Eating at TDEE-20% question
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As an example, here are my stats from - http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1747
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2002
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2257
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2512
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2766
You can see that there are differing activity levels, and different calorie allowances.
The only one that assumes daily exercise is the Extremely active category.
I can just chose the one closest to my activity level, deduct the 20% and away you go - it really isn't any more complicated than that.
EDIT : you can just ignore this, as you seem to be intent on trying your own hybrid of MFP's method, and a sedentary TDEE.
Good luck.0 -
Realistically I can't expect to see a lot of results after such a short time so I don't know that what I'm doing isn't working, it's impossible to say so early on. I've only been using this method for around 2 weeks really anyway as before I was eating much lower calories in general so I know I have to give it longer.
I just wanted some general feedback from those who are having or have had success by doing what I'm doing. I know my own lifestyle and I know that my TDEE is not always going to be the same although at the moment I could say that I was very active based on the workouts I'm doing alone. The rest of my life is sedentary so it's impossible to calculate exactly my activity level unless I put myself down as sedentary and then add on extra calories I burn through exercise because really that's the only thing I'm doing to make myself more active.0 -
According to Harris Benedict, in order to lose weight, I should be eating about 500 more calories than I am now. MPF says I should be eating about 1850,
Because MFP subtracts 500 calories while online calculators don't. So it sounds like MFP and/or the formula both have you at the exact same calorie count.0 -
LadyRaven58 - based on what you are saying I'd have to put myself down as 'Very Active' because I am doing hard exercise sports 6/7 days per week (although it doesn't specify for how long, how many calories burned or with how much intensity).
If I was then to subtract 20% it would equate to a daily calorie intake of 2000 calories by your method.
Now that is based on me working out at this frequency ie. 6/7 days a week which I am right now, although again there is no accounting for how many calories I'm actually burning or whether or not some weeks I only work out for 5 days etc.. I would already be eating 550 calories abovemy BMR every day, whether I worked out of not and whether I burned off 200 calories from exercise or 700 calories from exercise that day.
Surely that can't work, I can't see how it can. If I only burn off 200 calories on one day and I'm eating so much I will surely GAIN weight, yet on days when I burn off for example 650 calories (similar to today) then I am not going to be eating enough as my real net amount will be below my BMR.
I can't trust the calculations on MFP either because it puts me at around 1650 calories6 based on being sedentary wh6ich is way too low and it tells me that based on this in order to lose weight I should eat below my BMR which isn't healthy. I could add back my workout calories to the amount it recommends I eat (around 1300) but it's still not going to amount to enough food.
Using the method I'm using, today I ate 2175 calories as I burned off 636 calories from exercise whereas tomorrow I might only burn off 300 so I know I can only eat 1800. Can't anyone see that this works? It's simple maths.0 -
Realistically I can't expect to see a lot of results after such a short time so I don't know that what I'm doing isn't working, it's impossible to say so early on. I've only been using this method for around 2 weeks really anyway as before I was eating much lower calories in general so I know I have to give it longer.
I just wanted some general feedback from those who are having or have had success by doing what I'm doing. I know my own lifestyle and I know that my TDEE is not always going to be the same although at the moment I could say that I was very active based on the workouts I'm doing alone. The rest of my life is sedentary so it's impossible to calculate exactly my activity level unless I put myself down as sedentary and then add on extra calories I burn through exercise because really that's the only thing I'm doing to make myself more active.
On a side note, I have seen your other posts where you were determined to eat 1100. This is a big step for you. Unless you go 3500 calories over you BMR with no exercise, you are not going to gain.
You are over thinking it.
Once again, glad you are eating more.0 -
I'd like to point out that (based on you're weight ticker) you're under 150lbs. At that weight, and given the fact that you're a 38 year old female, 500+ calorie burns from exercise means you're working out a LOT. It's doable, but are you really full out running for over an hour a day or something comparable?
A lot of people eat back only a fraction of their exercise calories to account for potential overestimates of energy expenditure. I prefer to go with a TDEE including exercise and leave it at that myself.0 -
Lots of people on here calculate their TDEE like I have an eat back their exercise calories every day.
They do? I didn't see a lot of people responding to this post saying they are doing it this way.
The definition of TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expenditure. By definition it is all of your calorie needs..... AVERAGED out over a week. Your no workout days and your workout days are averaged out over the week. Your daily calories spread out over a week averages out. Your weight loss or maintenance or gain will be the product of weekly trends, not one day of eating over or under.0 -
Can you elaborate? You're not making any sense? What exactly is the way that's 'been recommended by several people'? I didn't say what I was doing wasn't working, I was just looking for a little reassurance that what I'm doing is right and to see whether anyone had any recommendations.
If you eat the same day in day out and do the same exercise (or not) day in day out then calculating TDEE to include daily activity will work for you but that isn't my case.
I just wanted to make sure I'm on the right track and have basically upped my calories by a huge amount compared to what I was eating before both when trying to lose weight and also when I gained the weight in the first place.
Logic says that I'll gain more based on this but now I know a lot more about my BMR and TDEE I now know it should be the other way round and I'll start losing. It's just a very scary prospect that's all.
Do what works best for you. I calculated my TDEE without exercise as well, because I do not exercise the same every day. You do want to get as much in though if you are burning that many calories a day by exercise. I do not log anything but actual exercise (i.e., I do not log cleaning or cooking, etc.). If you are trying to get in some more calories and protein I would recommend a protein shake. It is not a whole lot of food but can add any where from 200-400 calories (do 1-2 cups of frozen berries or mixed fruit (about 80-100 Cal a cup), 1/2-1 cup non fat yogurt, 1 cup of milk, or 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup of juice, and maybe 1 tsp sugar). Adjust to your thickness level that you like. The smoothie I make is 1 cup berries, 3/4-1 cup milk, 1/2 cup nonfat yogurt and 1 tsp sugar=210 Calories. My husband has the same but adds orange juice instead of milk and adds a serving of Whey Protein Powder (which has something like 60g protein and is about 140 calories). The smoothie my husband makes is about 500 calories. The protein is good for you if you are working out.0 -
I went from around 850 or less for several years (and gaining, rather than losing) to 1200-1490 and have began losing weight. It definitely is harder to eat more when you're not used to it, but your body will level out and begin to lose weight. I gained a few lbs of water weight at first from the influx of food, but you will lose more when you eat enough. Just stick to it for a month or longer before you try something else. The lbs won't drop off, but they will come off with time. This is long term, not a diet.0
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How many calories were you eating before you joined MFP? Were you maintaining your weight at that level? If so, then that is your actual TDEE. A calculator can't tell you an exact number. Only actual experience will tell you that.
So take that maintenance level and subtract 500 cals to lose 1 pound per week.
Were you exercising before you joined MFP? If so, then your exercise is already factored into your TDEE, so don't eat any cals back.
If you were not exercising before you joined here, then count your exercise cals. But deduct your TDEE per hour rate from your cal total to get your 'net' cals. Or just eat back 1/2 of them. But only count actual heart rate raising exercise.
But seriously, weight loss doesn't have to be as complicated as you are trying to make it. Simply eat less and move more than you were before and you will lose weight. If you are getting too hungry, or losing too quickly, then eat a little more. If you aren't losing weight, or not as quickly as you like, then eat a little less.
People were successful in losing weight for many generations before the internet and BMR calculators were ever created.0 -
bump...for later!0
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I find it funny that people have trouble eating a certain amount of calories that is supposed to be less than what they expend (typically) in a day. Whereas... you obviously didn't get to the point where you needed to lose weight eating less than that.0
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Thank you, finally someone who agrees that activity levels can vary greatly from day to day!
Regarding calories burned, maybe it's because I'm not as fit as I thought but since I got a heart rate monitor it shows that my resting heart rate is over 80, around 84 normally. My other half has a restaing heart rate of just over 60! When I'm working out doing a very intensive workout (like I did today for 40 minutes) using weights and cardio (HIIT) my heart rate went as high as 160! When doing a much less intense workout like yesterday when I did the vaccuming my heart rate was around 145. I was lugging the hoover up and down 2 sets of stairs and all over the house and cleaned for quite a long time without stopping. Hoovering was followed by mopping. I don't think it's therefore unrealistic to think that I'm burning off 500 calories a day through strenuous exercise. I'm following Jillian Michaels body revolution 90 day programme and train 6 days a week for 30-40 minutes during that plus I often do an extra 30 minute cardio workout on top or cleaning for over an hour on other days when I don't do the extra cardio.
I logged cleaning as part of working out and added on the calories becauseI only normally have time to do it once a week as I'm too busy during the rest of the week so it's not part of my regular activity. I don't normally log things like cooking, and other daily activities which hardly raise my heart rate, only things which get it really high and believe me cleaning in my house does (I have 4 floors!)0 -
I get what you're saying. I had mine set to TDEE-20% but set to sedentary because I wanted to track my day to day exercise calories. That worked really well for me! I only ended up switching back to the MFP numbers because it came out to pretty much the same amount of calories when I set MFP to "Lightly Active". A fitbit is on its way to me this week too, so I'll have an even better idea of my actual daily burn at work!
You shouldn't be afraid to eat over 2000 calories. Think of your exercise in a totally different category. If you exercise 500 calories, then you need to replace that 500 calories for fuel. Once you've replaced those calories so that your body has the fuel that it needs, then you focus on your weight loss number. So, you eat your 1500 calories that is your limit for losing weight.
It was a lot easier for me to compartmentalize that way. I exercise to be fit, not to lose weight. So, I need to fuel what I'm doing in order to boost my fitness level. Then, I have the amount of calories I can eat to lose weight. When you add it together, it often goes above 2000, but my calories in are always < my calories out, so I lose weight.
(Except this week because I have had ALL OF THE SODIUM, but that has nothing to do with my actual weight lost. heeehee.)0 -
The simple answer is to custom set your calorie goal (based on whatever calculator you choose) and then eat back your exercise calories.
Do that for four weeks, be consistent with food and exercise logging and adjust if required.0 -
Hi eyeshuh
It's nice to hear from someone else who's having success using the method I'm trying. I've just actually gone back into the MFP settings and changed my activity level so that the reading is closer to my sedentary TDEE (based on lightly active as you've said) and then setting my calorie intake manually to be just above my BMR. I'm happy eating back exercise calories and feel they're pretty accurate but if I find I'm not losing by the end of this month I might change things again.
Thanks to the very rude poster who said that I didn't get to the point of needing to lose weight without eating too much so they can't understand how I find it hard to eat my TDEE! Sorry but some of us got this way by eating too little. Admittedly I had some days when I ate something quite unhealthy but on the whole I stuck to eating 1200 calories or less and I steadily gained weight like that.
In 2010 I lost weight and went down to124lbs but I did this by eating around 800 calories per day and doing cardio workouts 3-5 times a week and then when I was at that weight I increased my calories to around 950 and then later 1200 and THAT's how I got where I am now. Not all of us stuff our faces all day long and end up overweight (technically I have a normal BMI and body weight for my height). I've always workout out at least 3 days a week since at least 2002.
In my early 20s I was a typical student and I ate VERY badly and then I was probably overeating and that was the start of my problems but that time round I simply added in a little exercise and ate more healthily but wasn't eating too little and the weight came off. I found it difficult to sustain as I got older and that's when I started drastically cutting calories which was a big mistake.0 -
Thank you, finally someone who agrees that activity levels can vary greatly from day to day!
Regarding calories burned, maybe it's because I'm not as fit as I thought but since I got a heart rate monitor it shows that my resting heart rate is over 80, around 84 normally. My other half has a restaing heart rate of just over 60! When I'm working out doing a very intensive workout (like I did today for 40 minutes) using weights and cardio (HIIT) my heart rate went as high as 160! When doing a much less intense workout like yesterday when I did the vaccuming my heart rate was around 145. I was lugging the hoover up and down 2 sets of stairs and all over the house and cleaned for quite a long time without stopping. Hoovering was followed by mopping. I don't think it's therefore unrealistic to think that I'm burning off 500 calories a day through strenuous exercise. I'm following Jillian Michaels body revolution 90 day programme and train 6 days a week for 30-40 minutes during that plus I often do an extra 30 minute cardio workout on top or cleaning for over an hour on other days when I don't do the extra cardio.
I logged cleaning as part of working out and added on the calories becauseI only normally have time to do it once a week as I'm too busy during the rest of the week so it's not part of my regular activity. I don't normally log things like cooking, and other daily activities which hardly raise my heart rate, only things which get it really high and believe me cleaning in my house does (I have 4 floors!)
I stand by my original statement. I suspect that you are overestimating your calorie burns per day. Ultimately it doesn't matter if you find a way of tracking intake that balances out (hence why some people only eat back half their calories or whatever.
I will say this: I weigh twice what you do, am over ten years younger and male. The ONLY way I can burn 500 calories in an hour of exercise is through vigorous cardio like running.0 -
When I figured out my numbers to do the TDEE -20% system I was worried about which activity level to choose - I ended up picking a number between the sedentary and lightly active since I am getting some exercise every week but it is not consistent. Before switching to the TDEE system I found it very hard to eat back my exercise calories on days that I played soccer, so for me spreading the calories over the other days (which is basically what TDEE system does) was much easier to plan for.0
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Hi eyeshuh
It's nice to hear from someone else who's having success using the method I'm trying. I've just actually gone back into the MFP settings and changed my activity level so that the reading is closer to my sedentary TDEE (based on lightly active as you've said) and then setting my calorie intake manually to be just above my BMR. I'm happy eating back exercise calories and feel they're pretty accurate but if I find I'm not losing by the end of this month I might change things again.
Yup, it's a lot of trial and error, but you'll get there! Don't be discouraged, stay netting above your BMR, and you'll start seeing results.
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To the poster who says it's very hard to burn off 500 calories, do you use a heart rate monitor? The figures I'm going by are from my Polar HRM.
Yes that's a good point. Whether or not I'm burning off 500 calories in a day I think that some days it's quite hard to eat all the exercise calories back. Is there a way to log workouts on MFP and the calories burned but not have these numbers added on to your calorie goal? If so I could switch to this method instead but I still want to be able to see what I'm burning each day in exercise.0
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