Can someone check my calculations

pastrychefoz

Hi guys pretty much a noob to these forums so take it easy on me if u get this a lot as I am just wanting to confirmn that I am heading down the right path.

Current weight 98kg 6ft male 38 yrs

BMR 2050
TDEE 3200 exercise 4 times a week 1hr per session HIIT and circuit/strength push ups, chin ups, squats etc...

MFP has me on 1450 calories a day (pretty sedentary job,2lbs a week loss), when I exercise I eat back 1/2 -2/3 of workout calories.

Now a couple of questions for you and I know eating back calories is a bit of a funny issue some people say do it others say don't.

I have Mfp friends who say I shouldn't be dipping into exercise calories but I thought that was the idea of MFP so that when u did work out that you ate them back?

My diary is open to have a look at, I log consistently and honestly and yes I have food scales, HRM next week for accurate cal expenditure.

Thanks for any help

Mike

Canetoad_Qld

Mike it's simple you need to burn more than you eat the bigger the difference the bigger the loss. The other thing is what does the tape measure say? You are doing a lot of exercise and may be putting on the muscle faster than you are losing fat.
At one time I was in the gym twice a day never lost a single kg but lost a couple of pants sizes around the gut, possibly that's what's happening to you.

herblackwings39

Just my opinion...you should be eating at least your BMR, if not your TDEE -15 or 20% depending on how much you have to lose. MFP is designed to not consider your exercise so a deficit is already figured in. So when you exercise you are supposed to eat those calories back....but 1450 is quite low, especially for a man.

Mock_Turtle

The question is "how confident are you in your TDEE?"

What I mean is that how accurate are your calculated calorie burns for exercise ..... If you think they're pretty good and you're looking to lose 2 lbs/wk then you should aim to eat 2200 cals/day to give you a 1000 cal/day deficit ..... if you zig-zag this so that you eat a little more on your workout days and a little less on your rest days that's ok if it helps you get good workouts in.

I think what's far more important is picking a calorie target to start (whatever that is - 2200, 2700, or the MFP value) and sticking to the plan for at least 4 weeks, tracking your measurements before and after and track your weight loss ...... then check after 4 weeks and see if your weight loss is about what you'd expect it to be ....... if the numbers don't balance at all, then you need to make an adjustment

FYI I was in a little worse starting position than you (5'10 236 lb) and aimed for 2 lb/wk loss as well. My average caloric intake for the past 6 months is 1957 cals/day although I calculated my TDEE to be around 2900. Anyway, 2 lb/wk worked for about the first 40 lbs then I upped up my calories to ~ 2200 ish and cut back a bit of running to aim for 1 lb/wk.

Basically it's a long winded way of saying you can do it - just track your progress and check in after 4 to 6 weeks with your progress

Mock_Turtle

I see you're looking to lose only 10 kg - you can ignore most of my post.

If you're only looking to lose 10 kg, I don't see why you just aim for 1 lb/wk of loss .... so eat something like 2700 cal/day as a target and see 4-6 weeks from now how it's gone.

pastrychefoz

Thanks guys appreciate the time taken

detroitcupcake

im on 1350 calories a day and its working just fine.i try to avoid using up my exercise calories because when i did consume them it just made me plateau for almost 2 weeks without loss! but realistically you have to just try different methods and see what works best for your body chemistry,everyone is different and i think most men can up their calorie consumption without trouble when they are doing substantial amounts of exercise.