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Level Obstacles: Lose Weight, Target Fat! (EASY!!)

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Replies

  • Posts: 13,342 Member
    bump for later
  • Posts: 123 Member
    This is so perfect! Thanks for taking the time to write up something so clear, helpful, and to the point!
  • Posts: 352 Member
    awesomeness!
  • Posts: 138 Member
    Good summary.
  • Posts: 85 Member
    Bump!
  • Posts: 38 Member
    bump
  • Posts: 51 Member
    Thank you for the awesome post!! I calculated how many calories I should be eating and have been eating too little, no wonder I have plateaued.
  • Posts: 456 Member
    bump
  • Posts: 23 Member
    Thanks.
  • Posts: 3
    Great info, thanks again for making it simple to understand!
  • Posts: 277 Member
    Great info! Thanks for breaking it down!
  • Posts: 204 Member
    bump for later
  • Posts: 139 Member
    bump.

    I'll have to take a look at home since my work blocked the tdee-calculator.. :huh:
  • Posts: 123
    Great info!!! Thanks for posting it!!!
  • Posts: 3,653 Member
    bump.

    I'll have to take a look at home since my work blocked the tdee-calculator.. :huh:

    Scooby's calculator is a little more complex but performs the same calculations for you; try this:
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • bump
  • Posts: 153
    Awesome post. Thank you.
  • Posts: 3
    Okay I feel like a total idiot here but when it comes to nutrition I really am... I just want to see if this is right, my question is as follows:

    Age: 38
    Height: 5'9
    Weight: 250


    Using Light excersise (I have kids) as suggested by Buzz... According to my TDEE I should take in 3081
    Minus 30% ( I have a lot of weight I would like to lose obviously)

    My new TDEE is 2156.7

    Now in reality I excersise 5 times (cardio/lifting) a week and didn't account for it in my TDEE.

    What I want to know is what should my top line MFP read? This is a sample of what I actually have:

    Goal Food Excercise Net
    2156 +1585 - 1720 -135

    Is this correct to lose weight? Because it says calories remaining for the day is +2291 and I don't think I could eat that much again. Please help because I am really trying to figure this out. Thank you all.
  • Posts: 55 Member
    NAILED IT! :) I LOVE THIS!!
  • Thanks for all the good advise. my tdee says I should eat 1888 calories per day. 1510 calories for a 20% deficit.
    My problem is I have a very hard time consuming 1200 calories. That is unless I am doing alot of snacking.

    Any suggestions?
  • Posts: 3,653 Member
    Using Light excersise (I have kids) as suggested by Buzz... According to my TDEE I should take in 3081
    Minus 30% ( I have a lot of weight I would like to lose obviously)

    My new TDEE is 2156.7

    Now in reality I excersise 5 times (cardio/lifting) a week and didn't account for it in my TDEE.

    What I want to know is what should my top line MFP read? This is a sample of what I actually have:

    Goal Food Excercise Net
    2156 +1585 - 1720 -135

    Is this correct to lose weight? Because it says calories remaining for the day is +2291 and I don't think I could eat that much again. Please help because I am really trying to figure this out. Thank you all.

    So - you calculated TDEE with just lifestyle, no exercise. You took a 30% deficit and arrived at a daily target of 2160ish.

    That would be what you would eat at a 30% deficit to lose fat on the order of nearly two pounds a week.
    When you exercise, since that isn't in your TDEE, eat the calories back - - MFP's estimates for calories burned can be high so perhaps try to eat around half of those calories back. Which means you would eat about 850 more calories for the exercise in addition to (2156 minus 1585).

    This will work for you and will be sustainable. You have enough to lose that you could potentially eat still yet less, but if you choose to do so, you should be under a doctor's supervision.
    Thanks for all the good advise. my tdee says I should eat 1888 calories per day. 1510 calories for a 20% deficit.
    My problem is I have a very hard time consuming 1200 calories. That is unless I am doing alot of snacking.

    Any suggestions?

    Real dairy rather than "reduced fat" foods. Snacks. A scoop of ice cream now and then. Dark chocolate. Beef jerky, chicken. A bowl of cereal. It sounds like you need to adjust your body to eating a more nourishing diet, and that may take time, thought, and effort.
  • Posts: 1,482 Member
    Tag

    Macros and TDEE Calculators
  • Posts: 906 Member
    Nicely and succinctly put. Thanks.
  • Posts: 6,800 Member
    Okay I feel like a total idiot here but when it comes to nutrition I really am... I just want to see if this is right, my question is as follows:

    Age: 38
    Height: 5'9
    Weight: 250


    Using Light excersise (I have kids) as suggested by Buzz... According to my TDEE I should take in 3081
    Minus 30% ( I have a lot of weight I would like to lose obviously)

    My new TDEE is 2156.7

    Now in reality I excersise 5 times (cardio/lifting) a week and didn't account for it in my TDEE.

    What I want to know is what should my top line MFP read? This is a sample of what I actually have:

    Goal Food Excercise Net
    2156 +1585 - 1720 -135

    Is this correct to lose weight? Because it says calories remaining for the day is +2291 and I don't think I could eat that much again. Please help because I am really trying to figure this out. Thank you all.
    Why are you using something different then reality? To lose weight, quite simply, all you need to do is eat slightly below your TDEE. Keep in mind everything is based on averages and try to be accurate. As the original post said TDEE is your total daily energy expenditure, that includes everything. If you are taking numbers off of that, that is not your TDEE. Examples:

    If you are not sedentary, the sedentary number listed is not your TDEE.
    If you are lightly active in the day and on top of that you exercise 5 times a week, the lightly active number listed is not your TDEE.
    If you take a percentage off of a TDEE, just because you are eating that, does not mean that is your TDEE. Your TDEE is higher.

    And since a lot of people make this mistake at first I'll say it once more, TDEE is not your goal, it is your TDEE.

    For a comparison side by side of what you are doing, and what I am doing (and what I am doing works quite well):
    You:

    Goal Food Excercise Net TDEE
    2156 +1585 - 1720 -135 Likely over 3576 given the info you gave was accurate.

    Your deficit is about 2000 calories!!

    Example of Me at 29, 120lb, 5'7, where 2100 would be a cut from my TDEE:

    Goal Food Excercise Net TDEE
    2100 +2100 0 +2100 2600 on a good day
    Notice here my exercise is already included in my goal. And Check, 2100 is exactly what I want in my net

    My Deficit is about 500 calories, which it isn't actually because that would be a lot for someone my age, 5'7, and 120lbs!

    This would also be just as valid if I chose to log my exercise calories, my net would change here and stay at 1700 (my sedentary TDEE since I am logging exercise calories seperately):

    Goal Food Excercise Net TDEE
    1700 +2100 -400 +1700 2600 (2100+400)
    check, this is exactly what I wanted.

    Notice how my TDEE didn't change, and what is different about our net. All of my net no matter how I chose to set up MFP is positive. I am eating netting well over 1000 more calories then you, and losing weight.
  • Posts: 3,832 Member
    THIS. Totally.

    -- though avoiding fructose and artificial sweeteners (both hunger triggers per endocrinologists) can make it easier to do without wanting to chew your arm off.
  • Posts: 125
    bump for later!! Thanks...
  • Posts: 331 Member
    bumping to read through tonite
  • Posts: 151 Member
    Bump
  • Posts: 3,653 Member
    To lose weight, quite simply, all you need to do is eat slightly below TDEE. As the original post said TDEE is your total daily energy expenditure, that includes everything. If you are taking numbers off of that, that is not your TDEE. Examples:

    If you are not sedentary, the sedentary number listed is not your TDEE.
    If you are lightly active in the day and on top of that you exercise 5 times a week, the lightly active number listed is not your TDEE.
    If you take a percentage off of a TDEE, just because you are eating that, does not mean that is your TDEE. Your TDEE is higher.

    And since a lot of people make this mistake at first I'll say it once more, TDEE is not your goal, it is your TDEE.

    This is all completely true. I'm an English guy, CoderGal is a math girl. It was hard for me to really grok the above stuff when I first started learning, but to put it in a linguistic perspective:

    Total Daily Energy Expenditure is the (average) total amount of energy you burn daily. TDEE as a defined term includes every calorie you burn.

    I think the reason we're tempted to think of it differently is because MFP is set up to track exercise and eat back exercise calories; we're in a way induced to think of TDEE as "everything other than exercise-associated thermogenesis."

    Additionally, if people slack on exercise for whatever reason - sickness, etc - they don't have to engineer a new TDEE - - they just don't eat the exercise calories they didn't earn.

    But to say it again, factually, CG is absolutely correct.
  • Posts: 5 Member
    bump
This discussion has been closed.