TDEE method...does it work?

I did TDEE - 20% for 2 weeks and gained 1lb. I'm not a believer.

I did TDEE - 20% for 2 weeks and gained 1lb. I'm not a believer.

Then you didn't do it long enough. It takes the body longer than 2 weeks to adjust. Sorry.

I have been reading about this TDEE method of calculating calories. I just learned about it from my personal trainer who I like but I never like to take diet advice from a personal trainer because I have had bad luck with that in the past. Is it a load of crap or does it really work? I try to eat at 1500 calories a day but I am just too hungry. I need to lose 70-80 lbs.

Technically, the "TDEE method" as you call it is how most people have lost weight in the past before muddying up the waters...just eat less than your total calorie needs for the day, and you lose weight. That's all there is to it.

I screwed up my metabolism by undereating for years. I was eating between 1200-1500 calories a day depending on whatever stupid diet I tried. Recently, I went back to what I knew worked and wouldn't starve me. My TDEE is around 2200, and I've been taking out 15-20% and eating that much while still doing my same exercise routines. That means I have been averaging 1800 calories a day. And I feel soooo much better. I have more energy, I am stronger, and I am losing body fat consistently. At first, though, the scale was playing tricks on me. But I chose to ignore it since my clothes were getting looser. I am now wearing size 6, sometimes a size 4, and yet I weigh the same as I did when I was a size 8. The scale doesn't mean much to me when I am losing body fat every week consistently and I look smaller and leaner!!!

Most people who say this method didn't work either didn't give it enough time to work (meaning they were probably either too impatient and quit after 1 month or less, or they didn't tweak anything to find their own personal sweet spot since the calculator is probably never 100% accurate and you need to adjust things accordingly) or they have damaged their metabolisms by too much exercise and not enough eating over the past few months to years. This can and does happen, and when you start eating a smaller percentage under your TDEE, you need to slowly increase your calories over time, not just jump from 1200 up to 1800 overnight or something.

I use it. I actually set MFP to my maintenance calories and then I aim for 250 calories under. That's a small cut from my TDEE because I'm not interested in losing a lot more weight, I'm just trying to lower my body fat a bit. I wouldn't worry about macros by meal. Instead worry about macros for the whole day. For someone who is working out, 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass is recommended, and .35 grams of fat per pound of body weight, and then the rest can be carbs. For me that's 98 grams of protein, 48 grams of fat, about 220 grams of carbs per day.

I did TDEE - 20% for 2 weeks and gained 1lb. I'm not a believer.

Then you didn't do it long enough. It takes the body longer than 2 weeks to adjust. Sorry.

This is true. OP you want to give it at least a month if you try it. You'll gain a couple of pounds while your body adjusts.

I just don't understand if this work so well, why is weightwatchers and all these other diets using the same 1200 calorie thing.....is it something new?

Unless WW has changed in a major way since I was a member, they do hide TDEE-20% in their figuring of how many "points" you are allocated -- the heavier you are, the more points you are allocated. You can also earn "bonus points" through exercising.

Yes it works! I think that people use 1200 is a starting point. In the beginning your body doesn't have much muscle and is not used to working out, and you have been eating lots of calories. Then as you get closer to your goal weight your body needs the calories to keep losing, and keep its muscle. That is when I switched to the tdee method. Also, don't eat your calories back!

Of course it does, it's based on Thermodynamics

My TDEE is 2253.. so TDEE-20% = 1802. I'm currently eating between 1450-1550 a day.. MFP sets my goal at 1640.. I'm consistently losing 1.5-2 pounds a week. So does the TDEE method tell me that if I eat another 300 calories a day I will lose MORE?? Hmmm.. Doesn't sound too healthy to me. And I know I'm too scared to try..

Where the hell did you get the idea that it would lead you to losing more? Nowhere does that type of statement get made.

the "TDEE method" is just a formula to calculate a caloric intake, it is not based on getting a specific # of lbs/wk of expected wt. loss.

You're losing 1.5-2lbs/wk which is pretty much bang on to what you'd expect to lose based on your expected deficit of around 750 ish cals/day. So why would you even want to be changing something that is working?

Doesn't work for me, even with an underestimated activity level (I have a Fitbit One and know that I'm at least lightly active every day, so I've tried it there and at sedentary.) I maintain at TDEE -20%, and I weigh and measure absolutely everything and track calories extremely carefully. I may have ruined my metabolism with too many years of disordered eating (heavy restriction alternated with binge/purge mostly), though, as the vast majority of posters here seem to be very successful with the method.

No, you don't maintain at TDEE -20%. You maintain at your actual TDEE. That's the definition of TDEE.

Exactly what I was going to say. TDEE isn't a number a calculator spits out for you -- it is your maintenance calorie level. Eat less than that and you will lose weight.

The reason TDEE-20% works for so many people is that is gives you a smaller deficit than MFP tends to give people. So it's an easier deficit to maintain and it takes longer to plateau. There's nothing really magic or complicated about it, just figure out your TDEE/maintenance level (calculation, then trial and error) and eat a little less than that.

I understand what it means; I guess I should be more clear to the pedantically inclined. When I eat at what SHOULD be my TDEE -20%, I still maintain and don't lose, even if I underestimate my activity level and claim to be sedentary (which I am not- I'm a bartender, run 5k three times per week, and walk about 13 000 steps on an average day according to my fitbit.) Like I said, I might have just screwed up my metabolism, but I'm proof it doesn't work for everyone.

no, you're proof that reading is entirely too difficult sometimes.

if you're eating at what you THINK your tdee -20% is, and you aren't losing... you're actually eating at TDEE.