Need help with daily calorie goal. So many numbers!

danielleisms
danielleisms Posts: 42 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know there are so many threads about this, as I've just read through many of them. That being said, I am still a little confused when it goes to MFP recommendations vs. going by TDEE/BMR guidelines.

According to the Harris-Benedict Formula my BMR is 1656.
According to the Katch-McArdle Forumla my BMR is 1430.

*Per the Fattofittools.com site.

My TDEE per the site for being lightly active is: 2098
My TDEE per the site for being moderately active is: 2365

I honestly feel I fall somewhere in between these two depending on the week. I live in NYC and some weeks I walk A LOT. I also typically exercise for 45 minutes 3-4x per week, but some weeks 2-3x.

If I stick with "lightly active" and subtract 20% from that goal I end up with 1,678 as my daily calorie goal.

Now, here comes in my question. Is this # taking into account the activity I will be doing during the week, my 2-4 workouts? Which I am guessing means I should not be adding extra exercise calories back in. Correct? Just sticking with my daily 1,678 and making sure to get the workouts in.

If I tell MFP I want to lose 1.5 lbs per week and that I exercise 3x per week I get a daily goal of 1,230 with an assumed 940 exercise calories. If I split those extra exercise calories up by each day of the week it'd be about 1,364 calories per day, a lot less than 1,678.

Now that I've gotten all of that out, can someone please help me get a little better understanding of all of this information and where my goals should be?

I also use a Fitbit which accounts for my activity via MFP.

Thank you!!!

Replies

  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    I think your math is right- the discrepancy is because you're using 2 different methods to arrive at your end goal.

    MFP would have you at 1364 average for 1.5 pounds per week.

    Lightly Active TDEE is 2098, less 750 (for 1.5 pounds per week) would be 1348 so that's pretty close.

    TDEE - 20% does not equal 1.5 pounds per week, but should result in a safe, steady loss.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Just saw your note regarding Fitbit. Have you worn it for a while? Enough to know where you usually end up at the end of the day? If so - then set your calorie burn (day total) based on this and make sure you hit it. That's what I do.

    Currently my total day goal is 2000 calories. I can extrapolate out depending on how many hours are left in the day, knowing my BMR, to know if I'm on course to meet it. If not I move more. My intake goal is 1600-1800 as I'm aiming for ~250/day deficit.

    By the end of the day, as long as I do what I need to do (eat 1600-1800 and burn 2000+) then Fitbit & MFP both agree that I'm green.
  • danielleisms
    danielleisms Posts: 42 Member
    I think your math is right- the discrepancy is because you're using 2 different methods to arrive at your end goal.

    MFP would have you at 1364 average for 1.5 pounds per week.

    Lightly Active TDEE is 2098, less 750 would be 1348 so that's pretty close.

    TDEE - 20% does not equal 1.5 pounds per week, but should result in a safe, steady loss.

    Thanks! When you're saying less the 750, how did you determine that #?

    Do you happen to know what the TDEE/20% ends up being? Is it more like a half pound loss give or take?
  • danielleisms
    danielleisms Posts: 42 Member
    Just saw your note regarding Fitbit. Have you worn it for a while? Enough to know where you usually end up at the end of the day? If so - then set your calorie burn (day total) based on this and make sure you hit it. That's what I do.

    Currently my total day goal is 2000 calories. I can extrapolate out depending on how many hours are left in the day, knowing my BMR, to know if I'm on course to meet it. If not I move more. My intake goal is 1600-1800 as I'm aiming for ~250/day deficit.

    By the end of the day, as long as I do what I need to do (eat 1600-1800 and burn 2000+) then Fitbit & MFP both agree that I'm green.

    Depending on the day per my Fitbit my daily burn fluctuates between 1950 and 2300. So on a less active day I guess if I make my calorie goal 1400, I'd still be in a 500+ deficit.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    1.5 pounds per week goal would require a 750/day deficit. The TDEE - 20% would depend on each individual, as each is different. Going by your TDEE of 2098, 20% of that is 420 so a little under 1 pound per week.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    she's getting the numbers from some basic rule-of-thumb weightloss statistics that say a pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So if you ate 10,000 (1430 per day -- just a random number) calories per week and your FitBit said your burned 13,500 (1930 per day), in theory you'd lose 1 lb of fat in that week. In theory.

    So 250 calorie deficit per day = 0.5 lbs fat loss per week
    500 calorie deficit per day = 1 lb
    750 calorie deficit per day = 1.5 lbs
    1000 calorie deficit per day = 2 lbs
  • danielleisms
    danielleisms Posts: 42 Member
    1.5 pounds per week goal would require a 750/day deficit. The TDEE - 20% would depend on each individual, as each is different. Going by your TDEE of 2098, 20% of that is 420 so a little under 1 pound per week.

    Gotcha. Thanks so much for your help!
  • danielleisms
    danielleisms Posts: 42 Member
    she's getting the numbers from some basic rule-of-thumb weightloss statistics that say a pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So if you ate 10,000 (1430 per day -- just a random number) calories per week and your FitBit said your burned 13,500 (1930 per day), in theory you'd lose 1 lb of fat in that week. In theory.

    So 250 calorie deficit per day = 0.5 lbs fat loss per week
    500 calorie deficit per day = 1 lb
    750 calorie deficit per day = 1.5 lbs
    1000 calorie deficit per day = 2 lbs

    Thanks for the additional info. I was reading lots of threads this last week about BMR/TDEE and I think I just started getting into information overload mode!

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