Which TDEE calculator is best?
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Sumiblue
Posts: 1,597 Member
I know many of you SL women don't count calories. Maybe because you have been doing it for a while and you now know what works for you. I just started SL a few weeks ago and I'm still working on perfecting form so my loads are low. Currently OHP-35lbs, squats-70lbs, deadlift-100 lbs. bench-50 lbs, rows-50lbs. I do a little cardio to warm up and some accessory exercises. I want to eat to maximize my workouts and lose fat. I'm confused about what my TDEE is (I want to eat TDEE-20%). I've looked at several calculators and the results they give are really different. One says I should eat around 1300 Cal and the other says more like 1600. I am 45, 133lbs. I am a stay at home mom taking care of a 3 yr old and I'm doing SL 3x/week. I know others have asked about calorie counting and such so I'm sorry if this question is a repeat but I didn't see much about TDEE calculators.
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Well, I did another search right here on Myfitnesspal and saw someone did ask this question and even sited the same two TDEE calculators-Scooby and IIFYM. They give me a difference of 300 calories between the two of them for TDEE. I could meet in the middle and try that but I wonder what has worked for SL women, specifically.0
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Just because your a stay at home mom doesn't mean you do nothing all day. I used both, scooby and iifym and I used a bodymedia fit. BMF said I burn on average of 2800 a day. I am a SAHM mostly, working 2 hours a day 4 days a week. Only lift 3 times a week. 5'6", 36 yrs old and I am maintaining at 173 for 3 mths eating the 2800(average). So I would say whatever calculator you use bump up the activity by at least 1 notch. If you would put in my numbers into scooby it at the highest activity level to get me the 2800 that I found to be my TDEE by trial. Hope that helps.0
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Oh, I know being a SAHM is work, believe me. It's not as physically demanding as when I was working as a decorative artist, on my feet for 6-7 hrs/day, climbing ladders, lifting heavy stuff and hand painting walls with 3 inch brushes, but it is tiring in its own way. I, too, lift 3x/wk. IIFYM gives me a TDEE of 1654 and Scooby says its 2027. Thanks for your input. Maybe I should get some sort of fit media....0
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You can also just take the average of the two, use it as your goal for 3-4 weeks and see what happens, then adjust up or down accordingly, and repeat. I'm trying to figure out my "caloric sweet spot" at the moment and this is my plan. (Beginning stages though, so really an untested theory.)0
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Good idea, thanks!0
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@ Sumiblue -- You may want to give yourself more than 3-4 weeks, depending on how long you've been doing 5x5. My scale was ALL over the place the first month due to water retention (and hopefully muscle growth!). Probably best to let that settle down before you reach any conclusions about your calorie intake, you know?0
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Thanks, Crabada. I'm not really stressing about what the scale tells me. I'm more concerned about hitting the right macro ratios to make sure I am feeding my body enough to lift heavy. I mean, I do want to lose fat as I think my BF is pretty high. But now when I see the scale numbers go up or stay the same I'm like,whatever, it's muscle :-) I've lost almost 2 inches over all so I'm not worried.0
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I've checked both and Scooby usually gives me a few hundred more calories. You can take an average of the two and play around with it, adding or subtracting 100 calories after a few weeks depending. Make sure to account for your activity level correctly. You don't want to short yourself then subtract on top of it. That said, TDEE-20% might be too aggressive with 5x5. When you progress through the program, your workouts get hard and you don't want to be running on empty.0
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I was using IIFYM which gave me an allotted calories of 1775 (sedentary, 1-3 workouts per week) for a while, but kept going over a bit, so I decided to "change" to scooby's, which is around 1880. I'm also a bit more active (usually at the gym daily) than 1-3 per week, so I don't see that number as a do not go over this number or else!! kind of thing. I've been seeing a dietitian who was pretty happy with me eating around 2000 cal/day at my activity level. I've just now started to see the scale drop consistently (and I started Stronglifts in, say June-ish?) at about 1, 1.5 lbs/week.
I obviously weigh a bit more than you, so not sure how comparable it is, but it also means I have a bit more to lose than you.0 -
Also, yeah, some days if I'm still painfully hungry after a busy day, I'll find some healthy snacks to supplement what I've eaten, which will put me over my goal for that day.0
