Use my tdee or listen to my body

HOTSTUFFyes

Should i use my tdee to see how much i need to eat to lose weight maintain or should i just guess !!

Azdak

Your body is a master at bullsh!tting you. Use your TDEE.

taso42

I agree with Azdak

Lyadeia

My body demands Bailey's cheesecake and 7 cheese lasagna...but to lose weight, I "listen" to TDEE and subtract some calories from that.

DavPul

Your body is a master at bullsh!tting you. Use your TDEE.

Yep. Listening to our bodies is what landed most of us on this site in the first place

Cadori

When my body says "Hey, make eggs instead of salad for lunch." or "I'm still really hungry." I listen.

When my body says "Go eat an entire bag of M&Ms" I try not to listen.

upgetupgetup

TDEE.

But I have found that when I'm a pattern of eating the same tried & tested things in the typically advised ratios (and nothing weird's going on, like quitting smoking or being sick or especially female), my appetite aligns with the TDEE anyway, and I can kind of tell when I'm under (or over). Usually, this is when I cook ALL my food and can practically do the portions blind.

That said, eating something not in that predictable menu (with a different ratio, etc) throws me off, and an average week/month includes way too many unexpected events & consumables (dinners/nights out) etc - to rely on my intuition.

sandradev1

I know that my body either never told me, or I didn't listen to it *tell* me that I was eating too much, when I piled the weight on in the first place. I also know I am *not* a special snowflake. Therefore TDEE every time if you are looking to be succesful.

RunDoozer

If your body was working for you I would doubt you'd be here. Eat Tdee.

mixedlollies

When my body says "Hey, make eggs instead of salad for lunch." or "I'm still really hungry." I listen.

When my body says "Go eat an entire bag of M&Ms" I try not to listen.

This. I also think listening to your body is something you can get better at. It's a useful skill to develop if you don't want to be counting for the rest of your life.

WendyTerry420

When I was listening to my body, I got up to 263 pounds. Now that I keep my calories under my TDEE, I'm losing a pound per week.

myofibril

Should i use my tdee to see how much i need to eat to lose weight maintain or should i just guess !!

Use the TDEE figure as a starting point.

Be consistent.

See how your body reacts.

Adjust accordingly.

Helloitsdan

Should i use my tdee to see how much i need to eat to lose weight maintain or should i just guess !!

Use the TDEE figure as a starting point.

Be consistent.

See how your body reacts.

Adjust accordingly.

^this

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jesz124

Your body is a master at bullsh!tting you. Use your TDEE.

lol so very true. If I listened to my body I would live on chocolate and red wine all day long. TDEE every time.

nguk123

calculated TDEE is a very gross 'guess' , you should treat it with health suspicion, and before you start making programmed adjustments to cut from it... you should take a period of 2 or 3 weeks to establish what it is more accurately.
Do this by sticking to eating your estimated TDEE, and doing what you would be doing throughout your cut,
weigh, and log your weigh-ins to a trend analyser like the free one at the hackers diet online.
Then once you find the TDEE that correlates with your activites should look to adjust from there.

I believe that that TDEE calculator over on exrx is good, given that it allowed you to estimate based on a typical 24 hours of various activity.

Helloitsdan

Or....

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912914-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013

gxm17

For a completely different perspective than most here, as someone with chronic health issues, I would say use both. I find that if I don't pay attention to, or "listen," to my body that I tend to get sick. So for me it's a balancing act between pushing myself and eating enough to stay healthy without overdoing it. YMMV but all my body does is tell me when it's hungry. My mind tells me what to eat, and after I've made unhealthy choices it's my body that reminds me that wasn't such a great idea.

LorinaLynn

That's like saying, "Should I enter all my checks and receipts into my Quicken program, or keep spending until I think my bank account might be getting low?"

If you naturally can maintain a healthy weight without logging food, you don't need to log your food. If you have a history of weight problems, either eating too much or not enough (I've done both while "listening to my body"), you need to log.

jonnythan

The human body in general wants to consume calories and store them for later.

Your body does not want the same things you do. It does not want to have low body fat.

So.... listen to your body? No thanks. That's why I got fat in the first place.

da_bears10089

When my body says "Hey, make eggs instead of salad for lunch." or "I'm still really hungry." I listen.

When my body says "Go eat an entire bag of M&Ms" I try not to listen.

what if they are peanut butter M&Ms? there has to be some nutritional value there...

Vailara

It depends. I did absolutely fine just listening to my body for about 40 years. Then it started lying to me! I couldn't believe it! It's probably cheating on me too! So now I ignore its lies and count calories.