Nervous about eating TDEE

mrswine
mrswine Posts: 263 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been on MFP for about four months solid now, after starting and stopping last year. I have lost 36 pounds so far. I am currently doing TurboFire and plan to start Insanity in a couple of months after I am done with the TF plan. Turbofire includes strength training with resistance bands sbout 4 times/week and I do yoga around 5 times/week. I have been losing about a pound a week this month and have recently increased my calories from 1200/day to 1600/day. I sometimes eat back my exercise calories, but rarely. I am currently coming in at between 4,000-6,000 calories under my calorie goal for the week on MFP because of all the exercise and reduced calories, but I am frustrated that with such a huge calorie deficit I am still losing only 1 pound per week. I know 1 pound is fantastic, but feel that if my deficit is that low, I should be losing more. I have been seeing a lot about eating at your TDEE lately and reducing by 15-20% for weight loss. I think this may be what I need to do because I am not eating enough. However, I am nervous that eating at TDEE -20% (around 2170 cals/day) will make me gain weight. Can anyone share their experience eating at TDEE and exercising 5-6 times/ week. Are you losing 2 pounds per week? Did you gain at first? Do you continue to eat back your exercise calories when eating at TDEE -20%? Any input you can provide would be much appreciated!

Replies

  • mrswine
    mrswine Posts: 263 Member
    Well... After reading http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat it seems I am eating at TDEE -35% as suggested for weight loss. May need to eat back some of those calories... Or accept the fact that I may only lose 1 lb/week despite all the exercise :/
  • RunnerDude2013
    RunnerDude2013 Posts: 56 Member
    Thanks for the link!
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,069 Member
    if you are nervous about it, why not try upping gradually, by say 100 a day, until you find a sweet spot?
  • lovemitch125
    lovemitch125 Posts: 257 Member
    MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise cals! Eat then back because you need to NET that amount.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    This content has been removed.
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    I eat 1600 and don't eat them back, unless I'm hungry then I'll eat upto 25%. Listen to your body, if you feel weak or hungry then eat more. I've been eating more around 1400 recently as I've not been able to exercise as hard. I use a body media / Ki fit to get an idea of TDEE, I think it's a great device. One pound per week is a great loss. I know I couldn't do that amount and eat 1200 though. Just increase slowly until you feel satisfied. I think the macros are just as important too.

    Zara
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    Looking at your diary dropping carbs a little, and increasing protein a little would probably help with your losses.

    Zara
  • cjh022
    cjh022 Posts: 88 Member
    If you calculate your TDEE based on all of exercise you are doing, don't eat back exercise calories, or you can set it as sedentary and then DO eat back the calories. Definitely don't just increase it all overnight, only increase 100-200 calories per week or so to allow your body to slowly adjust. You will probably be surprised at how much you CAN eat and still lose 1 pound per week. No matter how big of a deficit, there is still going to be a limit as to how much weight your body will lose per week, having a massive deficit will only cause you to lose lean body mass (muscle) instead of the fat. Good luck:smile:
  • mrswine
    mrswine Posts: 263 Member
    Thanks for the replies. I will definitely look closely at my macros and possibly up my calories a bit and see how I feel. Workouts this week have been a struggle even though the intensity and duration havent changed at all. Just feeling frustrated that I am working so hard every day, all week and still only seeing a 1 pound drop. I know it's a healthy amount to lose/week but I feel like I could take it easy and not work half as hard and still lose 1 lb/week, as I have definitely done in the past. Was hoping to lose closer to 2 lb/week working at this intensity.
  • Vailara
    Vailara Posts: 2,467 Member
    A pound a week is great! But I can understand why you are frustrated when you're doing all that exercise.

    If you are getting benefits from the exercise, ignore the following.

    What I thought reading your post was that you might be less frustrated if you cut back you exercise, and also less scared of how much you should eat (because it would be less). There are various recommendations about how much exercise you should do as a minimum. The NHS recommend some sort of full body strength training twice a week, and then either 2 1/2 hours of moderate exercise (e.g brisk walking) or 1 hour 15 minutes of vigorous exercise (e.g. running), or some sort of split between moderate and vigorous.

    If you brought your activity level closer to the minimum, it would lower your TDEE, so obviously TDEE - 20% would be lower too. Or if you were doing the MFP system, you'd have less exercise calories to eat back.

    I'm not really recommending this as I don't suppose cutting exercise is a good idea if you're managing to do it, but it might work as a temporary measure because you wouldn't need to increase your calories so much to start with. It wouldn't speed up your weight loss, but you might feel happier aiming for 1lb a week if you're doing less exercise.
  • snowmanluv
    snowmanluv Posts: 200 Member
    A pound if fabulous. Be happy, that you're losing. Understanding you are working so hard but it's a total pound lost. Your body is building muscle as well as replacing the fat. The pound is the difference between the 2. Add weight lifting if you want to build muscle sooner. Also the lower your numbers go, the more it slows down.

Categories