Cal goal using TDEE: I have a question! Please help.

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  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    when i get to where I want to be I plan to cut down to 2-3 days a week.

    this is backwards
  • aimeeernest
    aimeeernest Posts: 159 Member
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    how am i supposed to know when i go over if i log it as 1 cal?

    Go over what? The TDEE you use includes exercise. If you do more that the activity you assumed in your base, then you should think about either upping your base or including more than 1 calorie to eat back.

    Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

    sorry, how should I be keeping track of my cals burned if they're usually.... all over the place? Should I not use TDEE?
  • aimeeernest
    aimeeernest Posts: 159 Member
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    when i get to where I want to be I plan to cut down to 2-3 days a week.

    this is backwards

    how? not being snarky, honestly don't understand why it's backwards. doesn't it make sense to exercise more and eat less while trying to lose? And then eat to maintain and keep up regular exercise (but maybe not as vigorous) to stay at my goal weight?
  • aimeeernest
    aimeeernest Posts: 159 Member
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    assuming of course i re-evaluate my BMR often throughout this entire journey
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    when i get to where I want to be I plan to cut down to 2-3 days a week.

    this is backwards

    how? not being snarky, honestly don't understand why it's backwards. doesn't it make sense to exercise more and eat less while trying to lose? And then eat to maintain and keep up regular exercise (but maybe not as vigorous) to stay at my goal weight?

    Maybe saying it's backwards was a bit over the top. I think your exercise program should be sane and sustainable forever. If you feel the need to cut back on exercise when you get to where you want to be, that suggests you're overdoing it.

    Also, when you drop some weight and increase your fitness, you may find that you want to do MORE, because you will be capable of more.

    As for the TDEE stuff. I think you are way over-thinking it. Use a simple TDEE calculator. I like this one because it's simple - http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html Subtract out a deficit, and eat at that level.
  • aimeeernest
    aimeeernest Posts: 159 Member
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    I'm starting to think I should just go off my BMR and add on the days I burn. Because there is nothing "regular" about my exercise routines. At least not YET.

    Maybe I'll come back to this topic after I've gotten over the hurdle of maintaining a regular exercise routine that I can expect to repeat week-to-week. Because right now I just do what I can fit in, take classes when they happen to coincide with when I can make it to the gym, and I never really know how much I expect to burn but like to burn at least 500 5 days a week.... thats my goal but it doesn't always happen and other times i go way over....

    maybe I just suck at all of this. lol.
  • aimeeernest
    aimeeernest Posts: 159 Member
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    Okay see, that one is giving my 1961 and that's based on 3-5 days a week which I plan to maintain after I get to my goal. (at least 3 anyway). So that matches up[ more with what i was thinking. The last one said 3000 or so..., that's why this is so confusing, some of these sites say "light, moderate, etc" but they have obvious differences in what they consider to be "moderate". Because there's NO WAY I'd be losing at 3000 cals intake, even if i was burning my high levels every time.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Okay see, that one is giving my 1961 and that's based on 3-5 days a week which I plan to maintain after I get to my goal. (at least 3 anyway). So that matches up[ more with what i was thinking. The last one said 3000 or so..., that's why this is so confusing, some of these sites say "light, moderate, etc" but they have obvious differences in what they consider to be "moderate". Because there's NO WAY I'd be losing at 3000 cals intake, even if i was burning my high levels every time.

    If your calories burns are all over the place, find your TDEE that does not include exercise, deduct the 15 - 20% off, set that as your base, then log exercise as you do it. I would only log 50 - 75% of the estimate to take into account inaccuracies. Eat to the level MFP gives you.
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    OP, i dont mean to be rude but you are making this ridiculously harder than it needs to be.. this is just arithmetic, not differential equations!

    im doing something similar as you.

    i have based my calorie goal on my TDEE. TDEE meaning I've taken into account my normal daily activity as well as 6 hours a week of exercise that I can easily get.

    i log my workout time on here as 1 calorie burned. since i want to lose 2 pounds a week, i eat 1000 calories less per day than my TDEE

    if by some chance i workout more than 6 hours a week, then i log those additional workouts with the real calorie burn and will eat those calories back.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    You need to stop confusing yourself and just use MFP the way it was designed, since your workouts are all over the place and you can't nail any of it down.

    You didn't hit 3000 calories recommended in that spreadsheet either unless you have a lot to lose, or forgot to remove sample data or filled out the activity calculator wrong.

    Use the MFP settings - Lightly Active for your non-exercise level. Desk jockeys with FitBit's and BodyMediaFits discover this applies on their non-exercise days, more active than they thought. The weekend makes up for it unless you are a gamer on your butt all day Sat and Sun.

    Select 1 lb weight loss goal, though you'll probably lose more.

    Log your exercise calories when you do them, be honest with the speeds and such, because those are accurate if you really did that speed level incline. Eat those back daily.

    Don't worry if it seems inflated, that'll just make up for too much deficit on other days, it'll balance out.

    Done.
  • aimeeernest
    aimeeernest Posts: 159 Member
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    Okay see, that one is giving my 1961 and that's based on 3-5 days a week which I plan to maintain after I get to my goal. (at least 3 anyway). So that matches up[ more with what i was thinking. The last one said 3000 or so..., that's why this is so confusing, some of these sites say "light, moderate, etc" but they have obvious differences in what they consider to be "moderate". Because there's NO WAY I'd be losing at 3000 cals intake, even if i was burning my high levels every time.

    If your calories burns are all over the place, find your TDEE that does not include exercise, deduct the 15 - 20% off, set that as your base, then log exercise as you do it. I would only log 50 - 75% of the estimate to take into account inaccuracies. Eat to the level MFP gives you.

    THIS... is what I'm thinking I'll do... since I'm obviously stupid and over-complicating things.... sorry, this is my first time trying to do things correctly and with so many different opinions I'm just asking a lot of questions to figure out whats right for me....
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Okay see, that one is giving my 1961 and that's based on 3-5 days a week which I plan to maintain after I get to my goal. (at least 3 anyway). So that matches up[ more with what i was thinking. The last one said 3000 or so..., that's why this is so confusing, some of these sites say "light, moderate, etc" but they have obvious differences in what they consider to be "moderate". Because there's NO WAY I'd be losing at 3000 cals intake, even if i was burning my high levels every time.

    If your calories burns are all over the place, find your TDEE that does not include exercise, deduct the 15 - 20% off, set that as your base, then log exercise as you do it. I would only log 50 - 75% of the estimate to take into account inaccuracies. Eat to the level MFP gives you.

    THIS... is what I'm thinking I'll do... since I'm obviously stupid and over-complicating things.... sorry, this is my first time trying to do things correctly and with so many different opinions I'm just asking a lot of questions to figure out whats right for me....

    Not stupid - just over-thinking it - happens a lot. As you say, there are a lot of different ways of approaching it.

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