Factoring exercise via tdee

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dinomomma
dinomomma Posts: 264 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
When describing your exercise based on your tdee what made you choose moderate or light or did you choose desk job and still track your exercise? Thanks in advance.

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  • seena511
    seena511 Posts: 685 Member
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    TDEE is designed to take in your exercise. so take your best guess at the intensity level and don't eat back the exercise calories.
  • dinomomma
    dinomomma Posts: 264 Member
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    TDEE is designed to take in your exercise. so take your best guess at the intensity level and don't eat back the exercise calories.
    Yea I know, I just meant what's your exercise regimen that made you decide between the two
  • fruitloop2
    fruitloop2 Posts: 437 Member
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    I chose moderate because I workout a minimum of 3 days a week for 1 hour. My cardio days are usually only 30 minutes or so and I try for once or twice week for a total of 4-5 days/week of total exercise. My job is lightly active...I'm on my feet a lot so between my job and my exercise I think that puts me at moderately active. I'm interested in what others say to see where I fall on the scale.
  • singer201
    singer201 Posts: 560 Member
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    I chose moderately active because I'm out at the barn, mucking paddocks, grooming, riding or working horses, and otherwise on my feet or walking for 2-3 hours every day. I got tired of trying to keep track of every little thing, but it averages about 500-600 calories per day. MFP at 1200 + average exercise calories and TDEE - 15% came to within a few calories of each other, so I figured that was a pretty good target. I'm pretty close to goal, so weight is coming off slowly, anyway.
  • Pepper2185
    Pepper2185 Posts: 994 Member
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    I chose sedentary - because the amount I exercise varies from week to week (new baby and all that jazz).

    I add the exercise calories into my diary and eat most of them.
  • dinomomma
    dinomomma Posts: 264 Member
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    I wonder if I should keep it the same due to nursing, I have it set to moderate.
  • rekite2000
    rekite2000 Posts: 218 Member
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    I put moderate- I workout 6 days a week. I am a stay at home mom, but with a toddler and infant- I am always moving despite what some may think :-). Since I breastfeed, I found my TDEE-15% and added 500 calories for nursing.Needless to say I eat a lot, but losing inches and weight. Just started this so hoping it keeps up. For the nursing- everything I read said to add it after you find TDEE and calculated the deficit. My milk supply is great this way.
  • beets_yum
    beets_yum Posts: 36
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    I just read that you should factor in exercise separately. You figure out TDEE based on lifestyle (so intensity and duration of movement over the course of your daily life)--not exercise. I'm not sure how reliable this info is but it makes sense to me, since what you are aiming to figure out is calories burned over a 24 hour period and not in an hour burst of exercise.

    http://theskinnyequation.blogspot.com/p/weight-loss-calculators.html?m=1
    http://theskinnyequation.blogspot.com/2013/03/fit-tip-of-day-most-accurate-way-to.html?m=1

    This seems a better way to define it versus those ahort bursts of exercise:
    Sedentary - desk job, mostly typing, minimal movement. 95% of us have this job (and dread it)
    Lightly Active - walking around a good amount (about half the day), meetings, socializing
    (retail jobs, barista)
    Moderately Active - walking/socializing constantly in a fast paced environment (aka waiting tables, delivering mail, etc.)
    Very Active - walking and heavy lifting; very labor intensive (construction workers, lumberjacks..this is probably not you)
    Extremely Active - professional athlete, dancer, etc. (save this unless you are Lance Armstrong)
  • ZyheeMoongazer
    ZyheeMoongazer Posts: 343 Member
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    It really all depends on the amount of effort you want to put into tracking exercises. If you want to simplify things and you have a very regular work out schedule and rarely miss your planned workouts, counting it into your TDEE may work for you.

    I myself only count my day to day activities and enter my exercise separately. Since I walk about 2 miles M-F to/from work and often walk additional distance if going shopping etc (I live in central downtown area, so its annoying to drive and pay to park everywhere). I use a "Lightly Active" activity level. Using the Katch-McArdle formula that gives me a about 1900 TDEE, 20% reduction for a goal of 1500.

    For me counting my workouts into my TDEE lead to over eating and little to no weight loss, some gains too. Its just to easy for me to skip workouts and still try to eat at the Moderate level.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I just read that you should factor in exercise separately. You figure out TDEE based on lifestyle (so intensity and duration of movement over the course of your daily life)--not exercise. I'm not sure how reliable this info is but it makes sense to me, since what you are aiming to figure out is calories burned over a 24 hour period and not in an hour burst of exercise.

    http://theskinnyequation.blogspot.com/p/weight-loss-calculators.html?m=1
    http://theskinnyequation.blogspot.com/2013/03/fit-tip-of-day-most-accurate-way-to.html?m=1

    This seems a better way to define it versus those ahort bursts of exercise:
    Sedentary - desk job, mostly typing, minimal movement. 95% of us have this job (and dread it)
    Lightly Active - walking around a good amount (about half the day), meetings, socializing
    (retail jobs, barista)
    Moderately Active - walking/socializing constantly in a fast paced environment (aka waiting tables, delivering mail, etc.)
    Very Active - walking and heavy lifting; very labor intensive (construction workers, lumberjacks..this is probably not you)
    Extremely Active - professional athlete, dancer, etc. (save this unless you are Lance Armstrong)
    That's ONE way. Many folks use scooby or fat2fit where the activity levels also relate to exercise.

    Activity Level
    Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job)
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
    Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
    Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
    Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

    Based on what you posted, I'm maybe lightly active at best. Based on fat2fit I am more like very active.
  • BlackJack96
    BlackJack96 Posts: 43 Member
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    My job is variable by the week. Some weeks I'm at my desk all week for 40. Other's I'm literally on my feet for 80 hours. I chose the lightly active and then use a fitbit to even it out. On the weeks where I'm very active I get a few hundred extra fitbit cals. On the weeks that I'm not as active I end up getting negative fitbit cals so I keep myself honest.
  • dinomomma
    dinomomma Posts: 264 Member
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    I'm a stay at home mom too, with a school age kid and a toddler, I have two workouts a day about three days a week and 1 workout a day the other 3 days.
  • Scott15Fit
    Scott15Fit Posts: 71
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    I use this calculator that I saw on another forum post as it allows me to use a combination of sedentary, moderate and vigorous activity:
    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/
  • Piper911
    Piper911 Posts: 46 Member
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    I just read that you should factor in exercise separately. You figure out TDEE based on lifestyle (so intensity and duration of movement over the course of your daily life)--not exercise. I'm not sure how reliable this info is but it makes sense to me, since what you are aiming to figure out is calories burned over a 24 hour period and not in an hour burst of exercise.

    http://theskinnyequation.blogspot.com/p/weight-loss-calculators.html?m=1
    http://theskinnyequation.blogspot.com/2013/03/fit-tip-of-day-most-accurate-way-to.html?m=1

    This seems a better way to define it versus those ahort bursts of exercise:
    Sedentary - desk job, mostly typing, minimal movement. 95% of us have this job (and dread it)
    Lightly Active - walking around a good amount (about half the day), meetings, socializing
    (retail jobs, barista)
    Moderately Active - walking/socializing constantly in a fast paced environment (aka waiting tables, delivering mail, etc.)
    Very Active - walking and heavy lifting; very labor intensive (construction workers, lumberjacks..this is probably not you)
    Extremely Active - professional athlete, dancer, etc. (save this unless you are Lance Armstrong)
    I do this my job and day to day life leaves me lightly active so that's what I set my calories to but I feel I'm on the fringe of bring moderately active. I then eat back all of my excersise calories. I think it motivates me to work out! I'm 5'4 195 lbs down from 250 in September and I net 1770.
  • tootoop224
    tootoop224 Posts: 281 Member
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    When describing your exercise based on your tdee what made you choose moderate or light or did you choose desk job and still track your exercise? Thanks in advance.

    Was expecting another ridiculous "eat back your excersise calories" debate. This thread may still go there, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw you are asking the exact right question. The whole question of eating back v. not eating back is pretty much semantics. Whether you set your activity level to sedentary, and then on an innndividual case basis add in your exercize calories,OR you set it to light or moderat,e estimating your exercise calories, your exercise calories are included in your calorie goal for any given day and you choose whether or not to eat them.

    To me, it is more accurate to set activity to sedentary, and keep track of calories burned daily (the same as we do for calories consumed), then to try to estimate it with some arbitrary moniker of "light" or "moderate".


    Just my $0.02.
  • wattsy84
    wattsy84 Posts: 123
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    I'm 28yr old male, work 8 hours a day as a decorator (ladders,scaffold etc) weights 3 days a week for 20 mins or so and cardio exercise bike 2 days a week 20 mins, 3 young kids at home play 90 mins football every sat. Am I moderate or very active?

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