Eating at TDEE-20% question
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So is there a real question or were you waiting for somebody to validate what you were already going to do?
The point of "TDEE" was that you had already calculated what you would typically burn in an arbitrary amount of time (let's say a week) Therefor, you would have entered into this equation an average amount of time you exercise PER WEEK... and then it gave you a calorie reference based on that activity for the week.
So example:
MY BMR is 1500
I burn 1500 calories doing absolutely nothing. In order to lose 1 pound a week I should be eating 1000 calories (also assuming I do nothing)
Well, on Monday I decided to burn 500 calories with exercise. So Monday and Tuesday I just decided to eat 1250 calories each day instead of 1500 calories on Monday. In the end, you have the same calorie deficit.
Moral of the story, do whatever is easiest and works for you.0 -
Hopefully I'll start losing more weight now that I'm eating more and it's not the first time that I've read it takes time for your body to readjust to eating more so I guess I'll have to be patient.
I like the idea of eating more the more I workout so I think I'll stick to adding back workout calories. I feel it allows me to have days when I workout more if I know I will be going out for a meal or will eat more than I do normally for some reason. I see it as almost like a reward for my effort and hard work I suppose.
On days when I workout less I know I'll get demotivated if I still eat 2000 calories because psychologically I won't feel like I've earned the extra 500 calories so to speak. I guess what works for some won't work for all but I think it works for me.
If in 3 weeks I'm still not losing maybe I'll figure that my exercise calories are a little on the high side and start eating less of them back to conpensate but we will see. Either way I don't think I'll be at my goal weight any time soon but I am determined not to go back to eating low calories because it really is no fun and so restrictive.0 -
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.
You could try logging your exercise in a different site, like Fitocracy is a popular one, and then either log your exercise here as "1" calorie or just leave it off and set MFP to that TDEE-20% number based off your weekly exercise goals and only log food here.
Or set your TDEE-20% number on MFP and log your exercise here anyway but just ignore going into the red or way over on green and just know what your daily estimate is for spreading the calories over a week. I know quite a few people doing the TDEE-20% method that do this.
Some people also do spreadsheets to track.0 -
So is there a real question or were you waiting for somebody to validate what you were already going to do?
The point of "TDEE" was that you had already calculated what you would typically burn in an arbitrary amount of time (let's say a week) Therefor, you would have entered into this equation an average amount of time you exercise PER WEEK... and then it gave you a calorie reference based on that activity for the week.
So example:
MY BMR is 1500
I burn 1500 calories doing absolutely nothing. In order to lose 1 pound a week I should be eating 1000 calories (also assuming I do nothing)
Well, on Monday I decided to burn 500 calories with exercise. So Monday and Tuesday I just decided to eat 1250 calories each day instead of 1500 calories on Monday. In the end, you have the same calorie deficit.
Moral of the story, do whatever is easiest and works for you.
No...you do not subtract from BMR to lose weight. BMR is the bare minimum you need for proper organ function. You subtract from TDEE...you should always net to BMR at minimum. If your BMR is 1,500 you should always net to that number. Example:
My BMR:
1,863
My TDEE (lightly active based on my exercise and other daily activity assumptions...yes, this has been working for me)
2,562
If my caloric intake is less than 2,562 I will lose weight. If it is over 2,562 I will gain weight. If I go below 1,863 I am doing damage to my body. I do my TDEE - 10% and consistently lose between .5 and 1 Lb per week. I don't log or eat back exercise because it's already included in my TDEE estimation. I used to do sedentary and eat them back, but as I became more consistent I could see the general trend was that I was netting roughly 90% of my TDEE at lightly active so I just went with a -10% factor at lightly active.0 -
it was an over simplified example, thanks.0
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it was an over simplified example, thanks.
His point was that your example was wrong. That was not an example of doing TDEE-20%. That was an example of how to under eat.0 -
I think it's very very hard to get the numbers completely correct. I've just done a search on Google for best TDEE calculator and a body building forum pointed me in the direction of a particular website.
I then input my information and based it on working out every day, sometimes twice a day at high intensity. It told me that in order to maintain I should eat 2200 calories per day or 1850 in order to lose fat. In order to have extreme fat loss it said 1550 calories.
These figures are without eating back exercise calories and elsewhere it says to eat 2000 calories for fat loss.
Either way it's hard to know what's the most accurate. I could eat 1850 per day no matter what or 2000 no matter what but I don't know which one will make me lose weight and which one is too much. If I eat 2200 on days like to today when I workout more and anything from 1500 upwards when I workout less or not at all maybe that's going to work best. I think it's just going to be a case of trial and error.0 -
it was an over simplified example, thanks.
His point was that your example was wrong. That was not an example of doing TDEE-20%. That was an example of how to under eat.
nor did I say it was an example of TDEE - 20%
simply, an example of everything averaging out in the end.0 -
Bump - to read later. Got to go make dinner now! :drinker:0
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First- weight is a bad indicator-to many variables, i.e. water retention and muscle gain. Looks (mirror) is the best. Use tape measure around belly button sucking in every two weeks and calipers.
If no weight loss- if you are exercising it could be muscle gain as you lose fat. Only measurements will confirm that you are losing fat.
Adjust level of carbs to lose fat. In general, lower carbs means faster fat loss. If doing cardio- you will need more carbs. I run and cycle and I found that about 100grams carbs is low as I can go before losing energy.
Type of carbs critical. Do NOT spike insulin-which causes the body to make fat from the excess sugar in the blood stream. Read up on high glycemic carbs. You can eat high glycemic carbs during cardio.
This is a great oversimplification- lifelong learning.0 -
Bump. Very helpful, thanks!0
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Hi again all
Just to update you about what's happening 2 weeks or so later.
I am still at the same weight, in fact I started at 147 lbs, went down to 144, back up to 145 and yesterday after a day off with no exercise and lower calories (1350) I acually went back down to 144 lbs.
Now I know there can be fluctuations but I am getting seriously frustrated as I've been on MFP for 7 whole weeks and I think that the weight loss I've seen so far is very poor. If it was over the entire 7 weeks (ie. just under half a pound a week) I wouldn't feel so bad but it happened at the beginning, within the first 3 weeks or so.
After noticing weight loss when I had the day off yesterday I am tempted to try and stick with my training programme and cap my calories at 1800 if I workout, even if I burn off 700 calories which I do most days. I have lowered my 'normal' calorie range without exercise to 1350 again (from 1500) to see if that makes any difference to things.
I used another BMR calculator I haven't used before and that told me my BMR was close to 1300 not 1450 as I'd previously thought with a TDEE (sedentary) of 1600 so maybe 1350 is not a bad number for me.
Will give this a try but after that I really don't know what I could possible do next to speed things up. I have also taken measurements and nothing much has changed with them either. I still feel just as uncomfortable in my clothes which are still too tight and the only difference I've noticed is that my trousers are fitting me differently as I think my thighs have actually got a little bigger than before. I hope I'm not building some muscle while not losing the fat as this could make me look a lot bulkier but then again I know that you are not really supposed to be able to build muscle if you're eating at a deficit.
As for body fat, My starting % on the scales I'm using which separate water and fat was 32-33% and at one point they went down to 30% but are now reading 31% so there is a possibility I've lost a little fat but was hoping for a lot more than that.
Any more advice? I am trying to keep carbs between 70 and 100g in total except for weekends when I eat a little more but never above 150g. Protein is 100-140g most days.0 -
Bump0
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Bump0
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Give it 4-6 weeks before making any more changes.0
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Thanks but I don't want to risk waiting another 4 weeks just to see no change again. Does anyone else have any other advice? I've just seen a thread about being on the Pill and maybe that is causing me problems and preventing weight loss. Can't think of any other reason and am really stuck.
Any help at all will be much appreciated.0 -
I think that some of the people who've answered my post are a little confused.
If you eat 1800 calories for example and that is TDEE -20% for you (based on you being 'active' ie. working out every day) then you are banking on the fact that you burn off the exact same calories through exercise from day to day which is a dangerous assumption. For most of us I think that's unrealistic as we do different amounts of exercise from day to day.
No, what you are doing is averaging your calories out to take into account your exercise instead of working in strict 24 blocks.
It's never to be an exact science!
I personally like eating my exercise calories back, as it gives me motivation to get into the gym and enjoy more food that day - but I totally buy into the TDEE-20% method too.0 -
Well when I started doing this (TDEE -20% sedentary) I was eating back all my exercise calories and maybe the reality is that my body doesn't actually burn the amount my HRM says. For this reason I'm not trying to eat back less calories, maybe 75% of my exercise calories.
I am hoping that this change, plus the reduction in my MFP net calories to 1350 from 1500 will be enough to kick start weight loss. If not then maybe I need to go the other way and eat even more than before, I really don't know.
That's what I was hoping someone on here could help me with. What's the best way to go about it when you stall like I have.0 -
I think that some of the people who've answered my post are a little confused.
If you eat 1800 calories for example and that is TDEE -20% for you (based on you being 'active' ie. working out every day) then you are banking on the fact that you burn off the exact same calories through exercise from day to day which is a dangerous assumption. For most of us I think that's unrealistic as we do different amounts of exercise from day to day.
This is incorrect - it doesn't assume you work out the same every day,
there are several activity levels to chose from, ranging from sedentary , lightly active, moderately active etc depending on how many days you do exercise.
If you only do 3 days a week, your extra calories spread out over the week are obviously more than sedentary, but less than the extra calories if you were working out 5 days a week.
The whole point is to pick the right activity level and then you can eat the same every day which will make it easier to plan.
Go back to the your TDEE calculator, look at the TDEE for your correct acivity level
Then look at the sedentary TDEE number you are using. Divide your total weekly exercise calories by 7, and add that to the sedentary figure.
Are the two figures similar?0
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