In place of a road map!

are you saying that on days I do not workout I need to only eat 1843? or can I eat 2380 every day and not eat back exercise calories on days I workout?

Excellent point! what do you do on days you don't work out when it appears the Activity level calories account for exercise since you don't have to eat them back.

I apologize to anyone who has already read this on another post. But it seems like this is a good place to get some feed back.
I am 32
5'5
135 lbs
20% bf (caliper test)
I have lost a total of 4lbs in a little less than a year. However, I have decreased my body fat from 26% to 20% in that time period.

On average my daily calorie burn worked out to 387 calories a day. I would eat the majority of those calories back every day. So, my average calorie intake was 1537 (this is a 3 month average for calories consumed and burned).

In that 3 month period, there was no change in my body, no inches, no lbs…nothing.

So, I decided to get my Resting Metabolic Rate tested. From what I have read RMR and BMR are similar.
The test was the conducted at rest after fasting for 12 hours, no exercise for 24 hr period prior. 15 min - test using The Cardiocoach".

I went into the test assuming I was not eating enough calories… but the test came back with less than positive results.

My RMR was 1019 and that put me into a maintenance calorie range (to include daily activities and exercise) at 1200-1400. They said my weight loss calories would need to be at 1200 (because they wouldn’t recommend eating under 1200). I asked the trainer who performed the test if I should eat back my calories after exercise and he looked at me like I was insane!! He basically said that “that is where you were getting it wrong, it is not net calories for someone with your metabolism, you need to create a deficit and if my maintenance level is 1400 calories a day, the best I could do was eat 1200 and exercise without eating the calories back to create that deficit.

Now, in all honesty I don’t care what the scale says anymore, but I am trying to get my bf% lower… and to lower my bf% I know I need to be at a deficit! I am basically confused and frustrated and I have been trying to eat 1200 for a week or so without much difficulty. But on days I really work hard at the gym and I see a net calorie of 500 calories it freaks me out! The last thing I want to do is make my metabolism slower than it already is!!

So assuming the test is correct and my RMR really is 1019 and my goal is to lose body fat while maintaining my lean muscle mass, do I eat 1200 calories and not eat back exercise calories. Or should I eat back a portion of those calories to keep my net calories above 1019?

Sorry for this lengthy post!

I am 40, 5ft 4. 152lbs and want to be around 135lbs. Body fat is 28.6

I have inputted everything into the calculator. My bmr is 1429.

I work out 3-4 times per week but am not consistent so would prefer to use sedentary figure of 1626 calories and eat back any exercise calories. That way if for some reason I can't workout I won't go over my calories

I know this 1626 figure already includes a deficit but according to other sites my tdee now is 1707. So this is not really much of a deficit at all. Is it just giving me this high figure because I haven't got that much to lose?

The other thing I can't grasp is say I use the mod active figure of 2100. This is an increase of 3,318 calories over the sedentary level. So my 4 workouts would need to burn an average of 829 cals each to allow for the extra food eaten. That's pretty high. Is it best to use the light active figures in this case?

You want to subtract the 20%, not add to your TDEE. That would give you 1633. If you eat at TDEE, that is maintenance.

I am 40, 5ft 4. 152lbs and want to be around 135lbs. Body fat is 28.6

I have inputted everything into the calculator. My bmr is 1429.

I work out 3-4 times per week but am not consistent so would prefer to use sedentary figure of 1626 calories and eat back any exercise calories. That way if for some reason I can't workout I won't go over my calories

I know this 1626 figure already includes a deficit but according to other sites my tdee now is 1707. So this is not really much of a deficit at all. Is it just giving me this high figure because I haven't got that much to lose?

The other thing I can't grasp is say I use the mod active figure of 2100. This is an increase of 3,318 calories over the sedentary level. So my 4 workouts would need to burn an average of 829 cals each to allow for the extra food eaten. That's pretty high. Is it best to use the light active figures in this case?

More accurate body comp BMR (Katch) is 1440. Close enough.

NET'ing at Sedentary 1626 and feeding workouts is just fine and reasonable if they are iffy. Good to squeeze anything in you can.

Your current TDEE if truly sedentary would indeed be 1715, if you were truly sedentary. So while that appears to be a mere 100 cal deficit, you are really burning more than that daily. And indeed, the reason it's so close is because you are so close to goal. Less to lose the less fast it should be.

BTW, you increase the deficit over that estimated figure, by creating more daily activity that you are not feeding - park farther out, stairs, walk during break/lunch, ect. Deficit comes from daily activity that doesn't need to be fed. Exercise gets fed so your body can improve. Why else exercise?

And your math on difference between activity level with exercise and sedentary was right on.

This is a simple fail safe method of protecting BMR and feeding your workout.
You could also tweak MFP to set goal slightly above current BMR, and eat back all those exercise calories.
Set activity level to Lightly Active.
Set goal loss to 1lb weekly.
MFP should set daily net goal to 1444.
Right above current BMR.
MFP will lower goal as weight is lost.
When about 5lbs away from goal weight, change goal to 1/2 lb weekly, and goal will still be set above then current BMR.

Thanks for the reply. I have set Mfp to lightly active and 1lbs and it has given me a total of 1320 :-(