TDEE or IIFYM?

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natajane
natajane Posts: 295 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello!

I'm trying to figure out where to start calorie wise, can i have a hand from you guys who've succesfully lost weight?

I have 100lbs+ to lose. I've decided that I'm going to eat a meditteranean type diet, which is how i enjoy eating anyway. But i am going to weigh everything and cook from scratch as much as possible.

I'm going to be solid through the working week when i'm distracted, and allow myself a meal of my choice on a sunday. I think this will work best for me, as i usually fall down when i feel too restricted.

I'm sedentary, and if i'm honest thats not going to change right now. I want to fix my food firstly, i don't want to overwhelm myself and quit.

I'm trying to set my calorie level. I know about TDEE and IIFYM. But which is best?

IIFYM is suggesting i eat 1810 cals a day to aggressively lose weight whilst not moving much. TDEE is saying i need to eat 1200 cals to lose.

Thats quite some difference! What do i do - set 1200 as my daily goal but allow myself up to 1800? Dunno!

I'd be happy to be really strict for say a month, rest a week at maintenance, then another month of strict etc.

Any advice welcome!

Replies

  • natajane
    natajane Posts: 295 Member
    edited May 2020
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    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    TDEE is just your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (basically your maintenance calories) - it isn't a way of eating. Where are you getting this 1200 calories that is allegedly from "TDEE"?

    Hey - thanks for your reply. I used these web links -

    https://tdeecalculator.net

    https://www.iifym.com/
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited May 2020
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    natajane wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    TDEE is just your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (basically your maintenance calories) - it isn't a way of eating. Where are you getting this 1200 calories that is allegedly from "TDEE"?

    Hey - thanks for your reply. I used this web link - https://tdeecalculator.net

    So that site takes a percentage from your TDEE to determine a calorie goal. Knowing your TDEE (maintenance calories) is good information to have, but 1200 is not your maintenance calories. 1800 sounds more reasonable as a weight loss goal, without knowing your gender, age, height, weight and goal weight.

    All you need to lose weight is a calorie deficit. Why not just do the guided set-up here on MFP and go with the number it gives you. And remember, MFP doesn't count intentional exercise, so when you do exercise you get to eat those calories back on top of your daily calorie goal.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited May 2020
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    So, I went and played with the TDEE site. Are you sure you entered all your stats correctly?

    This is what mine looked like, which is about right. That 2527 calories are what I need to maintain my current weight. Which means if I eat anything under 2527, I should lose. I shoot for about 2000 calories per day. Slower weight loss, but I'm never starving and can fit a little chocolate or ice cream in my day.

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  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    As for IIFYM, that is basically what I do. What I will say about it - it takes practice! You won't hit your macros perfectly right out of the gate. As long as you stay within your calorie limit for the day, you're good. Then you can slowly tweak your daily meals to get closer to your macro targets.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    TDEE just stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It's not really a way of eating, it is simply a method of calculation. There are two methods used for calculating calorie requirements...TDEE and NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). MFP uses the NEAT method where exercise is NOT included in your activity level and you log it after the fact to get additional calories to account for that activity. TDEE calculators include exercise in your activity level, so there are no adjustments when you exercise.

    The IIFYM calculator is also a TDEE calculator. IIFYM is just a concept that says, "hey...can eat X?"...If It Fits Your Macros. It was born out of the bodybuilding scene where you typically see very strict "Bro Diets" of plain chicken, rice, and brocccoli as a staple and the IIFYM concept allowed for more flexible dieting withing the context of their macros.

    The website itself isn't really IIFYM...it's just capitalizing on the concept and generically spits out the same macro ratio for everyone where in reality, macro needs vary by individual as they relate to performance, satiety, body composition, etc.

    I'm wondering if you put different information into each calculator...the numbers might come out different, but they generally shouldn't be vastly different if you're putting in the same and correct information as well as the same desired rate of loss. With 100 Lbs to lose, you can definitely eat more than 1200 calories which is the bottom floor calorie wise for a female and would leave you know where to go.
  • richiechowns
    richiechowns Posts: 155 Member
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    I've used the above Tdee calculator link and it gives me a maintenance of 2559 cals based on being 152lbs, 5 foot 11, 40yrs old and around 17%BF. Then comes the macros...

    It was my understanding that you can still gain muscle mass in a recomp with 0.8xLBM for Protein. I'm vegan and so I get around 125g protein daily, my fat % is usually busted and my carbs a bit under. Does this matter? I've just adjusted my targets to 60,20,20 (carbs,fat, protein).
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited June 2020
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    There's better TDEE sites than that one which is very basic.
    My choice would be https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ as it uses several different formulae instead of just one and also allows you to average them out. Do make sure you are entering your stats and goals properly - any calculator relies on data inputs being accurate.

    MyFitnessPal uses a different method for accounting for exercise and that suits some people better - a variable daily goal in line with exercise. Others prefer a same every day calorie goal which you get from TDEE calculators. Both work if done properly.

    IIFYM is an eating philosophy and not just one web site - in fact a lot of the IIFYM website methodology conflicts with the concept of flexible dieting with its fixed macro targets which is restrictive instead of flexible.
  • richiechowns
    richiechowns Posts: 155 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    There's better TDEE sites than that one which is very basic.
    My choice would be https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ as it uses several different formulae instead of just one and also allows you to average them out. Do make sure you are entering your stats and goals properly - any calculator relies on data inputs being accurate.

    MyFitnessPal uses a different method for accounting for exercise and that suits some people better - a variable daily goal in line with exercise. Others prefer a same every day calorie goal which you get from TDEE calculators. Both work if done properly.

    IIFYM is an eating philosophy and not just one web site - in fact a lot of the IIFYM website methodology conflicts with the concept of flexible dieting with its fixed macro targets which is restrictive instead of flexible.

    Thanks,

    I used the above and it came out pretty much the same as both the previous one and scooby, so I think it is about right for TDEE - I was using the NEAT formula but then noticed I was averaging very close to TDEE anyway over the week to week trends, so figured I set my cals at 2500 and then continue to train and see if the recomp works over time.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    natajane wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    TDEE is just your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (basically your maintenance calories) - it isn't a way of eating. Where are you getting this 1200 calories that is allegedly from "TDEE"?

    Hey - thanks for your reply. I used these web links -

    https://tdeecalculator.net

    https://www.iifym.com/

    So as others have said, TDEE and IIFYM methods aren't actually different and should result in the same cals, and neither is defined by those websites.

    TDEE method just means calculating your average daily TDEE and taking a cut from there. It seems to start with a reasonable 500 cut, and even if sedentary assuming your maintenance cals are 1700 with 100 lbs to lose seems really off to me. You might want to check your inputs.

    IIFYM the website is a site I didn't like back when it was possible to use it just as a calculator, since it misrepresents how macro counting works with the set macros and making it into more of a named diet (vs it being a form of flexible dieting), and now it seems like you can't use it without signing up somehow, so I can't run numbers and compare the two, but if you got different results there were different inputs somehow -- one common one is if it cuts a percentage vs. the cals for a particular # of lbs.

    For example, both could estimate your maintenance at 2200. If you tell one you want to lose 2 lbs per week, you get 1200. If the other cuts 20%, then you get 2200-440, or 1760.

    My personal recommendation would be to use MFP. MFP calculates your cals without exercise (which you seem to be saying you aren't interested in adding as a regular thing now), but you can do IIFYM with it -- just set the macros you want -- and if you use it right it should be based on your TDEE by day. And bonus, if you do exercise on some days you can add that in, and seeing that you get more cals can sometimes be an incentive to increase activity (which is one of the healthiest things possible).

    Note: many people assume they are sedentary and are not -- when I started I wasn't exercising regularly but I walked a lot in daily life so lost much faster than MFP predicted at the numbers it gave me, since I wasn't really sedentary as it defines it. However, if you really are, there's a good chance that MFP will give you 1200 with that much to lose. I had around 75-80 to lose when I started MFP (was 200, wanted to be 120-125), and it told me that even at 1200 I wouldn't lose 2 lbs/week (it was wrong, I lost more than that until I adjusted my settings). You might prefer a slower loss rate, but you might want to try it -- both are fine. I actually found 1200 + exercise cals an okay goal for a while when I had lots to lose. (It helped that I did start exercising regularly.)

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