Help understanding MFP calorie goal for body recomposition: eat net calorie goal or not

JamesWorsnop
JamesWorsnop Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi,

I’m currently trying to do body recomposition and I’m using calorie tracking via MFP. I am trying to go from 85KG to around 82 KG while losing fat and gaining muscle.

Based on my stats (85.4kg, 35, 188cm) my TDEE was calculated at around 2700. so I put in a calorie goal of 2200 into MFP to give a good calorie deficit of around 20%

I’m focusing on protein etc but when I do exercise MFP is telling me to eat more.

Eg I have eaten 2500 calories today yet due to workouts I still have 600 left to eat. Since this would mean my daily intake would be 3100 calories should I actually be eating to reach that 2200 net goal in MFP or just to have 2200 regardless of exercise?

Thanks

Thanks

Replies

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,945 Member
    edited July 2023
    You probably aren't going to be able to recomp successfully. Your BMI says that's not even overweight, and it's harder to recomp while lean. Your 500 deficit is also likely too high. See the new video below from Jeremy Ethier.

    Other TDEE calcs average in your estimated weekly workouts to produce a daily average TDEE estimate. MFP just asks for your regular day to day activity, and you can add calories for whatever workouts you do as you do them.

    That 600 estimate you have may be inflated.

    Typically, people enter conservative calorie estimates for their workouts, and eat back anywhere from 0% to 50% to 100% of that depending on their current intake and overall goals.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuRv8gRfvb8
  • catbissell
    catbissell Posts: 3 Member
    From what I've read, if you're using a TDEE calculator rather than using mfp's algorithm, y don't eat back your calories... So just use mfp to log the food and aim for 2200.
  • juliebeck72
    juliebeck72 Posts: 1 Member
    Shoot for your 2200 cal goal with high protein. Don’t put your workouts in. I don’t think your deficit is too much either. But test out what feels good and adjust. You will know when your starving everyday you need to up the cals a bit. The overweight stuff is BS if you have muscles. It’s not a one size fits all weight scale.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,303 Member
    Start at 2,200 daily and review results in a month. Your accuracy with counting and tracking will have alot to do with how "2,200" calories affects you.

    Recomping isn't a guaranteed thing and most fail at it as there are several factors that must be in place to be succesful. At your stats you may want to focus on muscle gain instead of recomp, you're just not a good candidate for it at your weight and height.

    Plenty of protein and a proven weight training program with compound exercises and you'll probably transform nicely. You may need to up the calories a bit though.

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