Doing TDEE minus 20% in MFP - I don't get why you would

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  • staceypunk
    staceypunk Posts: 921 Member
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    A few of my MFP friends log only 1 calorie for their exercise. So we all still get to know what workouts they did.
  • Scarlett_S
    Scarlett_S Posts: 467 Member
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    I used this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

    Very well written but in the middle of all of it is a link to a google doc spreadsheet. You have to save the spreadsheet to put your own calculations in. It has recommendations specific to MFP users on the bottom.
  • Rivmage
    Rivmage Posts: 48 Member
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    I use the TDEE and log my exercise calories. I do this to make sure my net calories don't go below my BMR.

    Scott
  • Energizer06
    Energizer06 Posts: 311 Member
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    There are a ton of different ways to utitlize the various methodologies. Every body type is different and some methods work great for others. According to your ticker, you've lost 45lbs....so something is working...congrats..that's awesome. I do believe no one should eat below their BMR and only about 1% of the entire population of the world should be on a 1200 calorie plan. MFP defaults to this as the lowest and most people aren't correctly measuring and getting their closest BMR estimate. The easiest method is to find your BMR and eat that....then eat any and all calories from exercise. Everybody seems to underestimate their TDEE and put themselves at sedentary, because they have a desk job. When in reality they are now working out, whether it be walking, weight lifting, cardio...etc...

    KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK....
  • wareagle8706
    wareagle8706 Posts: 1,090 Member
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    If you are going to follow the TDEE-20% method then you would just imput that number into MFP and don't record your exercise as it is already included in your TDEE number.

    Of all the answers ^^easiest to understand^^
  • Sincere24
    Sincere24 Posts: 126 Member
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    From what I understand those using the TDEE method have adjusted the MFP settings to reflect that. You can do this by just customizing your goals and input that number, which I think is what people might have been doing with the TDEE method.


    What I have done was personalize my settings on my account. So I haven't put in a goal weight, set my activity level according to my lifestyle and place the amount I want to lose per week (1/2lb) and it shoots out what I believe to be my TDEE-20% calorie numbers.

    Much better than the 1200 it was giving to me prior, but then again that's dependent on the goal people input
  • johnwhitent
    johnwhitent Posts: 648 Member
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    I put TDEE-20% in as my goal and don't log my exercise calories, as I log my workouts on my Garmin site anyways...I still use MFP for counting calories and keeping track of macros - what else do you use it for?

    This is pretty much my approach.I use MFP as a food journal, which I find very valuable. I record my exercise and burn but then change the burn to 1 so my macros stay put. This works fine for me as my activities are all uploaded to Training Peaks via my HRM so I have all my exercise info there - burn, heart rate, pace, min/max/avg heart rate, a map, etc. Most importantly for me, MFP is where I interact with friends who share my passion for health and fitness. I live in a small town and have no local friends with whom I can discuss health and fitness issues, so the support and encouragement at MFP is priceless to me.
  • Energizer06
    Energizer06 Posts: 311 Member
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    It goes a little something like this:
    Calculated TDEE and BMR and got my 15-20% cut.

    I put my BMR as my daily goal (NOT accepting the1200 default) and I set my activity in MFP as lightly active - comes pretty damn close to my calculated TDEE it's just under 50 out - which is perfectly fine for me - we're talking maybe a cheese triangle - no real biggie.

    Then I exercise as always, eat back a proportion of my cals but not necessarily all - to within 15-20% of my TDEE.
    Weight comes down, inches come off, and because of the settings - I pretty much follow MFP's method most days give or take a few cals either way.

    A the end of the day - do what works for you but in answer to your query, I use pretty much everything that MFP offers but I understand my numbers a lot better and drive MFP to my settings.

    Great Example...and explanation
  • DaniH826
    DaniH826 Posts: 1,335 Member
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    I log my lifting on Fitocracy anyway (hey, ya get badges! woop!), and use MFP for the calorie tracking and the support. I've learned so much here in the 6 or so weeks since I started, and there's a bunch of neat folks here sharing that part of the journey, so why not? It's always better to go at anything in life with support, rather than without. I just set myself to TDEE today and will use MFP to only track calories, since it's been quite tedious to use 2 web sites for tracking as it is. Simpler works for me.
  • SRH7
    SRH7 Posts: 2,037 Member
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    Because you can set your MFP calories to be whatever you want them to be, AND track your intake.

    This is primarily a calorie-countie and macro-tracking app/site. Just using TDEE-any% doesn't eliminate the need to track calories. Also, for many people, TDEE-any% is nowhere near what MFP suggests.

    There are two ways to calcuate your TDEE.
    1) calculate using your actual activity level
    2) calculate setting your activity level at sedentary.

    If you do the first way, you obviously would not eat back exercise calories. In that case, you'd log your calories burned on any given day as 1 calorie, so you don't mess up your net. Some people using this method log their actual burn in their exercise notes.

    If you do it the second way, you would count all your exercise calories and eat them back, resulting in the same net intake as the first method.

    Either way, MFP is equally effective.

    I use method 2 as my exercise burn varies week to week so logging it separately with an HRM is more accurate. I also find it's an incentive to get up and do some exercise as it means I can eat a bit more that day!
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    A few of my MFP friends log only 1 calorie for their exercise. So we all still get to know what workouts they did.

    I do this. I want to keep track of my workouts, but I just call it 1 calorie so it doesn't mess up my daily goal numbers.
  • hockeymom95
    hockeymom95 Posts: 157 Member
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    Bump-I need to read this when I have more time. Thanks.
  • 1ConcreteGirl
    1ConcreteGirl Posts: 3,677 Member
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    Because you can set your MFP calories to be whatever you want them to be, AND track your intake.

    This is primarily a calorie-countie and macro-tracking app/site. Just using TDEE-any% doesn't eliminate the need to track calories. Also, for many people, TDEE-any% is nowhere near what MFP suggests.

    There are two ways to calcuate your TDEE.
    1) calculate using your actual activity level
    2) calculate setting your activity level at sedentary.

    If you do the first way, you obviously would not eat back exercise calories. In that case, you'd log your calories burned on any given day as 1 calorie, so you don't mess up your net. Some people using this method log their actual burn in their exercise notes.

    If you do it the second way, you would count all your exercise calories and eat them back, resulting in the same net intake as the first method.

    Either way, MFP is equally effective.

    I use method 2 as my exercise burn varies week to week so logging it separately with an HRM is more accurate. I also find it's an incentive to get up and do some exercise as it means I can eat a bit more that day!

    I also use method 2. I just like seeing my burns.
  • rfsatar
    rfsatar Posts: 599 Member
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    It goes a little something like this:
    Calculated TDEE and BMR and got my 15-20% cut.

    I put my BMR as my daily goal (NOT accepting the1200 default) and I set my activity in MFP as lightly active - comes pretty damn close to my calculated TDEE it's just under 50 out - which is perfectly fine for me - we're talking maybe a cheese triangle - no real biggie.

    Then I exercise as always, eat back a proportion of my cals but not necessarily all - to within 15-20% of my TDEE.
    Weight comes down, inches come off, and because of the settings - I pretty much follow MFP's method most days give or take a few cals either way.

    A the end of the day - do what works for you but in answer to your query, I use pretty much everything that MFP offers but I understand my numbers a lot better and drive MFP to my settings.

    Great Example...and explanation

    Thank you, and you are most welcome :-)
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    mindblown_zps2bd7516c.gif
  • Jillyfish99
    Jillyfish99 Posts: 34 Member
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    ^^this.
    I have my activity level set to sedetary, so i eat back my exercise cals. It ends up being the same as my TDEE.
  • gmallan
    gmallan Posts: 2,099 Member
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    I agree - if it works for you then do it. I just don't get how it works with myfitnesspal. It seems like you would only be using it to count calories eaten. Is that correct?

    Exactly. I think a lot of people use MFP because it's really easy. It has one of the biggest foods data bases around. In theory you could track using a pen and paper or another app but you wouldn't have access to the very user-friendly functions on MFP or the support community. People who have been on here for a while usually seem to end up tweaking their settings manually in some way or another when they work out what approach is best for them
  • skylark94
    skylark94 Posts: 2,036 Member
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    MFP is a tool that I have manipulated to fit to my goals. I do TDEE-20%, so my calorie goal is set to 2,000. Since my workouts are already figured into my TDEE, I don't log my workouts. Simple.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,248 Member
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    I have my TDEE as my goal, and record my exercise as 1 calorie. Honestly, I wouldn't even bother recording my exercise here at all, but I'm hoping by doing so, it might eliminate some of the "what do you do" questions. :wink:

    I prefer recording my exercise on Fitocracy where I get points and levels and quests.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    People who do the TDEE-20% use MFP as just a plain old calorie counter. They know their calorie target. They know their macro target. So they use the software here to log their food and keep track of the numbers. Plain and simple.

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