Playing with figures.

salsagal36
salsagal36 Posts: 91 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
According to my age, weight, gender and height my BMR is 1799. (I'm female, 37, 5ft 4 and 234lbs). According to Katch Mccardle my TDEE is 2788 for moderate activity or 2748 for light activity. Not sure which to go for as when I'm working or working out its quite active but weekends I'm not at work I'm pretty much a sloth. (Gym/PT 3-5 x per week, zumba x 1 hour, basketball x 2 hours) These calculations suggest that TDEE - 20% is either 2228 or 2198 for light activity. My calorie goal on here is set at 1840 so presumably too low. I changed it up to that 3 weeks ago and stopped logging exercise and I have dropped 2lbs which is good). However, the thought of going up to either of the 2 figures above terrifies me and has the skinny girl trying to get out of me begging for mercy. Really not sure what to do now and I would value any opinions with reasoning. At my level of overweight can I lose properly at that close to my BMR or are my maths really wrong?

Replies

  • salsagal36
    salsagal36 Posts: 91 Member
    Bump
  • salsagal36
    salsagal36 Posts: 91 Member
    Nobody?
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    According to my age, weight, gender and height my BMR is 1799. (I'm female, 37, 5ft 4 and 234lbs). According to Katch Mccardle my TDEE is 2788 for moderate activity or 2748 for light activity. Not sure which to go for as when I'm working or working out its quite active but weekends I'm not at work I'm pretty much a sloth. (Gym/PT 3-5 x per week, zumba x 1 hour, basketball x 2 hours) These calculations suggest that TDEE - 20% is either 2228 or 2198 for light activity. My calorie goal on here is set at 1840 so presumably too low. I changed it up to that 3 weeks ago and stopped logging exercise and I have dropped 2lbs which is good). However, the thought of going up to either of the 2 figures above terrifies me and has the skinny girl trying to get out of me begging for mercy. Really not sure what to do now and I would value any opinions with reasoning. At my level of overweight can I lose properly at that close to my BMR or are my maths really wrong?

    I would say you are moderate activity level so would go with the 2748 number. At your current weight you can afford to take a 20% cut, meaing you should aim to eat 2228 every day. You do not need to eat back exercise cals as they're already factored into the calculation. However if you have a particularly high calorie burn day due to a lot of exercise then make sure you net figure is always over your BMR.
  • salsagal36
    salsagal36 Posts: 91 Member
    I've not been eating exercise calories back since I went up to 1840 three weeks ago. I prefer it that was as well, it's much easier for me to look and see that I'm eating roughly the same rather than having it bob up and down all over the place depending on how much my burn was.

    I think all these years of being overweight and told 'you must starve to lose' have got me scared to go as high as TDEE -20%. It's a big thing to wrap my head around. Can I really eat 2200 calories and lose weight!

    I have learnt from logging though that although my calories weren't enormous prior to joining MFP. I didn't lose because they were very inconsistent. Some days I would net less than 800 other days closer to 2500 depending if I was working or not and 1200 calorie diets just made me grumpy and I didn't lose anything. Being more consistent has definitely made some difference.
  • Ploogy
    Ploogy Posts: 115 Member
    The alternative to this is to calculate TDEE based on a sedentary level, and then factor in the calories you've burned by exercise. This will allow for you to more easily deal with the fact that your activity levels vary significantly, and also not have to worry about dropping below BMR for days that you work out particularly hard.
  • kirstyfairhead
    kirstyfairhead Posts: 220 Member
    I think it depends on what you can cope with. If you are set at 1840 and it is working for you then go with it. It seems unlikely that you are going to move into starvation mode at that level and the weight is coming off right now so unless you are starving and it seems unsustainable for you then run with it for a while and see how it goes.

    If you start to hike up your exercise then re-evaluate and you may find that you need to add a few more cals on.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    I am 5'4", started at 233 and aside from exercise I'm a sloth as well. I eat an average of 1800 and pretty much have since I started with mfp. I just left the mfp settings, I "net" 1200 (on average for the week), but eat around 1800 (ranges from 1500-2300 or more). I found just leaving the mfp settings and adding my exercise (and the exercise calories) was much easier to "follow" and allowed for varying levels of exercise/activity. I'd just stick with the 1800 if I were you-if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you hit a plateau (like for 6 weeks+ of plateau) reassess.
  • Razzy43
    Razzy43 Posts: 32
    When it comes to the question of what your daily activity is, don't include workouts into the equations because you will log them in when you do them giving you more calories on those specific days. That question is for your normal daily activities, without any of your workouts, unless you don't want to log them, being less accurate. Then to say, your avg daily TDEE is 2800, you will have some days of extra calories, days you don't workout. It is much more accurate and have a better chance of seeing results if you let MFP do the work for you.

    Vitamin stated the same thing and I think you will get better results this way. I know I have and I use to do it your way, an avg. TDEE.

    Try the calculator http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    Here is what I came up with
    BMR 1800
    Desk job or very little activity = 2100
    1-3 hours light activity = 2400
    3-5 moderate activity = 2800

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