Confused about how many calories I really should be eating?
LynzLovesCheese
Posts: 18 Member
I have seen this term TDEE all over the place... finally googled it to find out what it was (sorry LOL) I just started MFP again after a 5 year absence... I updated my info, and they gave me a target calorie range of 1450 calories per day to try and eat in order to lose 1-2 pounds per week, I believe it is set on 1.5 pounds per week. I just calculated my TDEE which was 2144 calories per day for moderate exercise, but then i checked it again and set it to light exercise which was 1902 calories per day. So that tells me if I eat 1902 - 2144 calories per day depending on my exercise intensity I would maintain my current weight right? So then if I am truly eating 1450 calories per day... I should definitely meet my weight loss goals? Am I understanding this right? First week back on I lost 1.2 pounds, then this second week I gained 2 pounds... so I just want to make sure I am understanding how many calories I am supposed to be eating. It would just be fabulous if I could consistently lose weight each week (even a small amount) so I can be at healthy weight range for my body frame... And before getting back with MFP, I still meal planned, exercised, and tracked my calories.. and just kept fluctuating all over the place with my weight - so that is why I wanted to try this again and just be as accurate as possible.
Any help is much appreciated!
Any help is much appreciated!
2
Replies
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MFP is giving you a calorie goal that puts you at the deficit you would need to generate the weight loss goal you chose. This is reliant on you entering your stats correctly and estimating your activity level accurately.
If your TDEE is 1,902, then 1,450 a day will be a deficit for you.
Two weeks isn't very much time and if you're seeing weight gain some weeks, that's totally normal (things like hydration, exercise, and, if you're a person with a period, the time of month can cause temporary water weight gain).
If you have been tracking calories previously and not seeing the results you wanted, it could be that your logging accuracy is an issue. I can't see your diary, but if you open it up we may be able to help.1 -
Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!3 -
DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
My fitbit is synced with MFP, so any exercise I do with that is automatically added to my diary. So then, if i burned an additional 200 calories with my exercise... I should aim to eat that too?0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »MFP is giving you a calorie goal that puts you at the deficit you would need to generate the weight loss goal you chose. This is reliant on you entering your stats correctly and estimating your activity level accurately.
If your TDEE is 1,902, then 1,450 a day will be a deficit for you.
Two weeks isn't very much time and if you're seeing weight gain some weeks, that's totally normal (things like hydration, exercise, and, if you're a person with a period, the time of month can cause temporary water weight gain).
If you have been tracking calories previously and not seeing the results you wanted, it could be that your logging accuracy is an issue. I can't see your diary, but if you open it up we may be able to help.
I am not sure how to open my diary... let me try to fix that....0 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
My fitbit is synced with MFP, so any exercise I do with that is automatically added to my diary. So then, if i burned an additional 200 calories with my exercise... I should aim to eat that too?
Yes, MFP is set up to give you a calorie goal that doesn't include your exercise. When you get calorie adjustments from a synced device, you should eat at least a portion of those. It means you're moving more than MFP would have expected you to when they set your initial goal.3 -
DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.5 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »MFP is giving you a calorie goal that puts you at the deficit you would need to generate the weight loss goal you chose. This is reliant on you entering your stats correctly and estimating your activity level accurately.
If your TDEE is 1,902, then 1,450 a day will be a deficit for you.
Two weeks isn't very much time and if you're seeing weight gain some weeks, that's totally normal (things like hydration, exercise, and, if you're a person with a period, the time of month can cause temporary water weight gain).
If you have been tracking calories previously and not seeing the results you wanted, it could be that your logging accuracy is an issue. I can't see your diary, but if you open it up we may be able to help.
I am not sure how to open my diary... let me try to fix that....
Okay, I opened it up.. it's public now.0 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
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LynzLovesCheese wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »MFP is giving you a calorie goal that puts you at the deficit you would need to generate the weight loss goal you chose. This is reliant on you entering your stats correctly and estimating your activity level accurately.
If your TDEE is 1,902, then 1,450 a day will be a deficit for you.
Two weeks isn't very much time and if you're seeing weight gain some weeks, that's totally normal (things like hydration, exercise, and, if you're a person with a period, the time of month can cause temporary water weight gain).
If you have been tracking calories previously and not seeing the results you wanted, it could be that your logging accuracy is an issue. I can't see your diary, but if you open it up we may be able to help.
I am not sure how to open my diary... let me try to fix that....
Okay, I opened it up.. it's public now.
It looks like most of your logging is in measurements like "pieces" or "slices" or with measuring cups and spoons. Many of us have found this isn't an accurate way to measure intake and it can result in eating more than we think we are. If you do find that you aren't seeing the results you expect, I highly recommend getting a food scale so that you can log in weight. I was in a cycle of losing and gaining the same 5 pounds over and over again until I began weighing food.6 -
WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.0 -
This video shows why a food scale is such a powerful tool for weight loss.
https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk 6 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
My MFP and My Fitbit are never equal
I do not sleep with mine on but as soon as I put it on, it says I have burned like 400 calories.
I have always wondered where that number came from.
MFP says I have exercises 105 cals today and my fitbit says I have burned 1,212 with only 5,197 steps.
I do take in account that its probably messuring other movements as well.1 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
Same! I have my MFP set to maintenance partially because mentally it's easier for me to be under the amount MFP recommendds every day. I still aim for the recommended 1700 or so to lose .5 pounds a week. I hate it when the numbers turn red and it can sometimes trigger me to give up if I have 3 or 4 days 'over' in a row.
Sometimes I feel the fitbit calories are overzealous, so I usually try to eat back around half. Not always--I try to listen to my body.
1 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
My MFP and My Fitbit are never equal
I do not sleep with mine on but as soon as I put it on, it says I have burned like 400 calories.
I have always wondered where that number came from.
MFP says I have exercises 105 cals today and my fitbit says I have burned 1,212 with only 5,197 steps.
I do take in account that its probably messuring other movements as well.
You're burning calories all the time, even when you are sleeping. Fitbit is assuming you are alive in the period before you put on your Fitbit and that is why you have a calorie burn right when you first put it on in the morning.9 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
My MFP and My Fitbit are never equal
I do not sleep with mine on but as soon as I put it on, it says I have burned like 400 calories.
I have always wondered where that number came from.
MFP says I have exercises 105 cals today and my fitbit says I have burned 1,212 with only 5,197 steps.
I do take in account that its probably messuring other movements as well.
Yeah - I have never understood Fitbit's calorie tracker? if that # was accurate, I would weight like 5 pounds? LOL... but yeah, I will go off MFP exercise calories...0 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
My MFP and My Fitbit are never equal
I do not sleep with mine on but as soon as I put it on, it says I have burned like 400 calories.
I have always wondered where that number came from.
MFP says I have exercises 105 cals today and my fitbit says I have burned 1,212 with only 5,197 steps.
I do take in account that its probably messuring other movements as well.
The 400 calories is your BMR up to that point. You burn calories 24/7.
For the 105 calorie adjustment...MFP reads your total burn from Fitbit and estimates that if you remain that active for the rest of the day you will burn 105 calories above maintenance. This will rise and fall as the day goes on based on how much more or less active you are.2 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
My MFP and My Fitbit are never equal
I do not sleep with mine on but as soon as I put it on, it says I have burned like 400 calories.
I have always wondered where that number came from.
MFP says I have exercises 105 cals today and my fitbit says I have burned 1,212 with only 5,197 steps.
I do take in account that its probably messuring other movements as well.
Yeah - I have never understood Fitbit's calorie tracker? if that # was accurate, I would weight like 5 pounds? LOL... but yeah, I will go off MFP exercise calories...
That is a huge mistake in my opinion. If you don't understand how it works, why would you just disregard it? Why not try to understand how it works and make sure you have your devices set up consistently and optimized to give you the best results?
7 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
My MFP and My Fitbit are never equal
I do not sleep with mine on but as soon as I put it on, it says I have burned like 400 calories.
I have always wondered where that number came from.
MFP says I have exercises 105 cals today and my fitbit says I have burned 1,212 with only 5,197 steps.
I do take in account that its probably messuring other movements as well.
Yeah - I have never understood Fitbit's calorie tracker? if that # was accurate, I would weight like 5 pounds? LOL... but yeah, I will go off MFP exercise calories...
My experience: Our Fitbit burns can look like a lot and we may think "That can't be right because there is no way I eat that much!" But the reality for many of us is that (prior to logging accurately), we underestimate what we're eating. Many of us are surrounded by a good quantity of calorie-dense food throughout the day. Before I began logging, I would have told you I was eating a lot less than I actually was. Not because I wasn't being honest, but because I didn't understand how many calories were in some things (and because many of us aren't good at guessing portion sizes). So before you decide the Fitbit is off, I would spend some time getting comfortable with accurate logging. It could be that your calorie burn estimate is more accurate than your own estimate of what you're eating.5 -
WinoGelato wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
My MFP and My Fitbit are never equal
I do not sleep with mine on but as soon as I put it on, it says I have burned like 400 calories.
I have always wondered where that number came from.
MFP says I have exercises 105 cals today and my fitbit says I have burned 1,212 with only 5,197 steps.
I do take in account that its probably messuring other movements as well.
Yeah - I have never understood Fitbit's calorie tracker? if that # was accurate, I would weight like 5 pounds? LOL... but yeah, I will go off MFP exercise calories...
That is a huge mistake in my opinion. If you don't understand how it works, why would you just disregard it? Why not try to understand how it works and make sure you have your devices set up consistently and optimized to give you the best results?
I just meant, I don't go off of fitbit's calorie tracker... I use it to track my steps accordingly (I have a desk job, so I want to make sure I am not sedentary) I just synced my fitbit last week to MVP to help track my exercise, instead of me going in there manually to add in my exercise.0 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
Your FitBit estimated you burned 2452 calories yesterday. The fact that you got a 363 cal adjustment suggests that MFP thinks that your maintenance calories are around 2089 calories. This is consistent with it giving you a goal of 1450 to lose 1-1.5 lbs/week - the actual numbers are skewed because you don't wear your FitBit while sleeping and potentially with the timing of syncing - but none of that seems unusual or unreasonable to me.
Why wouldn't you trust those numbers and eat close to the 1800 calories that MFP provided you? That's 650 cals deficit from the 2450 that FitBit estimates and right in line with your goal?4 -
WinoGelato wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
Your FitBit estimated you burned 2452 calories yesterday. The fact that you got a 363 cal adjustment suggests that MFP thinks that your maintenance calories are around 2089 calories. This is consistent with it giving you a goal of 1450 to lose 1-1.5 lbs/week - the actual numbers are skewed because you don't wear your FitBit while sleeping and potentially with the timing of syncing - but none of that seems unusual or unreasonable to me.
Why wouldn't you trust those numbers and eat close to the 1800 calories that MFP provided you? That's 650 cals deficit from the 2450 that FitBit estimates and right in line with your goal?
I mean that was the reason I posted my original question to begin with... I was confused about how many calories I should aim to eat.... it's not that I don't trust any of these numbers... I just did not know.2 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
Your FitBit estimated you burned 2452 calories yesterday. The fact that you got a 363 cal adjustment suggests that MFP thinks that your maintenance calories are around 2089 calories. This is consistent with it giving you a goal of 1450 to lose 1-1.5 lbs/week - the actual numbers are skewed because you don't wear your FitBit while sleeping and potentially with the timing of syncing - but none of that seems unusual or unreasonable to me.
Why wouldn't you trust those numbers and eat close to the 1800 calories that MFP provided you? That's 650 cals deficit from the 2450 that FitBit estimates and right in line with your goal?
I mean that was the reason I posted my original question to begin with... I was confused about how many calories I should aim to eat.... it's not that I don't trust any of these numbers... I just did not know.
I would say, make it as easy as possible at first and use MFP and Fitbit together the way they're intended to work. Put your stats and goals into MFP, get a calorie goal, and then let the activity adjustments from your Fitbit determine how many calories to add to that goal each day (or how many to subtract, if you have a day that is less active than usual).
Once you're doing that, you can review your actual progress over a few weeks and make any adjustments that you might need to make.
You may find, as some people do, that you need to eat *fewer* of the calories from your activity adjustments. Or you may find, like I and others have, that the MFP goal plus the activity adjustments is actually the perfect number for you.2 -
janejellyroll wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
Your FitBit estimated you burned 2452 calories yesterday. The fact that you got a 363 cal adjustment suggests that MFP thinks that your maintenance calories are around 2089 calories. This is consistent with it giving you a goal of 1450 to lose 1-1.5 lbs/week - the actual numbers are skewed because you don't wear your FitBit while sleeping and potentially with the timing of syncing - but none of that seems unusual or unreasonable to me.
Why wouldn't you trust those numbers and eat close to the 1800 calories that MFP provided you? That's 650 cals deficit from the 2450 that FitBit estimates and right in line with your goal?
I mean that was the reason I posted my original question to begin with... I was confused about how many calories I should aim to eat.... it's not that I don't trust any of these numbers... I just did not know.
I would say, make it as easy as possible at first and use MFP and Fitbit together the way they're intended to work. Put your stats and goals into MFP, get a calorie goal, and then let the activity adjustments from your Fitbit determine how many calories to add to that goal each day (or how many to subtract, if you have a day that is less active than usual).
Once you're doing that, you can review your actual progress over a few weeks and make any adjustments that you might need to make.
You may find, as some people do, that you need to eat *fewer* of the calories from your activity adjustments. Or you may find, like I and others have, that the MFP goal plus the activity adjustments is actually the perfect number for you.
Yes - this. Additionally I would focus on improving the accuracy of tracking your food intake - ideally using a food scale.
Also OP - how many steps do you typically take, and what activity level have you chosen on MFP?
Do you have negative calorie adjustments enabled?1 -
And in addition to the great advice above (trust the gadgets and the integration, be as accurate as possible, evaluate your "accuracy" after 6 to 8 weeks and make adjustments), I have to chime in and heartily recommend that instead of weighing once a week (believing that this will give you a true weigh in figure that should reflect your hard work the previous week, you would be better off to start using a trending weight application or web site to record daily weigh ins and start to better appreciate the difference between daily fluctuation and your long term weight trend!
Since you have a fitbit, entering your weigh in data in your fitbit account would allow you to integrate it automatically with trendweight.com, my own favourite! Happy Scale for iphone and Libra for Android provide similar information.
As an aside, with a TDEE of about 2400-2500 from what I believe I saw above, I would suggest a deficit of no more than 500 Cal a day if you would be considered normal weight or overweight, and no more than 650 Cal a day if you have sufficient fat available to lose that you would be more correctly classified as obese (20% and 25% of TDEE respectively).
While these deficits may SOUND low compared to some of the crazy stuff people attempt, they are actually fairly aggressive and more than sufficient to produce results.2 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
My MFP and My Fitbit are never equal
I do not sleep with mine on but as soon as I put it on, it says I have burned like 400 calories.
I have always wondered where that number came from.
MFP says I have exercises 105 cals today and my fitbit says I have burned 1,212 with only 5,197 steps.
I do take in account that its probably messuring other movements as well.
The two systems will likely never provide you identical numbers - they work off of different algorithms. That said, they know how to talk to each other and make adjustments factoring in the necessary information from each.
Your FitBit is an activity tracker - it measure all of your activity and your total calories burned, including your BMR, your regular activity (the sum of these two is called NEAT) and then your purposeful exercise - all of those add up to an approximation of your TDEE.
Again, it is helpful to understand how the systems work so that you can trust in the adjustments. The exercise adjustment you see on MFP is a "true up" of what MFP thought you would burn, based on the info you provided during set up which does not include an expectation of exercise, and then what FitBit says you actually burned, which includes any activity above and beyond what MFP was expecting. If you enable negative adjustments, and then have an extra sedentary day (in bed sick all day, or on a long road trip and not getting many steps at all) you may see a downward adjustment of your calories in MFP. Often when I wake up in the morning, I have a negative adjustment because I've been asleep - but as the day goes on my adjustment goes from negative to positive as I build my activity.2 -
janejellyroll wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
Your FitBit estimated you burned 2452 calories yesterday. The fact that you got a 363 cal adjustment suggests that MFP thinks that your maintenance calories are around 2089 calories. This is consistent with it giving you a goal of 1450 to lose 1-1.5 lbs/week - the actual numbers are skewed because you don't wear your FitBit while sleeping and potentially with the timing of syncing - but none of that seems unusual or unreasonable to me.
Why wouldn't you trust those numbers and eat close to the 1800 calories that MFP provided you? That's 650 cals deficit from the 2450 that FitBit estimates and right in line with your goal?
I mean that was the reason I posted my original question to begin with... I was confused about how many calories I should aim to eat.... it's not that I don't trust any of these numbers... I just did not know.
I would say, make it as easy as possible at first and use MFP and Fitbit together the way they're intended to work. Put your stats and goals into MFP, get a calorie goal, and then let the activity adjustments from your Fitbit determine how many calories to add to that goal each day (or how many to subtract, if you have a day that is less active than usual).
Once you're doing that, you can review your actual progress over a few weeks and make any adjustments that you might need to make.
You may find, as some people do, that you need to eat *fewer* of the calories from your activity adjustments. Or you may find, like I and others have, that the MFP goal plus the activity adjustments is actually the perfect number for you.
0 -
@janejellyroll @WinoGelato @PAV8888 thank you guys for all the response and helpful advice. Will definitely try the food scale, and pay closer attention to my tracking, and making sure I’m consuming the necessary calories with trial and error these next couple weeks. Just want to do whatever I can to lose this excess weight. I’m looking at at least 15-20 pounds at this point. I’d settle for 10!2
-
WinoGelato wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
Your FitBit estimated you burned 2452 calories yesterday. The fact that you got a 363 cal adjustment suggests that MFP thinks that your maintenance calories are around 2089 calories. This is consistent with it giving you a goal of 1450 to lose 1-1.5 lbs/week - the actual numbers are skewed because you don't wear your FitBit while sleeping and potentially with the timing of syncing - but none of that seems unusual or unreasonable to me.
Why wouldn't you trust those numbers and eat close to the 1800 calories that MFP provided you? That's 650 cals deficit from the 2450 that FitBit estimates and right in line with your goal?
Hear hear
0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
Your FitBit estimated you burned 2452 calories yesterday. The fact that you got a 363 cal adjustment suggests that MFP thinks that your maintenance calories are around 2089 calories. This is consistent with it giving you a goal of 1450 to lose 1-1.5 lbs/week - the actual numbers are skewed because you don't wear your FitBit while sleeping and potentially with the timing of syncing - but none of that seems unusual or unreasonable to me.
Why wouldn't you trust those numbers and eat close to the 1800 calories that MFP provided you? That's 650 cals deficit from the 2450 that FitBit estimates and right in line with your goal?
I mean that was the reason I posted my original question to begin with... I was confused about how many calories I should aim to eat.... it's not that I don't trust any of these numbers... I just did not know.
I would say, make it as easy as possible at first and use MFP and Fitbit together the way they're intended to work. Put your stats and goals into MFP, get a calorie goal, and then let the activity adjustments from your Fitbit determine how many calories to add to that goal each day (or how many to subtract, if you have a day that is less active than usual).
Once you're doing that, you can review your actual progress over a few weeks and make any adjustments that you might need to make.
You may find, as some people do, that you need to eat *fewer* of the calories from your activity adjustments. Or you may find, like I and others have, that the MFP goal plus the activity adjustments is actually the perfect number for you.
Yes - this. Additionally I would focus on improving the accuracy of tracking your food intake - ideally using a food scale.
Also OP - how many steps do you typically take, and what activity level have you chosen on MFP?
Do you have negative calorie adjustments enabled?
I just enabled the negative calorie adjustment feature on my settings.
Typically I am taking anywhere from 9, 000 steps - 11, 000 steps during the M-TH work week... Friday - Sunday, I can sometimes average 11,000 - 14,000 steps each day. And I just do not like to sleep with my fitbit on, it kind of bothers me...0 -
LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »LynzLovesCheese wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »DebLaBounty wrote: »Eat 1450. Enter your exercise activities every day into MFP. Eat back the additional calories you earned from doing that exercise. Some people eat back only 50% to 70% of those calories. You will still maintain a deficit.
I found the TDEE calculations confusing and unnecessary. MFP does the work for you. I met my goal weight doing this. Good luck!
The thing that helped me, knowing my TDEE, was to not freak out if I ate over my MFP calories. Using OP's numbers, 1450 daily calories - if I had a bad day and ate 1700 calories, I would freak out and think I had totally failed. However, knowing maintenance is 1900 calories, I realize I'm still in a deficit just a smaller one.
So, yes @LynzLovesCheese, you are correct. TDEE is maintenance calories. It is, however, just a generic equation and your personal TDEE may be a bit higher or lower. You'll have to log accurately and track to see if it's correct or not. Some experimentation and adjustments may be necessary.
But if OP has a FitBit, the FitBit provides an approximation of TDEE - it will tell you your average Total Calories Burned. I find my FitBit estimate of my TDEE to be more accurate than any generic calculator online, and mine has been accurate in helping me lose weight and maintain it - but I agree the real world results (assuming accurate logging) is the best calculator there is.
What does your FitBit say your total calories burned is @LynzLovesCheese ?
Yesterday my fitbit said I burned 2,452 calories (I do not sleep with my fitbit on FYI) yesterday MFP said I burned 363 calories through my fitbit... and I did go over my calories... I ended up eating 1566 calories yesterday... well not 100% sure if every single thing was tracked accurately... but that is what I put in there.
Your FitBit estimated you burned 2452 calories yesterday. The fact that you got a 363 cal adjustment suggests that MFP thinks that your maintenance calories are around 2089 calories. This is consistent with it giving you a goal of 1450 to lose 1-1.5 lbs/week - the actual numbers are skewed because you don't wear your FitBit while sleeping and potentially with the timing of syncing - but none of that seems unusual or unreasonable to me.
Why wouldn't you trust those numbers and eat close to the 1800 calories that MFP provided you? That's 650 cals deficit from the 2450 that FitBit estimates and right in line with your goal?
I mean that was the reason I posted my original question to begin with... I was confused about how many calories I should aim to eat.... it's not that I don't trust any of these numbers... I just did not know.
I would say, make it as easy as possible at first and use MFP and Fitbit together the way they're intended to work. Put your stats and goals into MFP, get a calorie goal, and then let the activity adjustments from your Fitbit determine how many calories to add to that goal each day (or how many to subtract, if you have a day that is less active than usual).
Once you're doing that, you can review your actual progress over a few weeks and make any adjustments that you might need to make.
You may find, as some people do, that you need to eat *fewer* of the calories from your activity adjustments. Or you may find, like I and others have, that the MFP goal plus the activity adjustments is actually the perfect number for you.
Yes - this. Additionally I would focus on improving the accuracy of tracking your food intake - ideally using a food scale.
Also OP - how many steps do you typically take, and what activity level have you chosen on MFP?
Do you have negative calorie adjustments enabled?
I just enabled the negative calorie adjustment feature on my settings.
Typically I am taking anywhere from 9, 000 steps - 11, 000 steps during the M-TH work week... Friday - Sunday, I can sometimes average 11,000 - 14,000 steps each day. And I just do not like to sleep with my fitbit on, it kind of bothers me...
And my activity level on MFP is light (I do have a desk job, but I do my best to not sit ALL day), and my exercise goal is 4 days per week for 50 minutes... that is set up through my fitbit... and i do a pretty good job reaching that goal each week.0
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