Do you add exercise cals to online tdee number?

Milax19
Milax19 Posts: 15 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Sorry, this may be a silly question but I just wanna know this.

Do you add back the exercise cals for the tdee you get from online? For example iifym tdee calculator takes into account your weight training and cardio and based on that they give you how much to eat to lose weight. Let’s say they give you 1550 cals after taking into account weight training and cardio. Do you have to add back your exercise cals to this number? So 1550+ the exercise cals?

Replies

  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    I usually use TDEE, but adjust it if I go off routine unexpectedly. Generally, in the winter, this means I spent 2 hours shoveling snow or something. I'll run the "exercise" through MFP to see *around* how many calories I should account for and allow myself to have them as a bonus - maybe treat myself to an extra fancy hot chocolate reward or something.
  • CorineJN
    CorineJN Posts: 13 Member
    Nope, I don't factor exercise at all in my allotted calories for the day.
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 2,023 Member
    CorineJN wrote: »
    Nope, I don't factor exercise at all in my allotted calories for the day.

    She was asking about TDEE, which adds exercise to total calories. MFP NEAT does not.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,415 Member
    So - I lost weight by using the method Myfitnesspal suggests. I started at 220, now 140-145 in Maintenance. I like the variability of eating more or less depending on my expended energy. It makes sense to me and it's easy for me to track.

    The TDEE method doesn't make sense to me. Yes I know they theoretically work out to around the same numbers but some days I just don't need to be eating 2300 calories because I've done practically nothing all day. On those days I don't eat that much, I eat closer to 1800. On days I get a lot of exercise I gladly eat 2300 calories or even more. :) It seems to make sense to my internal accounting.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    So - I lost weight by using the method Myfitnesspal suggests. I started at 220, now 140-145 in Maintenance. I like the variability of eating more or less depending on my expended energy. It makes sense to me and it's easy for me to track.

    The TDEE method doesn't make sense to me. Yes I know they theoretically work out to around the same numbers but some days I just don't need to be eating 2300 calories because I've done practically nothing all day. On those days I don't eat that much, I eat closer to 1800. On days I get a lot of exercise I gladly eat 2300 calories or even more. :) It seems to make sense to my internal accounting.

    Different strokes for different folks. Both methods have their pros and cons. I personally like TDEE because I am weirdly hungrier on days I don't exercise than days I do exercise. My hunger triggers mostly comes from boredom vs. my body actually desiring the calories. Exercise disrupts that cycle. A lot of the times I am already struggling to eat at my goal on exercise days while I struggle to stay under it on non-exercise days. So I like having more calories to eat on my off days than with the NEAT+exercise calories method. I just have a bigger deficit on my exercise days and a smaller deficit on my non-exercise days.

    The downside to TDEE for me is that if I exercise less than planned, then I am eating more calories than I should, and if I exercise more than planned, I am eating less. But most of the time I do keep it consistent, and I don't have a fitness tracker and exercise in hard exercises that are hard to quantify the calorie burns. So I think there are more pros than cons for me.

    But whichever way a person decides to do it, it's important that they account for exercise in some way. The only wrong answer is not accounting for exercise/activity at all in calorie calculations.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    So - I lost weight by using the method Myfitnesspal suggests. I started at 220, now 140-145 in Maintenance. I like the variability of eating more or less depending on my expended energy. It makes sense to me and it's easy for me to track.

    The TDEE method doesn't make sense to me. Yes I know they theoretically work out to around the same numbers but some days I just don't need to be eating 2300 calories because I've done practically nothing all day. On those days I don't eat that much, I eat closer to 1800. On days I get a lot of exercise I gladly eat 2300 calories or even more. :) It seems to make sense to my internal accounting.

    Just because you use the TDEE method doesn't mean you have to eat the same amount of calories per day. That is the beauty of it. You have your total intake and can divide it however you see fit. For me I calorie cycle and actually eat less calories on the day I burn the most (cardio days).
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    So - I lost weight by using the method Myfitnesspal suggests. I started at 220, now 140-145 in Maintenance. I like the variability of eating more or less depending on my expended energy. It makes sense to me and it's easy for me to track.

    The TDEE method doesn't make sense to me. Yes I know they theoretically work out to around the same numbers but some days I just don't need to be eating 2300 calories because I've done practically nothing all day. On those days I don't eat that much, I eat closer to 1800. On days I get a lot of exercise I gladly eat 2300 calories or even more. :) It seems to make sense to my internal accounting.

    Just because you use the TDEE method doesn't mean you have to eat the same amount of calories per day. That is the beauty of it. You have your total intake and can divide it however you see fit. For me I calorie cycle and actually eat less calories on the day I burn the most (cardio days).

    ditto - my rest days tend to be my highest calorie days to allow for glycogen recovery/replenishment
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,415 Member
    Oh for Pete's sake. I can't even state my own e
    MikePTY wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    So - I lost weight by using the method Myfitnesspal suggests. I started at 220, now 140-145 in Maintenance. I like the variability of eating more or less depending on my expended energy. It makes sense to me and it's easy for me to track.

    The TDEE method doesn't make sense to me. Yes I know they theoretically work out to around the same numbers but some days I just don't need to be eating 2300 calories because I've done practically nothing all day. On those days I don't eat that much, I eat closer to 1800. On days I get a lot of exercise I gladly eat 2300 calories or even more. :) It seems to make sense to my internal accounting.

    Different strokes for different folks. Both methods have their pros and cons. I personally like TDEE because I am weirdly hungrier on days I don't exercise than days I do exercise. My hunger triggers mostly comes from boredom vs. my body actually desiring the calories. Exercise disrupts that cycle. A lot of the times I am already struggling to eat at my goal on exercise days while I struggle to stay under it on non-exercise days. So I like having more calories to eat on my off days than with the NEAT+exercise calories method. I just have a bigger deficit on my exercise days and a smaller deficit on my non-exercise days.

    The downside to TDEE for me is that if I exercise less than planned, then I am eating more calories than I should, and if I exercise more than planned, I am eating less. But most of the time I do keep it consistent, and I don't have a fitness tracker and exercise in hard exercises that are hard to quantify the calorie burns. So I think there are more pros than cons for me.

    But whichever way a person decides to do it, it's important that they account for exercise in some way. The only wrong answer is not accounting for exercise/activity at all in calorie calculations.

    I get hungrier on non-workout days, too. What is that about? :lol:

    I like tracking exercise cals. It gives me an extra motivation. Plus sometimes I feel like, "Wheeee! I can have extra food if I walk four miles instead of two!"

    I guess for some people even that would be a negative. We all find our path.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    I use TDEE but I allow MFP to run its NEAT system with the exercise calories synced inputted. I do this because I am trying to increase my activity and about 5 months ago I began losing weight too fast. Now that I run them side by side I can keep an eye on it. I have learned not to care how my eating is ends up above or below my MFP daily calorie goal though.

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