating TDEE to include daily activity will work for you but that isn't my case.

I just wanted to make sure I'm on the right track and have basically upped my calories by a huge amount compared to what I was eating before both when trying to lose weight and also when I gained the weight in the first place.

Logic says that I'll gain more based on this but now I know a lot more about my BMR and TDEE I now know it should be the other way round and I'll start losing. It's just a very scary prospect that's all.

Mokey41

I don't want to calculate my TDEE including all my activity because I don't think I'll end up eating correctly that way. Each day is different for me and some days I work out twice and burn off 700 calories, other days it's once and 300 calories and other days I do a load of cleaning, workout, walk the dog and burn over closer to 1000. Then I can have another day when I do nothing but be lazy and burn no extra calories.

Set your TDEE to sedentary, no lightly active or anything beyond what sedentary gives you. Exercise is only actual exercise, like running, aerobics, lifting, etc. It's not cleaning, walking upstairs, general life things. Try eating back 1/2 of your actual exercise for a while if you want more bang for your buck. With only a little to lose it's going to be slow no matter what you do.

windyday61

I don't want to calculate my TDEE including all my activity because I don't think I'll end up eating correctly that way. Each day is different for me and some days I work out twice and burn off 700 calories, other days it's once and 300 calories and other days I do a load of cleaning, workout, walk the dog and burn over closer to 1000. Then I can have another day when I do nothing but be lazy and burn no extra calories.

Set your TDEE to sedentary, no lightly active or anything beyond what sedentary gives you. Exercise is only actual exercise, like running, aerobics, lifting, etc. It's not cleaning, walking upstairs, general life things. Try eating back 1/2 of your actual exercise for a while if you want more bang for your buck. With only a little to lose it's going to be slow no matter what you do.

Agree 100%. I only log actual exercise.

JustAGirlyGeek

bump

6mimi

bump

rduhlir

It will be easier if you calculate in your exercise. Because then all you are going to do is eat to one number. You won't be fluctuating the way you are. I eat 1800 every day. Whether I work out or not. It is so much easier because then you don't have to worry about under eating as much. You just get as close to that number as possible. My -20% is actually 1895...but because I am like you and some days I don't work out I dropped it to 1800 to account for that. Some days I go over a little, some days I am under a little. I hope that makes it a little more easier to understand. That is what people are saying when they say to try the method they are suggesting.

Just remember, at the end of the week as long as your days are averaging out you will be fine.

Oh...and I just started the TDEE method 3 weeks ago..and I have lost a pound a week. The first week I didn't lose anything. The the 2nd week lost one pound, and last week lost 2 even though I am only expecting a one pound loss a week. And I just quit smoking a month ago and haven't gained any post quitting weight, so this method works. The first few weeks you might not notice weight loss as your body adjusts to more food. But be patient and you will see the changes.

deksgrl

I don't want to calculate my TDEE including all my activity because I don't think I'll end up eating correctly that way.

Okay, well the subject of the topic is "Eating at TDEE-20% question" and the TDEE -% method works just like that, you eat the same amount whether it is a workout day or not.

If you are going to go to the trouble of logging and accounting for all of your exercise calories, then you might as well do the MFP recommended calories + exercise cals.

icmuse

Eat more full fat items, instead of low fat items for your dairy. Eat some peanut butter. Avocados. Nuts. Almonds, walnuts, cashews, whatever you like. A couple of handfuls of nuts per day should help boost up your calorie intake. The healthy fats will help you stay satisfied too, small volume of food with a big calorie punch.

^^^ thumbs up to this ^^^

JAT74

I think that some of the people who've answered my post are a little confused.

If you eat 1800 calories for example and that is TDEE -20% for you (based on you being 'active' ie. working out every day) then you are banking on the fact that you burn off the exact same calories through exercise from day to day which is a dangerous assumption. For most of us I think that's unrealistic as we do different amounts of exercise from day to day.

Using the method I've used ie. basing my TDEE on being sedentary which normally I am as I'm at home all day with no commuting to do or kids to look after etc. then you can be more accurate with what you're actually burning off 'extra' on a daily basis.

I know that in order to eat at TDEE (sedentary) -20% I should eat no less than 1500 calories if I'm inactive that day so if I have a 'lazy' day I do just that. On days when I work out for longer and burn more I therefore increase my calorie intake accordingly.

I am very conscious of not going below my BMR of 1450 because I know this is bad for my body but on the other hand I know that if I'm sedentary I shouldn't eat more than 1500 and if I set my activity level to a higher rate and re-calculate my TDEE then if I get lazy and simply eat 1800 or more calories per day then surely I'm more likely to gain and not lose.

Talking about actual workout calories I don't agree with this being calories earned from gym workouts only. The reason I say this is that when I calculated my TDEE the method I used took into account the minutes I sleep for every day, the amount of very light activity I do ie. cooking, washing, walking around the house and nothing more. Based on this and this alone my TDEE was 1900 which equates to 1500 calories if I -20% from my TDEE.

I therefore think that by eating back all exercise calories (including those earnt by walking the dog at a moderate pace, running up and down stairs at home and cleaning as well as 'actual' workouts I should be able to add on those and still lose weight.

It's early days for me as I've only been on MFP for 4 weeks and in that time I've changed a lot fo things regarding my settings when I worked out this equation. This doesn't stop me from being a little nervous about the whole thing and whether or not it will work as in the past I've lost a lot of weight by donig it the wrong way ie. eating a very low calorie diet. I am now trying to change things and rectify past mistakes but it's not so easy.

I would never go by the MFP recommended calories and then eat back exercise calories as I think this is too low for me. MFP recommends that I eat around 1300 calories per day but that's below my BMR so I know it's not healthy.

icmuse

I am 5'0" medium frame with 13 pounds left to lose.

I workout every day and have somewhat physical job.

What I did was:

I calculated my TDEE to Light 1815, Moderate 2046 and went right in between them, because some days are physically heavier than others. So after adding those two up, dividing them in half and taking 20% OFF I came up with 1544 calories a day to eat.

Doing it this way really helps me keeping my macros under control and I do not track my workouts, since they are already calculated in this number.

cwolfman13

No, my TDEE is based on being sedentary. I used a calculator which worked it out based on time spent sleeping, sitting down doing nothing plus very light activity like walking around, cooking etc. This is how I arrived at 1950. Without calculating the actual sleep hours and other things I've got my TDEE set at 1850 but I think 1950 is more realistic as although I sit at a desk most of the time and watch a lot of tv in the evenings I also cook daily, have stairs in my house etc.

I am therefore tracking exercise separately and use a heart rate monitor to work out what I'm burning off extra through workouts, dog walking and other things I class as 'exercise'.

The problem I'm having is that calories wise I know that eating 1500 calories is TDEE -20% and as it's only 50 cals above my BMR I shouldn't go lower than that as I'm technically putting my body into starvation mode and will halt my weight loss.

That aside I find that eating back exercise calories is quite hard, especially as it's difficult to keep it healthy. I'm finding that added calories from exercise are often required to be protein and I generally manage to eat around 100-110 grams per day but any more than that and the fat content is quite high and I don't know if this is a bad thing.

On days when I work out and have to eat over 2000 calories to net 1500 the protein ratio goes up to around 170 or so and I can't see how I can get that much protein.

I could change my ratios again but I don't want to add more carbs as I'm scared it will make me put on weight again and I am still eating around 80-100 grams of carbs per day which I think is high enough. I just need a little advice from the experts out there.

To up your protein, you may have to supplement...I eat a lot of protein, but I still have to supplement with whey to meet my macros. This is also a quick and easy way to get your calories up on workout days. Also, eat some nuts...avocado...roast or sautee some veggies in olive oil rather than steaming them, etc. All of those things provide a good calorie bump without feeling like you're just chowing down and are very healthy. They do have quite a bit of fat, but they are heart healthy fats...if your 35% fats, you shouldn't have any issue incorporating these into your diet and meeting your macro goals.

JAT74

To be honest I'd rather try and eat 30% fat but if I do that I would have to increase either carbs or protein and I don't want to do that. Plus I find it hard to keep my fat content down. I have looked at other people's diaries and the only people who seem to eat very low fat are those who eat high carb diets or those who eat 'low fat' foods and I know that neither of those things are good. Most days I eat olive oil. a little cheese, nuts, peanut butter, avocado and foods like this. I try to eat a lower amount of saturated fat if I can. I also try to eat a low sugar diet and I've cut out artificial sweetners so now I have tea and coffee without any sweetner or sugar at all. Now and again I allow myself a little honey in tea as a treat, or on veggies I'm cooking, in yogurt but it's less than once a day.

I have a protein shake (30g of powder) at least once a day too but I can't afford to buy more at the moment so I stick with that and mix it with 100ml of skimmed milk then top it up with water. That adds around 20g of protein but if I'm really low on protein I double it so I'm getting 40g from the shake.

Most of my protein is from meat or chicken as I eat this daily but I need to start eating less fat from meat sources I think. I usually drain the fat from meat/chicken and blot it on kitchen paper. I should eat more fish I know too but I really don't like fish, only shellfish. I can stomach Salmon from time to time but then you read bad things about farmed fish so it's a little off putting.

Other than meat, fish and protein shakes the only other high protein sources I've found are cheese and some yogurt. Where I live the foods you can buy are quite limited so it's hard to get lower fat cheese like cottage cheese so I end up buying full fat cheese. I know that pulses are also quite high in protein too so I eat beans like kidney beans from time to time.

pagoubupa

Try this TDEE spreadsheet.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE#gid=14

It helped me figure out my calories.

At first, I had my TDEE at 2600, my BMR at 1955. But this was way more accurate and put my BMR at 1755 or so. I am now eating 1800 a day instead of 2050. Hope this helps.

Good luck

Mokey41

To be honest, I'd say you should do whatever you want to do because you aren't taking in anything you're being told. Calculate your TDEE in whatever method you choose, count cleaning as exercise and eat those calories back. Sounds like you already made up your mind and would just like someone to agree with you.

deksgrl

You are trying to pick and choose from two different methods. But, okay, try it your way and come back in 6 weeks and let us know how it is working out for you.

ladyraven68

I think that some of the people who've answered my post are a little confused.

If you eat 1800 calories for example and that is TDEE -20% for you (based on you being 'active' ie. working out every day) then you are banking on the fact that you burn off the exact same calories through exercise from day to day which is a dangerous assumption. For most of us I think that's unrealistic as we do different amounts of exercise from day to day.

This is incorrect - it doesn't assume you work out the same every day,

there are several activity levels to chose from, ranging from sedentary , lightly active, moderately active etc depending on how many days you do exercise.

If you only do 3 days a week, your extra calories spread out over the week are obviously more than sedentary, but less than the extra calories if you were working out 5 days a week.

The whole point is to pick the right activity level and then you can eat the same every day which will make it easier to plan.

TR0berts

I didn't say what I was doing wasn't working, I was just looking for a little reassurance that what I'm doing is right and to see whether anyone had any recommendations.

You said, "So far in terms of results I haven't seen a lot of movement on the scale or a change in my measurements..." That sounds like you saying it's not working.

And, as many of us have said - what you're doing is not right. Do it the way we've told you. Use the TDEE-20% properly. Which would mean you eat the same amount (within reason) and don't eat exercise Cals back - because you've already accounted for your weekly exercise by calculating your TDEE. Or don't use the TDEE method - use the standard MFP method, instead.

JAT74

Lots of people on here calculate their TDEE like I have an eat back their exercise calories every day. I'd rather log my workouts and how much I've burnt off through exercise every day anyway so I can keep track of my training but I can definitely see that for some people it's easier to do it based on an average of moderately active, lightly active etc. but it can't possibly be accurate like this as workouts can vary a lot in terms of burn and length of workout etc. Most people have good intentions when it comes to training and it's not always as you plan ie. if I set it to 5-6 days which I am doing now in terms of training then if I miss a day's training I'll be lost as I won't know how much less I should really eat.

It's not a problem for me to spend the time workout out extra calories based on acitivity as I'm home all day anyway and normally add on my calories immediately after each workout. As I normally work out most days before lunch, it's easy for me to see how much extra I can eat based on my burn that day.

I'm trying to use the TDEE calculator/spreadsheet recommended by one of the previous posters and will see what it comes out with.