When TDEE - 20% < MFP goal

Vailara

My current TDEE - 20% figure works out as less than what MFP gives me. Obviously this is no longer EatMore2WL. More like EatLESS2WL! :laugh: :sad:

To be honest, neither figure is that great for me. I suppose the trouble with being very overweight and losing weight, is that the more you lose, the less you can eat, and I'm still adjusting to that! I could change up to TDEE - 10% or 15% which would give me a little more, but I'm still in the obese range, and my deficit is quite small anyway. I could also change to the MFP setting and eat back exercise calories which would give me more to eat, but again, it would slow down my already slow weight loss. And if I'm finding TDEE - 20% too little for me while I'm still obese, I'm really going to struggle as I get towards the "normal" range.

I'm just wondering what the rest of you do as you lose weight. Do you keep cutting until you reach your goal weight? Or do you ever get to a point where it seems too restrictive?

Vailara

To make it clearer my stats are:

BMR: 1288
TDEE: 1771
TDEE - 20%: 1417
Deficit: 354

MFP goal:
1440 plus exercise calories

amanda_gent

I have the same thing - TDEE minust 20% = goal calories from MFP (1540) which feels way too little. Fortunately, I'm near my goal weight, just working on body recomp so I'm eating a tiny bit more based on readings from my fitbit and how much exercise I do.

What keeps me sane is taking "diet breaks" every four weeks or so when I eat at TDEE or over. Alternatively, lots of people calorie cycle so you have higher and lower days.

I empathize! FR sent.

Vailara

Thank you! It's great to hear from somebody in a similar position, because so many people seem to get a higher figure and end up eating more.

I'll think about calorie cycling and diet breaks. What I'm currently doing is keeping it at around 1500 calories a day, which should still allow for 1/2 pound a week weight loss and is about TDEE - 15%. I can manage that for now, but I know it's only going to get more difficult - and I haven't even got to the "overweight" range yet, never mind normal!

amanda_gent

Another thing that is good about diet breaks is that your body doesn't get into the trap of believing those lower calories are the norm - it won't permanently downshift your metabolism if you change it up with higher calorie days/weeks. Think about when you reach your goal weight - you want to eat "normally" right? Think of the diet breaks as testing that out and getting yourself used to how it will be eventually.

You may not be there yet, but you're heading in the right direction. Try to enjoy the ride a little bit along the way.

Vailara

The trouble is that my deficit is quite small anyway, so any higher calorie days will have to be offset by lower calorie days if I don't want to slow down my weight loss even more! I think that slow is good generally (my weight loss so far has taken about a year, but has been steady), so maybe it doesn't matter. I will probably be eating about 1500 calories at maintenance, so I don't think I'll ever be able to eat "normally" in the sense of eating what the average person would, but at the moment 1500 feels just enough and normal-ish! Anything below that feels more diety and less sustainable. I've had a go at doing the 5:2 diet and that didn't seem to suit me. I think I'm always going to have to be dieting, to be honest. My appetite seems to be set a rung or two above my actual needs!

heybales

You would need to increase your exercise over the Lightly Active level from TDEE calc. 2 extra days at 60 min each and you are in Moderately Active level.
That would make 15% deficit level 1700.

Have you figured out what your goal weight BMR would be and that TDEE level if you kept your current routine?

May not be that much less than where you are now. Not to suggest eating there now, but as Amanda says, may be a nice jump up to point from time to time, or for a week of diet rest.

Concerning appetite, are you mainly lifting right now?
That will make you feel hungry when body wants to make improvements and you just aren't feeding it what it wants. Because you know the fat must go first.

Do you have any over-reaction to carbs, such you get low blood sugar after big or carb heavy meals, and that leaves you feeling hungry after you ate recently?

And do you seem to be losing the amount the deficit would indicate? That's tough one though, since if lifting you could be making improvements and masking fat loss amounts.

Vailara

Goal weight (i.e. my old weight) would give me a BMR of 1134 and TDEE 1560 with my current routine. But I may not go back to my old weight. I'm going to see how I feel on the way down. That's using Mifflin St-Jeor which is higher compared to the Katch-McArdle one I'm using.

I'm only doing a tiny bit of heavy lifting (at home) and mainly doing a bodyweight programme and a bit of other exercise. I'm not as hungry as when I was doing heavy lifting and not eating as much, so I don't think there is as much going on with body improvement.

No over-reactions to carbs, I don't think, but meals are usually mixed (not all carbs).

I'm not having so much problems with appetite as usual, now that I think of it, but I'm worried that that will change when I cut calories.

I have been losing the right amount (averaging about a pound every 9 days. Actually slightly more recently, so I may be burning a tiny bit more than I think).

I have been thinking about increasing exercise, but I have been struggling a bit with it recently and also worry that it won't be sustainable if I increase too much. But the exercise is probably what I need to be looking at.

Thank you!

heybales

I have been thinking about increasing exercise, but I have been struggling a bit with it recently and also worry that it won't be sustainable if I increase too much. But the exercise is probably what I need to be looking at.

To increase TDEE in order to eat more, only way. But do indeed make it realistic.

And if it's a totally additional workout, not included in your TDEE estimate, just eat back those calories when you burn them - minus the same 15-20% you do to normal TDEE.

Vailara

Thank you! It hadn't occured to me to eat back calories minus 15 - 20%.