TDEE calculator gives me more calories than MFP!??
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Toshberry25M
Posts: 47 Member
i'm kind of confused... went to TDEEcalculator.net and it said with all my stats i entered that I should be eating a little over 1800 cals to lose a pound a week, and MFP says 1670!?? am i getting ripped off some calories!? lol what to do? and why are they different outcomes?! also italy's my body itself just by being alive burns 1510 a day (BMI) so have I been under eating at 1670 a day!? ... i'm active btw i exercise cardio and strength train 4-6 days a week for over an hour a day.. weigh 158 ' i'm 5"8 ... could anyone with experience help me with some input'? hit another plateau it seems
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Replies
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also *It says *0
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MyFitnessPal is telling you 1670 plus exercise calories, TDEE site is already including your exercise.12
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MFP doesn't include exercise, you're supposed to add it.3
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sooo eat more!? or stay at 1670!?! it's the confusion1
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First off, MFP isn't a TDEE (TOTAL Daily Energy Expenditure) calculator...it's a NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) calculator. With a TDEE calculator you would include exercise activity in your activity level...with a NEAT calculator like MFP, you don't. That is why you log exercise with a NEAT calculator and get additional calories to eat to account for that activity. With a TDEE calculator you would typically get a higher calorie target because you're including exercise up front i the equation.
Secondly, you would have to compare apples to apples rate of loss goals. Most TDEE calculators take a % cut from your TDEE whereas MFP takes a 250/500/750/1000 cut from your NEAT. A % cut from TDEE may or may not correlate to those exact deficits.
Third, any and all of these calculators provide mere estimates that are reasonable for getting started...you don't have a TDEE of exactly whatever one of these calculators spits out...that would be impossible. They're just estimates using population statistics and algorithms. Different calculators use different algorithms and they will spit out different numbers. None of these numbers are gospel...it's up to you to make adjustments as per your real world results.14 -
Toshberry25M wrote: »sooo eat more!? or stay at 1670!?! it's the confusion
Just two different methods to account for your exercise - they would most likely end up in the same place when averaged out over and extended period.
Pick the method you prefer.
If you aren't getting the expected results over many weeks then it's most likely your logging that's off.
A diary open to the public would help and you haven't given any real timeline of what has been happening.
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Toshberry25M wrote: »sooo eat more!? or stay at 1670!?! it's the confusion
MFP is your 1670 plus exercise calories.
TDEE includes exercise calories.4 -
What are your activity level settings in both calculators? The difference is 130 calories, which is pretty small.1
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but it says i burn 1510 just for being alive... so eating just 160 cals over is good!? plus i can burn up to 500 cals a day in exercise so is that good or too low!?1
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Toshberry25M wrote: »but it says i burn 1510 just for being alive... so eating just 160 cals over is good!? plus i can burn up to 500 cals a day in exercise so is that good or too low!?
I burn around 1800 just being alive...I lose weight eating 2300-2500 calories per day at the rate of about 1 Lb per week...you don't cut from BMR, you cut from TDEE or NEAT. My TDEE (maintenance) is around 2800-3000...way more than my BMR.
I think you're doing yourself a disservice and just confusing yourself by looking at multiple calculators because you don't understand the methodologies in place.
TDEE and MFP are basically 6 of 1, half dozen of the other if you're doing it right and comparing apples to apples rate of loss targets...the only difference is where you account for exercise.2 -
well if i eat the 1670 and add exercise am i suppose to eat the cals back!? or just stick with tdee calculator and eat a even 1800 a week and successfully lose a pound a week!? cause sometimes after adding mfp exercise cals it says to eat 400-600cals extra from the exercise that would put me eating over 2000 cals a day, it's confusing and i don't want to stay "stalled with all this!0
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basically i feel i am overeating some days and other days i feel i'm under eating' bits balancing out my weight and i want it to go down obviously... i have it set to lose 1.5 pounds a week and for a couple weeks at a time the scale doesn't budge or goes up and down,for instance 158-1611
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Toshberry25M wrote: »well if i eat the 1670 and add exercise am i suppose to eat the cals back!? or just stick with tdee calculator and eat a even 1800 a week and successfully lose a pound a week!? cause sometimes after adding mfp exercise cals it says to eat 400-600cals extra from the exercise that would put me eating over 2000 cals a day, it's confusing and i don't want to stay "stalled with all this!
what is your activity level set to?1 -
Toshberry25M wrote: »well if i eat the 1670 and add exercise am i suppose to eat the cals back!? or just stick with tdee calculator and eat a even 1800 a week and successfully lose a pound a week!? cause sometimes after adding mfp exercise cals it says to eat 400-600cals extra from the exercise that would put me eating over 2000 cals a day, it's confusing and i don't want to stay "stalled with all this!
Are you reading the replies because your questions have already been answered!
And you still haven't given any detail of your "stall".5 -
moderate.. but like i said 4-6 days a week for over an hr a day sometimes 2 ... cardio and WT so i'm probably more towards 'really active'2
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Toshberry25M wrote: »basically i feel i am overeating some days and other days i feel i'm under eating' bits balancing out my weight and i want it to go down obviously... i have it set to lose 1.5 pounds a week and for a couple weeks at a time the scale doesn't budge or goes up and down,for instance 158-161
That's normal...weight loss isn't a linear line down, it's a trend over time...it looks like this:
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Toshberry25M wrote: »moderate.. but like i said 4-6 days a week for over an hr a day sometimes 2 ... cardio and WT so i'm probably more towards 'really active'
Do you have it set to moderate with MFP as well to account for exercise...if you do, then you wouldn't eat back exercise calories because you'd be double dipping. MFP intends your activity level to by your day to day hum drum without exercise which is why people log and eat back calories...that's why you see no mention of exercise in the MFP activity level setting.
You're only getting a 130 calorie difference between the two calculators which could simply be a % cut from TDEE not equating to exactly 1.5 Lbs or whatever or it could just be the different algorithm used.
Ultimately, your own data should be used to determine adjustments. If I'm not losing at the average rate I intend to over time (not exactly every week) then I know I'm eating too much regardless of what some calculator says. There are a lot of inherent inaccuracies that come with calorie counting...so even if you think you're eating XXXX calories, you may very well be eating YYYY calories simply due to inherent inaccuracies.
Make adjustments as per your real world results, not what a calculator tells you.4 -
Toshberry25M wrote: »moderate.. but like i said 4-6 days a week for over an hr a day sometimes 2 ... cardio and WT so i'm probably more towards 'really active'
On MyFitnessPal your activity setting is absolutely nothing to do with your exercise - which should explain to you why exercise is added separately after the event.
On here activity is just job and lifestyle. Notice no mention of exercise....
On a TDEE site activity and exercise are lumped together into one adjustment.
(If you use the quote functionality people can see what questions you are responding to.)1 -
Toshberry25M wrote: »moderate.. but like i said 4-6 days a week for over an hr a day sometimes 2 ... cardio and WT so i'm probably more towards 'really active'
On MyFitnessPal your activity setting is absolutely nothing to do with your exercise - which should explain to you why exercise is added separately after the event.
On here activity is just job and lifestyle. Notice no mention of exercise....
On a TDEE site activity and exercise are lumped together into one adjustment.
(If you use the quote functionality people can see what questions you are responding to.)
sooooo Eat back the exercise calories they add to my daily log!? or No!? basically asking do i stay at 1670 all week long even tho i exercise a lot !? or eat back those calories that i exercise!?1 -
Toshberry25M wrote: »Toshberry25M wrote: »moderate.. but like i said 4-6 days a week for over an hr a day sometimes 2 ... cardio and WT so i'm probably more towards 'really active'
On MyFitnessPal your activity setting is absolutely nothing to do with your exercise - which should explain to you why exercise is added separately after the event.
On here activity is just job and lifestyle. Notice no mention of exercise....
On a TDEE site activity and exercise are lumped together into one adjustment.
(If you use the quote functionality people can see what questions you are responding to.)
sooooo Eat back the exercise calories they add to my daily log!? or No!? basically asking do i stay at 1670 all week long even tho i exercise a lot !? or eat back those calories that i exercise!?
Choose your tool, understand your tool, enter your details accurately as the chosen tool asks you to.
Use the tool as designed (which on here means logging and eating back reasonable exercise estimates).
Log as best you can.
After at least a month make adjustments based on actual results.
If you have set your activity setting on here to a higher level because you exercise you aren't using the tool as designed.
You used the word moderate - that's not one of the options here. That highlights the confusion you are causing yourself by trying to compare two different methods.
Hammer, screwdriver - two tools but two different methods of use. At the moment you seen to be hammering in a screw!
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