MFP tells me to eat more than TDEE-20%, isn't it strange?

Thisisnotadiet

I am 5.2' and weight 147 pounds (66Kg). I am a little confused about how many calories I should be eating. If I set MFP to a loss of 0.5 pounds per week with 3 times x 45 min exercise per week, I get 1570 calories and eating back the exercise calories (I put my activity level as lightly active). If I use the TDEE-20% I get exactly the same number, but I am not supposed to eat back the exercise calories.

I calculated TDEE (as lightly active) and BMR (=1350) according to the link of "in-place-of-a-roadmap-2.0".

So I think it is clear that I should set my goal to 1570 cal per day, but should I be eating the exercise calories back or not?

My measures are:

Neck 12.2 inches
Waist 30.7 inches
Hip 38.8 inches

My long term goal is to loose about 20 pounds.

Thank you for your suggestions.

crystalfisher89

If you are going off of your TDEE you will not eat your exercise calories back. My TDEE is 2500 and I am supposed to eat 2000 calories in order to lose 1 lb a week. According to MFP I have it set at .5 pounds lost per week and my activity level is higher since i go to the gym 5 days and week and usually burn a minimum of 700 cals... and it still sets me at 1750 which is too low for my TDEE to lose 1 pound. Sometimes MFP isn't always right on it's counts, but I keep it at the 1750 count anyways because on my rest days I like to eat just a little less than my TDEE because my body doesn't require as much food for energy.

Schmidty102

Regardless of what you set your net calories to be, make sure you are nettting at least over your BMR. So yes, if you are going to only eat 1570 calories a day, I would eat them back.

aliciab307

I am 5.2' and weight 147 pounds (66Kg). I am a little confused about how many calories I should be eating. If I set MFP to a loss of 0.5 pounds per week with 3 times x 45 min exercise per week, I get 1570 calories and eating back the exercise calories (I put my activity level as lightly active). If I use the TDEE-20% I get exactly the same number, but I am not supposed to eat back the exercise calories.

I calculated TDEE (as lightly active) and BMR (=1350) according to the link of "in-place-of-a-roadmap-2.0".

So I think it is clear that I should set my goal to 1570 cal per day, but should I be eating the exercise calories back or not?

My measures are:

Neck 12.2 inches
Waist 30.7 inches
Hip 38.8 inches

My long term goal is to loose about 20 pounds.

Thank you for your suggestions.

If I'm correct, your tdee is 1962, and if tdee-20%=1570 the weekly deficit will give you a 0.7-0.8 lb loss per week which is a greater loss of the 0.5 lb/week MFP is giving you. If you'd like to lose 0.5 lb/week using the tdee method, use 15% which would be closer to a half pound loss per week and more calories at almost 1700 calories/day without eating exercise calories. hope this helps!

auddii

If I'm correct, your tdee is 1962, and if tdee-20%=1570 the weekly deficit will give you a 0.7-0.8 lb loss per week which is a greater loss of the 0.5 lb/week MFP is giving you. If you'd like to lose 0.5 lb/week using the tdee method, use 15% which would be closer to a half pound loss per week and more calories at almost 1700 calories/day without eating exercise calories. hope this helps!

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Thisisnotadiet

Great, thank you for the advice! I found that 1500 cal per day are actually difficult for me to maintain as I am hungry on some days (especially if I exercise). Thus it makes sense to up a bit my calories by using TDEE-15%.