TDEE vs MFP daily calorie goal?

Fit_Fox88
Fit_Fox88 Posts: 410 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been reading a lot about one's TDEE and I adjusted my daily MFP calorie intake based upon a site someone posted in a forum.. there were a lot of different factors taken into account on this website so I decided to change my calories based upon that formula (1480/day) rather than what MFP gave me (1200/day). I am not as hungry with this new number and most days I am under my calorie goal, even without working out. When I do workout I dont always eat back all of my exercise calories, but sometimes I get close and sometimes I go over a little. However in some posts I see people posting that when MFP gives you your total daily calories it assumes that you're going to exercise so you're supposed to eat your daily allottment, workout and then eat those workout calories back. I definitely like my higher calorie allottment and I seem to be losing weight with it (3 lbs since the beginning of March). I just need some clarification... I guess my question would be "Are the MFP calories you gain during exercise supposed to be eaten back? And if so, should I be going off of my TDEE or the MFP calorie numbers?" I'm sure TDEE is more precise but with sooo many people losing weight on this site, it seems the calorie # that MFP gives is somewhat accurate....

Thanks for your responses! :)

Replies

  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    It depends on whether you've factored exercise calories in to begin with.

    MFP's guided mode allows you to choose your activity level. If you factored your exercise into your activity level, then those calories are already accounted for. If you did not factor exercise into your activity level, then you need to eat those calories back.

    For example, in MFP I selected sedentary to indicate I do no exercise. Then I add exercise calories on top of that depending on what I do that day.

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