MFP vs TDEE. what works best for you?

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  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    I like the MFP method. My schedule is hectic and my exercise is non-regular (some weeks are WAY more than others).
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    I prefer to use the MFP method as it has proved succesful for me
  • SuggaD
    SuggaD Posts: 1,369 Member
    edited February 2015
    MFP works best for me. TDEE doesn't work for me at all. It allows me too few calories and doesn't seem suited to my mostly endurance based workouts, i.e., cycling. I'm in maintenance, and what I've been basically doing is during the week, I, at a minimum, eat my BMR calories plus a lot of my exercise calories for the day. On the weekend, its usually hard for me to eat all my cycling calories, so I eat some. And during the week when I go over, sometimes by quite a bit, I don't worry about it as it all seems to even out. No science at all behind what I do, but it works for me.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I've done both and both worked well, but right now I prefer TDEE.

    The reasons why are that I like not associating exercise and what I eat so directly--it was getting so I'd have trouble taking a rest day because my calories were too low. Also, I am often not more hungry on my workout days, but on the following day, so it makes more sense for me to have consistent calories through the week. This was especially true for bigger calorie burns like my weekly long runs or weekend bike rides. I also agree that not having to try to estimate exercise precisely takes some of the stress out of it--I see how I'm doing over a few weeks and then increase or lower the calories.

    It works well because I'm pretty consistent with my exercise over the course of a week.
  • mudmonkeyonwheels
    mudmonkeyonwheels Posts: 426 Member
    I find TDEE doesn't work very well for me. I find that guesstimating my activity level can be really inaccurate for me as some weekends I do a number of 2hr + mountain bike rides that burn 1000+ calories, other weeks I may only do 3-4 30 minute runs. The best method for me is to use MFP, set my activity level as sedentary and then log exercise calories and eat 3/4's of them back. This enables me to compensate for fluctuations in activity level. I think if you are very routined then TDEE works well but MFP may be better for endurance athletes or people with more varied exercise patterns.
  • kcmccormack
    kcmccormack Posts: 71 Member
    mudmonkeyonwheels wrote: »
    I find TDEE doesn't work very well for me. I find that guesstimating my activity level can be really inaccurate for me as some weekends I do a number of 2hr + mountain bike rides that burn 1000+ calories, other weeks I may only do 3-4 30 minute runs. The best method for me is to use MFP, set my activity level as sedentary and then log exercise calories and eat 3/4's of them back. This enables me to compensate for fluctuations in activity level. I think if you are very routined then TDEE works well but MFP may be better for endurance athletes or people with more varied exercise patterns.

    Yea I've realized that after reading everyone's responses. Interesting, I never really thought about it that way, endurance athlete type training vs routined workouts. Totally makes sense
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I have done the MFP method while in deficit, and TDEE in maintenance and surplus. Both worked, as long as you pick something and stick to it. I do prefer the TDEE method though. My exercise is very consistent week to week so this could also be why it works out well for me. I also like having the same calorie goal each day which helps for monitoring/data purposes while bulking.
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