? about TDEE and exercise

lei1111
lei1111 Posts: 24
in Introduce Yourself
i am fairly new here tho my profile says 02-12. i mustve started thinking about it and it took me a year to get around to it. sad but hey happy i am here.
i did try to calculate my TDEE after reading all the info on it. then i messaged helloitsdan and he figured my daily calorie intake to be 1600 until i hit 20% body fat.
MY QUESTION IS
1) do i eat 1600 regardless of any movement/exercise
2) should i log my exercise
3) if i log my exercise does that up my caloric intake which goes back to question 1.
am i making sence here?
thanks for the help and support.

Replies

  • sykesk13
    sykesk13 Posts: 7
    hey
    I'm fairly new to this as well but if you exercise you should log it as it will increase your calorie intake for that day.
    feel free to add me as a friend i've heard its easier if we all support each other
    goodluck
    :happy:
  • juliec33
    juliec33 Posts: 238 Member
    Yep, eat your total calories, even if you don't work out that day. If you are doing the TDEE -20% method you don't eat your exercise calories back. They are already figured into your calorie goal for the day. That's why you have to pick an activity level when you figure it out. I do log my exercise in the tracker but I just put 1 for the calories burned so that it doesn't change my calorie goal.
  • lei1111
    lei1111 Posts: 24
    but if i increase my caloric intake will i still be at a deficit? will i still lose? i am confused. =/
  • sykesk13
    sykesk13 Posts: 7
    i think i might be wrong you should listen to julie
  • juliec33
    juliec33 Posts: 238 Member
    This can be really confusing when you first start. What activity level did you use to figure your calories? Lightly active? Sedentary? I do bootcamp 3 days a week and maybe run a few other days but not always. I have my activity level set at "lightly active" since I can only count on 3 days a week of workouts. I'm at 1700 calories a day and I try to always get that amount in. If I'm over some days by a little bit I don't worry about it because I figure that any extra I eat will be made up by any extra in my activity level. Does that make sense?
  • 2hobbit1
    2hobbit1 Posts: 820 Member
    When you use the TDEE-20% method your daily calorie goal is actually an average of your total weekly burn minus your cut. So on some days your deficit is a bit lower, and on some days your deficit is a bit bigger. This gives you some extra nutrition/calories on your recovery days so you can rebuild muscle after a hard workout and on your exercise days your deficit is a bit larger.

    If you want to log your workouts so you can keep track of the time/number you do each week then you need to change the number of calories burned to 1 so it does not change your calorie goal. MFP will not let you set the calorie burn to 0.

    The beauty of the TDEE - 20% program is that you do not need to chase after your exercise calories since both your exercise and your deficit is already built in to you daily calorie target. It makes life so much easier as long as you do the workouts. It is flexible so if your have a reason that you can no longer do your planned workouts you can adjust your activity level and redo your daily calorie goal.
  • lei1111
    lei1111 Posts: 24
    thank you so much for all the info. one more question. do you think i should keep at 1600 like helloitsdan recommended or do my actual numbers?

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