Need help figuring out TDEE

The first experiment I would suggest when struggling to recover from exercise sessions would be to reduce your training load. (Training load = volume X intensity)

Normally I would drop the intensity rather than the volume but consider reducing both until you are fully recovered. (With the way you are using exercise to counter anxiety and depression same volume but lower intensity makes sense.)

When over-training / over-reaching normally the quicker you address the problem the less intervention is needed. It's that "when in a hole, stop digging" thing!
e.g. Did my longest and hilliest bike ride of the year on Sunday and felt pretty fatigued. Could have ridden on Monday but it would have been a poor ride with aching legs and delaying the recovery so that would have meant Tuesday training was also compromised. Instead took Monday as an active recovery day and felt great on Tuesday and did a quality and enjoyable training session.

Yes it could be you aren't eating enough but until you actually recover you wont really know but a spell at maintenance calories is also worth considering.
What the pros do is periodise their exercise, go hard for a while, recover, go hard again to get to the next level. What is common on here is going hard all the time when your body has the additional stress of trying to lose weight.

You don't say how tall you are, but I can say that with a part time physical job for 1.5-2 hours 5 days a week, plus ~45 minutes of weight lifting 5x/week, and my weekend activities, just over 2000 calories is my CURRENT maintenance (F, 43, 5'7", 149 lbs currently). A deficit of 1768 or under will have me losing between .5-1 lb/week (average ends up being like .8 here lately).

I recover fine on that, but proper nutrition also plays a huge role - a high quality workout shake definitely helps my muscles recover better, and eating better and my routines play huge parts in my ability to sleep well and therefore avoid fatigue.

You may not be eating enough for the amount you are working out, especially depending on how tall you are.

xxzenabxx wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

xxzenabxx wrote: »

Hey everyone! So after a long break from being in a calorie deficit I finally decided to get to it. I’ve been through a lot recently after my dad passed away in November and that really took a toll on me. The issue is I’ve recently started feeling tired and muscle aches and I can’t seem to recover from my workouts and this is only 4 weeks into my deficit. I workout 5-6 days a week of Pilates, yoga, weights and walking 8000-10000 steps a day on top of my work. I want to lose 25/30 lbs. My workouts are NOT intense (somewhere in the middle) and I really enjoy them and the reason I have to workout so often is because I suffer from anxiety and depression. Im currently eating between 1900-2000 calories on average. I’m 28, F, 185 lbs and 34-36 % body fat (yes I’m heavy and muscular which is why I weigh a lot).
Should I increase calories??

Yes, it sounds like you need to increase your calories. When you plug your stats here:

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

and tell it you want to lose a pound a week, what are your calories?

What percentage of the calories you earn from exercise are you eating back?

I just did this and selected ‘very active’ from the activity level and it gave me 2290 calories…!

Plausible. I'm 66, F, mid-120s pounds, mid-20s BF% (probably, rough guess), don't work (retired, sedentary at home outside of intentional exercise), walk less than 5,000 steps on average during this season (often lots less), work out 30-40 minutes most days (moderate intensity), and maintain weight at something over 2200 calories most days. I admit, I'm mysteriously a good li'l ol' calorie burner, but I'm more than twice your age, around 2/3 your weight, less active in both daily life and exercise.

If 2290 seems scary-high, to you, maybe bump your calories up gradually, like add 100, wait a couple of weeks or so, see what happens to energy level, bump up again, etc. (I'm sure you recognize that your menstrual cycles affect the scale in some way, so comparing weight at the same relative point in two or more different cycles would be a better way to evaluate effect on body fat weight, still not perfect.)

In general, I'm in the camp that thinks your symptoms sound like over-exercising for your current fitness level. I hear what you're saying about the need to exercise for other reasons, but maybe consider the intensities and modes of exercise to moderate the effect on your body? Sijomial's idea about periodizing volume is on point, too: That's how accomplished athletes tend to do it.

Exercise load needs to increase gradually, for manageable impact on energy, for healthy recovey, for fitness progress. The variables are duration, frequency, intensity, and exercise mode. In particular, if you're seriously challenging the same muscle groups day after day in a strength sense (even if lifting one day, strength-challenging pilates or yoga the next), recovery will not happen well . . . and recovery is where the magic of improvement happens.