This method makes my brain happy as well! I'd just try it out and see, I think the only potential pitfall is making sure you are consistently getting enough calories to function. I'd maybe try it but go a little over that 1500ish goal on the days you don't get a workout in.

Hey y'all I'm new to this group. I am currently halfway through my accelerated Doctor of Physical Therapy program... I have always struggled with my weight, not being technically overweight, but larger than I would like. I have been reading a lot lately on this board about "eat more to weigh less" (spent more time than I should have!) and am having a few questions about how to accurately determine my TDEE for this to work.

The problem is, that I love the gym -- but my schedule is so irregular that I can't keep a consistent routine. One week we have to travel here, then finals, etc... I am also currently battling an achilles tendonitis problem which has severely limited my workout options while trying to let it heal.

Is it reasonable to set my TDEE at "sedentary" (I study 8+ hours a day, + commute + eat + sleep = that's most of my day) and then just add my workouts into MFP and allow it to increase my calories for the day.

My BMR is 1534
TDEE at sedentary = 1841 (15% less is 1565)
Is it reasonable to eat 1565 every day, and then days when I make it to the gym, increase those calories burned?!

Thanks SO much

The MFP style is a very valid method, many have done, I've done it during marathon training when the amount varies week to week.

But as discovered, using a better BMR as foundation (Katch for bodyfat% compared to Mifflin) may be better, and selecting a % deficit instead of a block of calories is usually better. So you can't just use MFP's method truly, still must tweak things.

But, you also need to do something to those exercise calories so you really get the same deficit off them.

1 - HRM is reporting estimated calorie burn during that time. That's fine and if accurate is correct, but at minimum, BMR was going to happen during that time anyway. And from the diet perspective for logging activity, your TDEE for that time was already accounted for, so the HRM is an inflated value.

2 - (daily activity + exercise) - 15% = goal is the same as (daily activity - 15%) + (exercise - 15%) = daily goal. So you need to take the same % off exercise after you do step 1.

The spreadsheet linked in this topic, once you get your stats filled out, leaving out the exercise estimates, on the MFP Tweak tab, does all that automatically if you enter in calories burned and time of workout. And shows what the total day deficit is, and you can string a week of workouts together to see what weekly deficit is.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/750920-spreadsheet-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones