Eating at TDEE for goal weight to get to goal weight??

Happy4lifeHHH
Happy4lifeHHH Posts: 188 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am not sure if this has been talked about before so I'm going to bring it up.. I have a thought... If someone was to eat their maintenance TDEE for their goal weight, if they would lose weight until they got to their goal... What do you think?

Replies

  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    I am not sure if this has been talked about before so I'm going to bring it up.. I have a thought... If someone was to eat their maintenance TDEE for their goal weight, if they would lose weight until they got to their goal... What do you think?

    I've honestly never thought of that before, lol.

    I suppose it might work for those starting out obese, but as you get closer to your goal the weight would come off dreadfully slow. for instance, my TDEE hasn't changed much from 150 pounds until now, so if I ate my goal weight TDEE, then I would only be in about a 50-100 calorie deficit. God forbid I have half a Girl Scout cookie, cause that would zap the "deficit" right there. But, eating 20-25% below TDEE I have a greater deficit and can lose the amount of weight needed.

    But as I mentioned before, I think that this would definitely work for obese people who would have a much higher current TDEE compared to goal TDEE.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    Can definitely work. Also, being that you should reduce your deficit as you get closer to your goal weight, this method automatically does that.
  • holothuroidea
    holothuroidea Posts: 772 Member
    Yes. There would still be a calorie deficit. It's actually a very reasonable plan, because you develop a habit of eating for your ideal weight and I imagine that maintenance would be easier after that.

    The reason people go for larger calorie deficits is because we want to reach our goals faster.

    I only have 17 lbs to loose and if I did it by eating the TDEE for my goal weight, it would take 85 weeks.
  • Flowers4Julia
    Flowers4Julia Posts: 521 Member
    I don't have any scientific proof or really any solid thoughts - BUT I would think if you don't have much too lose (like 10 pounds) then you could and it wouldn't create too much of a deficit....so you wouldn't stall out!

    If you have a LOT to lose, then I would think it would get frustrating after a while and then a futile approach to losing.

    Experimentation is the mother of invention! Try it for a few weeks - see what happens, then you'll know for sure :)
  • CristinaL1983
    CristinaL1983 Posts: 1,119 Member
    I have 15 lbs to lose, it would take me 3+ years to lose that weight (literally).

    My BMR is about 50 cal different from here to there. If I didn't care at all about how long it took, it would definitely be a solid idea. I really do care though so it's much easier for me to say that I could lose that weight in 3-5 months. I'm more motivated to continue tracking accurately.

    Also that deficit is so low that any overeating would easily cause you to gain weight/maintain rather than lose and it would be really hard to tell what was going on. Setting the calorie deficit at 50 calories a day means it would take me 70 days to lose one pound so it would take months to realize that I was actually eating above TDEE and gaining (or even at TDEE and maintaining).

    Again, no big deal if you don't care how long it takes to lose that weight. If I get to my goal and decide I want to lose an extra five pounds, I will probably do this (or eat at maintenance and just work out a little bit more) and let it come off extremely slowly (so I would do if for a couple vanity pounds).
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    I think there is a website that promotes this idea. Basically you eat and exercise as if you were already at your goal weight.

    I think it was fat2fitradio.com but I cant remember for sure.
  • BearHugger78
    BearHugger78 Posts: 28
    I sort of do, although I intentionally underestimated my likely activity at my goal weight to keep some deficit there until the end. My daily calorie goal is set at my sedentary TDEE for my goal weight, although in reality I hope I'm doing more than just sitting around. So I will likely still have to add a few hundred calories to achieve maintenance, but I'm not too worried about that. Unlike the people who "can't possibly eat that much", adding that will be trivial for me: a tall glass of lowfat chocolate milk and a banana should get me there relatively easily unless I wind up training for a marathon or something.

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