IF calorie calculator

Lyadeia
Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
in Food and Nutrition
For those of you that have used this particular calculator to determine calorie needs:

http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

Does a "workout day" refer to weight training only? Or cardio? Or both?

I'm just curious because most TDEE-x% calcs. put me at between 1600-1700 calories everyday, but this one has me eating around 1700 on rest days and 2100 on workout days. Since I alternate weights and cardio and workout 6 days per week, does this particular calculator want me to eat 2100 Monday-Saturday and 1700 on Sundays? Or is it 3:4 ratio?

I know I'm probably making that out harder than it has to be, lol.

Anyone have experience with that calculator (including people like me who don't even do IF)?

Replies

  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    Nobody knows?
  • seena511
    seena511 Posts: 685 Member
    did you make sure to set it at a deficit for both workout and non-workout days? when i did it, it automatically had me eat at a surplus on workout days. but you can choose to eat at the same deficit (or surplus, if that's your thing) each day.
  • zaneyard
    zaneyard Posts: 28
    That calculator was made mostly for leangains I think. Default is set -20/+20 recomp. If you're working out 6 days a week don't use this calculator. There's no point in doing carb cycling if you're not strength training and only strength training. Just do a -20 cut flat. If you want to do IF go ahead.


    If your goals are to get lean and build muscle mass, leangains is a great choice, but on the topic of cardio:

    "In conclusion, if conditioning is not terribly important for you, if your goal is really about getting shredded while keeping your muscle, I highly suggest limiting moderate to high intensity cardio on a diet - or ditch it completely. Save it for some other time when your recovery is good and not limited by your diet.

    A calorie deficit is a recovery deficit. Avoid deficit spending."

    -Martin Berkhan
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    That calculator was made mostly for leangains I think. Default is set -20/+20 recomp. If you're working out 6 days a week don't use this calculator. There's no point in doing carb cycling if you're not strength training and only strength training. Just do a -20 cut flat. If you want to do IF go ahead.


    If your goals are to get lean and build muscle mass, leangains is a great choice, but on the topic of cardio:

    "In conclusion, if conditioning is not terribly important for you, if your goal is really about getting shredded while keeping your muscle, I highly suggest limiting moderate to high intensity cardio on a diet - or ditch it completely. Save it for some other time when your recovery is good and not limited by your diet.

    A calorie deficit is a recovery deficit. Avoid deficit spending."

    -Martin Berkhan

    I don't consider what I do as "moderate to high intensity" cardio. It's mainly just dancing or Turbo Jam...I would say it's more low to moderate. I do it because it's fun and there are other benefits from cardio than just weight loss. I was actually thinking of just doing walking and dancing with 1 day of Turbo as my cardio (because it's just too fun to not do, lol). But by dancing I don't mean highly intense stuff like Zumba either.

    I've been doing a straight 20% from TDEE which I like. I just stumbled across this calculator and was curious about it.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    did you make sure to set it at a deficit for both workout and non-workout days? when i did it, it automatically had me eat at a surplus on workout days. but you can choose to eat at the same deficit (or surplus, if that's your thing) each day.

    Yeah, I changed it weight loss instead of standard recomp, and it what it did was deficit on rest days and TDEE on workout days. But if workout days include cardio, that would mean I only eat a deficit one day a week which wouldn't make sense to me at all since I want to lose fat.
  • zaneyard
    zaneyard Posts: 28
    That calculator was made mostly for leangains I think. Default is set -20/+20 recomp. If you're working out 6 days a week don't use this calculator. There's no point in doing carb cycling if you're not strength training and only strength training. Just do a -20 cut flat. If you want to do IF go ahead.


    If your goals are to get lean and build muscle mass, leangains is a great choice, but on the topic of cardio:

    "In conclusion, if conditioning is not terribly important for you, if your goal is really about getting shredded while keeping your muscle, I highly suggest limiting moderate to high intensity cardio on a diet - or ditch it completely. Save it for some other time when your recovery is good and not limited by your diet.

    A calorie deficit is a recovery deficit. Avoid deficit spending."

    -Martin Berkhan

    I don't consider what I do as "moderate to high intensity" cardio. It's mainly just dancing or Turbo Jam...I would say it's more low to moderate. I do it because it's fun and there are other benefits from cardio than just weight loss. I was actually thinking of just doing walking and dancing with 1 day of Turbo as my cardio (because it's just too fun to not do, lol). But by dancing I don't mean highly intense stuff like Zumba either.

    I've been doing a straight 20% from TDEE which I like. I just stumbled across this calculator and was curious about it.

    That makes it a little bit different I guess, although dancing can get pretty intense. I would then count those days as rest days for the sake of the calculator. You might want to eat a little more if your dancing makes you feel drained all day, I'll let you make that judgment call.

    A -20/0 would work out for you then if you're not rushing to lose weight. Otherwise do a -30/-10 if you think you can handle it.
  • zaneyard
    zaneyard Posts: 28
    We used this method of calorie cycling a long time ago, really didn't have any effect.

    So simple stated, it's pointless.

    http://www.leangains.com/

    Uhh ok.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    We used this method of calorie cycling a long time ago, really didn't have any effect.

    So simple stated, it's pointless.

    I'm sorry...but who is we? :flowerforyou:
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    We used this method of calorie cycling a long time ago, really didn't have any effect.

    So simple stated, it's pointless.

    Speak for yourself. Having my deficit of calories come on my rest days allows me to lose at a steady pace, while keeping my calories and carbs higher on workout days as to not impact my strength.
  • Phrakman
    Phrakman Posts: 113
    We used this method of calorie cycling a long time ago, really didn't have any effect.

    So simple stated, it's pointless.

    Speak for yourself. Having my deficit of calories come on my rest days allows me to lose at a steady pace, while keeping my calories and carbs higher on workout days as to not impact my strength.

    If you lift 6 days a week you cant really cycle your calories/macros as much so that **** dont work for me. And every day is high carb day.
  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
    Cardio counts as rest. The reason for a surplus on lifting days is to repair/build those muscles after training.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    We used this method of calorie cycling a long time ago, really didn't have any effect.

    So simple stated, it's pointless.

    Speak for yourself. Having my deficit of calories come on my rest days allows me to lose at a steady pace, while keeping my calories and carbs higher on workout days as to not impact my strength.

    If you lift 6 days a week you cant really cycle your calories/macros as much so that **** dont work for me. And every day is high carb day.

    Clearly. Not everyone lifts 6 days a week though. Particularily speaking Leangains IF style of eating calls for you to cycle macros on off/rest days anyone so I don't think this even applies to you...
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    We used this method of calorie cycling a long time ago, really didn't have any effect.

    So simple stated, it's pointless.

    Speak for yourself. Having my deficit of calories come on my rest days allows me to lose at a steady pace, while keeping my calories and carbs higher on workout days as to not impact my strength.
    I personally had no lifting issues doing a constant calorie deficit. I know that some people can have difficulty with strength. I do see your point in this case.

    Benefits for strength for some people?: yes
    Better fat loss results?: No

    I agree. I don't think of it in terms of "better" fat loss results though. I'm aware its a net effect. I view it as the ability preserve as much strength and lean mass as possible by running the deficit on rest days as opposed to lift days.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    Cardio counts as rest. The reason for a surplus on lifting days is to repair/build those muscles after training.

    That makes sense then. It's similar to what I have been doing for the past month or so, only I eat under TDEE on lifting days as well (just not as far under as the calculator suggests). I honestly haven't noticed that much extra fat loss doing it either...haven't really noticed any strength gains, etc. I seem to be progressing at the same pace as before.

    I wonder if it really is just psychological considering your deficit isn't dramatic (like TDEE-20%)? I personally prefer TDEE-25%, but I have been thinking about making it smaller to eat more. Since my TDEE is low anyway (about 2150) it's only about an apple or a banana's worth of calories difference for me between 20-25%, lol.

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