Making it simple.. CAL GOALS!

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ChunkyCharly
ChunkyCharly Posts: 20
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm seeing so many different ways of loosing weight.. it makes me wonder what everyone on mfp is actually doing. Ive seen a number of ways..

1.) 20% or 15% cut of TDEE (dont eat back exercise cals as deficit is already factored in)

2.) Do what MFP says.. gives you a daily number based on how much you want to loose a week + if you exercise, then eat exercise calories back.. ultimately i reckon this is what 1.) is.. just more complicated..

3.) Do what MFP says .. dont eat back exercise cals and potentially loose weight but its all muscle,so utterly pointless.

4) Do what MFP and 'save' exercise cals for say.. the weekend when a higher cal goal maybe beneficial for meals/nights out etc.

Which one are you? 1.2.3.4? and does this work best for you?

Replies

  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    I do #5. BMR plus about 200, rarely eat exercise back unless it's been a really huge burn like a 50 mile bike ride and I'm really hungry.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    I don't know what the heck to do. Right now I'm doing what mfp says to lose a pound a week..i'm going to time a two weeks and see if it is working. If not. .I'll try another method. I think that is it..you have to invest time to see what works for you. We all hate wasting time.
  • nosillanosilla
    nosillanosilla Posts: 42
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    I'm #1 happy and losing fat.
  • llkilgore
    llkilgore Posts: 1,169 Member
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    I followed MFP's recommendations to the letter for a couple of months and then cut back to eating 2/3rds of my exercise calories after it became evident that the site was overestimating the burn. I'm in maintenance now and eat back 100% of my exercise calories, but use a different, less generous site to calculate them. http://www.shapesense.com/ in case anyone is interested.

    58 pounds lost with no plateaus, successfully maintained for 15 months so far.
  • ByronJP
    ByronJP Posts: 67
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    I too am confused about this. I have been exercising each day and my calorie per day is already around 2000 to lose 2 lbs a week. but if i burn over 700 cals a day and eat it all back then what? if not will i lose more weight and since im strength training will i keep my muscle? could use some help from a veteran. Sorry for bombarding your post.
  • zena92
    zena92 Posts: 128 Member
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    i did number 3 and it didnt really work for me, now im doing number 1...hopefully i should see some better results :)
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    1. However, I upped my calories to the maximum amount which led me to maintain weight for several months for me to figure out what my actual TDEE was. It turned out to be exactly what I got when I used the Katch-McArdle formula 2850. I want to preserve fat-free mass while not restricting calorie intake so I went with a deficit appropriate for the amount of fat mass I have.
  • AllTehBeers
    AllTehBeers Posts: 5,030 Member
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    I don't know what the heck to do. Right now I'm doing what mfp says to lose a pound a week..i'm going to time a two weeks and see if it is working. If not. .I'll try another method. I think that is it..you have to invest time to see what works for you. We all hate wasting time.

    4-6 weeks is optimum in testing a method. Two weeks barely gets you through the water weight.

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