Worth it to change to TDEE -20%?
SuperHero_Girl
Posts: 72 Member
I lurk more on these boards than I post, but I notice that a lot of people swear by TDEE -20% as an excellent weight loss method. As such, despite my own personal success, my curiosity has been piqued.
Currently, I manually set my calorie goal to 1500 calories/day and, yes, I do eat back my exercise calories. I am 32 years old, 5'2.25", and weigh in at 204.8 pounds as of this morning. I go to the gym at least 3x/week and, on the days I don't go, I'm on my feet at work and mildly moving around for 8-10 hour shifts. Additionally, on the days I work, I log about a half hour of walking to and from my place of work.
As you can see by my ticker, I've lost almost 50% of the weight I've set out to lose, the majority of which I've lost since July last year. This weight loss has happened despite having used a largely inaccurate HRM wristwatch and, as such, a large period of time I was unknowingly eating more than the daily calories MFP assigned me. When MFP last prompted me to recalculate my goals, it dropped me down to 1380 calories/day, which I found pretty impossible to maintain without feeling hungry and my body retaliated by plateauing, so I knew off the bat that 1380 calories/day was too low for me, so, as mentioned above, I manually upped my cals/day to 1500 and, voilà, I started steadily losing weight again.
Basically, it seems that 1500 cal/day is working for me, but, now that I have a Polar chest strap HRM that gives me far more accurate calorie burns, I find that I'm burning far less calories than I thought and sometimes, like today, I find it hard to stay within the 1500 cal/day goal and always feel satiated at the end of the day. Do I stick with what appears to be working for me, or adopt TDEE -20% so that my calories are more accurate and there's a bit more wiggle room at the end of the day?
(Also, based on my stats, is it accurate that my TDEE -20% is approximately 1754?)
Currently, I manually set my calorie goal to 1500 calories/day and, yes, I do eat back my exercise calories. I am 32 years old, 5'2.25", and weigh in at 204.8 pounds as of this morning. I go to the gym at least 3x/week and, on the days I don't go, I'm on my feet at work and mildly moving around for 8-10 hour shifts. Additionally, on the days I work, I log about a half hour of walking to and from my place of work.
As you can see by my ticker, I've lost almost 50% of the weight I've set out to lose, the majority of which I've lost since July last year. This weight loss has happened despite having used a largely inaccurate HRM wristwatch and, as such, a large period of time I was unknowingly eating more than the daily calories MFP assigned me. When MFP last prompted me to recalculate my goals, it dropped me down to 1380 calories/day, which I found pretty impossible to maintain without feeling hungry and my body retaliated by plateauing, so I knew off the bat that 1380 calories/day was too low for me, so, as mentioned above, I manually upped my cals/day to 1500 and, voilà, I started steadily losing weight again.
Basically, it seems that 1500 cal/day is working for me, but, now that I have a Polar chest strap HRM that gives me far more accurate calorie burns, I find that I'm burning far less calories than I thought and sometimes, like today, I find it hard to stay within the 1500 cal/day goal and always feel satiated at the end of the day. Do I stick with what appears to be working for me, or adopt TDEE -20% so that my calories are more accurate and there's a bit more wiggle room at the end of the day?
(Also, based on my stats, is it accurate that my TDEE -20% is approximately 1754?)
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Replies
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If it ain't broke.........
TDEE-20 is great, but for people that want to track their daily calories there's no advantage of TDEE-20 over eating your exercise calories back- they SHOULD work out to be the same, if the calculations are done correctly. Just keep the idea in your pocket for when you want to make a change- you don't need to right now.
I never did TDEE-20 because the calorie variation in my daily activity changes week-to-week and I would have to reset my calories every week. It's not for everyone universally.0 -
If it ain't broke.........
TDEE-20 is great, but for people that want to track their daily calories there's no advantage of TDEE-20 over eating your exercise calories back- they SHOULD work out to be the same, if the calculations are done correctly. Just keep the idea in your pocket for when you want to make a change- you don't need to right now.
I never did TDEE-20 because the calorie variation in my daily activity changes week-to-week and I would have to reset my calories every week. It's not for everyone universally.
^^yep.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1072049-thoughts-on-tdee-calculators-and-switching-from-mfp-to-tdee0 -
MFP and TDEE methods are 6 of 1 if you are doing them right and comparing apples to apples. The benefit of TDEE is that you don't have to sit here and try to guestimate your calorie burn to eat back exercise calories...an estimate of your exercise calorie requirements are included already in the TDEE method based on an estimated activity level and number of hours/minutes per week exercised.
But really, the methods work pretty much the same. My MFP net calorie goal to lose 1 Lb per week was 1850...on average I burned around 350 - 400 calories most days with exercise so I was generally grossing between 2100 - 2200 calories per day. My TDEE is right around 2750ish...so my TDEE - 20% is 2200 calories.
6 of 1, half dozen of the other.
TDEE makes sense if you are consistent in your fitness regimen and just want a standard calorie intake every day. You will have days where your deficit is smaller and days when it's bigger and days when it may not exist at all...but over the course of a week it should net out if you're doing everything right.
The MFP method is great IMHO for people who are new to fitness...it can be motivating to be able to eat more and if you do it right it teaches you how to fuel that activity. Of course a lot of people substantially over-estimate their calorie burn and if they eat all of those calories back, they pretty much erase their deficits. You have to be very conservative when estimating your output either way...people often start off thinking they have a much higher activity level with TDEE than they really do too due to the somewhat ambiguous nature of the descriptors.0 -
I tried the TDEE-20% and personally I prefer the MFP method. I think if your activity varies greatly from day to day then the MFP way works better. Plus for me I like the extra incentive to exercise.0
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Repeating a lot of what other people said, but I like only eating back the calories that I "earned". I found myself getting lazy once I set my TDEE-20 number, because there wasn't immediate feedback in my calorie allotment. I stopped losing weight. Now I follow the MFP way, but I look at what my weekly average comes out to rather than any particular day. It think that you may only be able to see your average on the app rather than the site but I am not sure. Fridays tend to be the highest due to a bottle of wine :drinker: but I am lower at the beginning of the week to even things out.
If you feel good and are losing weight, I wouldn't mess with it.0 -
Yep. As others have said, MFP works great, and comes out about the same as TDEE minus the 20% or so IF you are using it correctly, meaning set it up accurately and with realistic weight loss goals, and with accurate logging and eating back exercise cals, which it sounds like you are!
I switched to TDEE and it worked great for me - I liked the simplicity of knowing my parameters - eat above BMR, aim for the daily goal, but on birthdays, holidays, special occasions, etc, I know I can be over goal as long as I stay at TDEE and I won't gain. Just gives me more of a feeling of control, having a better grip on my numbers.
It's not for everyone, but works great for me.0 -
It should come out to around the same whether you eat back your exercise calories to do TDEE method.
If it's working I see no reason to change it, unless you just prefer the idea of eating a set amount.0 -
Repeating a lot of what other people said, but I like only eating back the calories that I "earned". I found myself getting lazy once I set my TDEE-20 number, because there wasn't immediate feedback in my calorie allotment. I stopped losing weight. Now I follow the MFP way, but I look at what my weekly average comes out to rather than any particular day. It think that you may only be able to see your average on the app rather than the site but I am not sure. Fridays tend to be the highest due to a bottle of wine :drinker: but I am lower at the beginning of the week to even things out.
If you feel good and are losing weight, I wouldn't mess with it.
I can understand this, but I find the opposite to be true for myself. If I know my exercise calories are already figured in I'm a lot less likely to skip workouts.
So basically, whatever works best for the individual.0 -
I switched to TDEE because I was getting cranky on days I wasn't exercising and was being held to 1250 calories. I was losing fairly rapidly under MFP but at times I felt underfed. I train a lot and keep a fairly regular fitness schedule, so the average out worked well on TDEE. My rate of loss is a bit slower on TDEE but since I'm close to maintenance the timing is good.
I pretty much agree with the above poster that MFP works well for people new to fitness or have a more varied routine and like having it all logged, and TDEE is good for people that are pretty steady and long term at fitness and are better suited with averages.
Both worked fine, though. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!0 -
I'd agree with the if it ain't broke don't fix it crowd. Personally I'm much more successful since switching to TDEE - 20% - but if what you're doing is working for you stick with it!0
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I think it's worth it to look at TDEE - 20% and compare it to what MFP suggests. For example, I calculated my BMR & TDEE with sedentary lifestyle. My BMR is 1596 and my TDEE is 1915 (according to iifym.com). According to MFP it is 2270. My TD - 20% would then be 1532 or 1816. So I set my calorie goal in between the two at 1650, which comes out to about 1.3 lbs/ week. If I had gone with MFPs suggestion I would be eating much less than TDEE-20% which can be unhealthy and limit weightloss. And then because I didn't calculate my TDEE to include any planned exercise, I can eat back the calories if I want.
Maybe I'm totally wrong but I'm hoping that with my new calorie goals I won't be starving. I was at 1400 (and a long time ago I was at 1200.) We'll see if I get any results.0 -
I think it's worth it to look at TDEE - 20% and compare it to what MFP suggests. For example, I calculated my BMR & TDEE with sedentary lifestyle. My BMR is 1596 and my TDEE is 1915 (according to iifym.com). According to MFP it is 2270. My TD - 20% would then be 1532 or 1816. So I set my calorie goal in between the two at 1650, which comes out to about 1.3 lbs/ week. If I had gone with MFPs suggestion I would be eating much less than TDEE-20% which can be unhealthy and limit weightloss. And then because I didn't calculate my TDEE to include any planned exercise, I can eat back the calories if I want.
Maybe I'm totally wrong but I'm hoping that with my new calorie goals I won't be starving. I was at 1400 (and a long time ago I was at 1200.) We'll see if I get any results.
I would reset to "lightly active". The way MFP defines sedentary is EXTREMELY sedentary- almost all sedentary people on MFP should be using "lightly active".
(If you want the numbers to match up. If the new way works for you, I'm not suggesting changing it)0 -
Depends a lot really. I switched to TDEE-20% because I was tired of tracking exercise (especially as a lot of that is walks and I refuse to wear a HRM for every walk!), and it worked for me, but in the end it's very similar.0
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Repeating a lot of what other people said, but I like only eating back the calories that I "earned". I found myself getting lazy once I set my TDEE-20 number, because there wasn't immediate feedback in my calorie allotment. I stopped losing weight. Now I follow the MFP way, but I look at what my weekly average comes out to rather than any particular day. It think that you may only be able to see your average on the app rather than the site but I am not sure. Fridays tend to be the highest due to a bottle of wine :drinker: but I am lower at the beginning of the week to even things out.
If you feel good and are losing weight, I wouldn't mess with it.
I can understand this, but I find the opposite to be true for myself. If I know my exercise calories are already figured in I'm a lot less likely to skip workouts.
So basically, whatever works best for the individual.
Same for me. I much prefer TDEE because I input 3 to 5 hours per week of exercice and then stick to it. One less thing to input in MFP. I find that MFP over-estimate how much I burn anyway.0 -
MFP and TDEE methods are 6 of 1 if you are doing them right and comparing apples to apples. The benefit of TDEE is that you don't have to sit here and try to guestimate your calorie burn to eat back exercise calories...an estimate of your exercise calorie requirements are included already in the TDEE method based on an estimated activity level and number of hours/minutes per week exercised.
But really, the methods work pretty much the same. My MFP net calorie goal to lose 1 Lb per week was 1850...on average I burned around 350 - 400 calories most days with exercise so I was generally grossing between 2100 - 2200 calories per day. My TDEE is right around 2750ish...so my TDEE - 20% is 2200 calories.
6 of 1, half dozen of the other.
TDEE makes sense if you are consistent in your fitness regimen and just want a standard calorie intake every day. You will have days where your deficit is smaller and days when it's bigger and days when it may not exist at all...but over the course of a week it should net out if you're doing everything right.
The MFP method is great IMHO for people who are new to fitness...it can be motivating to be able to eat more and if you do it right it teaches you how to fuel that activity. Of course a lot of people substantially over-estimate their calorie burn and if they eat all of those calories back, they pretty much erase their deficits. You have to be very conservative when estimating your output either way...people often start off thinking they have a much higher activity level with TDEE than they really do too due to the somewhat ambiguous nature of the descriptors.
This is true. I use TDEE because I like having only one number to deal with. I only do -10% now, because I'm close to my goal, but when I was doing -20%, it was pretty much the same amount of calories as MFP's goal plus exercise calories.0 -
The benefit of TDEE -20% for me is having a steady calorie goal every day whether I work out or not because the calories are figured on a weekly average of your activity. Just have to be careful if you skip workouts in a week (and eat all the food .... holidays). Otherwise, I agree that either TDEE -20% or the MFP method with eating back calories can be used. If you're feeling hungry one way, maybe try the other but stick with whatever you pick for at least 6 weeks before you decide if you like it or not.0
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I've been using TDEE-20% for some time now. Works great for me.0
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Bump for future ref0
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I tried the TDEE-20% and personally I prefer the MFP method. I think if your activity varies greatly from day to day then the MFP way works better. Plus for me I like the extra incentive to exercise.
Me too.
But, and I know this post was originally from Jan, if 1500 + too many exercise calories was working and making you happy, than 1700 + more accurate exercise calories might also work. You've got to find the level of calories that will result in you sticking with it and being happy while continuing to lose weight. Adherence is pretty much the most important factor in picking a diet plan. No plan will work if you don't stick with it. Pick one you can stick with.0
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