15% of TDEE vs. MFP limit?????? HELP!

reneealyse
reneealyse Posts: 100
in Health and Weight Loss
I just read a forum post about the calorie limit being too low for some people on MFP and instead to calculate your calorie limit by subtracting 15% of your TDEE. MFP says my calorie limit is 1200. If I do it the other way my limit is 1838.

That's an awful lot of calories to be taking a gamble on so can I get some advice on this please?

Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    If you put a lower weight loss rate into MFP it will give you more calories.

    If 15% off your TDEE (a different philosophy) os 1838 then your TDEE is 2162. If you told MFP 2 lb/week weight loss it took 1000 away and got to 1162 which it rounds up to a 1200 minimum. Does that sound right ?

    Another possibility is that your BMR is say 1400 and you are sedentary (apart from exercise) so MFP thinks your tdee is 1680 from which it subtracted 500 to get to 1180 which again is rounded up to 1200. However, if you record exercise on here your daily calorie goal will increase on the days you exercise.

    Hope that helps. It is confusing to compare methods, MFP uses TDEE on non-exercise days and handles exercise separately - so you can track that and have goals for it. Other sites / methods roll the exercise into TDEE and take a percent of the total average TDEE including the exercise. Hope that helps !
  • cdragon_88
    cdragon_88 Posts: 7
    I found that MFP is definitely too low for me. It calculates my TDEE at 1400 unless I raise it all the way up to max activity factor and even that is about almost 100 cals from my own calculations at . If you want me to help you can give me your age/weight/height/activity factor ( how much do you think you exercise) and I can calculate your TDEE for you. I'm not too familiar with MFP so others can chime in and help you determine your calories. 15-20 % deficit in TDEE is basically a 1-2lbs fat loss every week so I'll calculate it at 20% for you.
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    MFP is assuming you'll be exercising and will eat back you exercise calories. according to your ticker you have quite a bit to lose, so i say go with the 1800. i'm doing ok eating around that much a day
  • LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo
    LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo Posts: 3,634 Member
    MFP only takes into account your NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) when calculating your TDEE unlike the usual wherein it also accounts how many days a week you exercise. Normally this is what other sites classify people when computing TDEE:

    Other Sites
    Sedentary - little to no exercise
    Lightly Active - exercise 1-3 times a week
    Moderately Active - exercise 3-5 times a week
    Very Active - hard exercise 6 times a week
    Extremely Active - hard exercise daily

    So if you apply this calculation, there would be no need to log your workouts nor eat back your exercise calories since your workout is already accounted here. However in MFP it is not the case.

    MFP
    Sedentary - Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    Lightly Active - Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. nurse, salesman)
    Active - Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
    Very Active - Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

    For example you have a deskjob & workout 4 times a week, MFP will still consider you as sedentary & therefore your TDEE will be the same as with sedentary people because exercise isn't included. However when you log exercise then your TDEE will also increase & its why it requires you to eat back some of your exercise calories.
  • reneealyse
    reneealyse Posts: 100
    I found that MFP is definitely too low for me. It calculates my TDEE at 1400 unless I raise it all the way up to max activity factor and even that is about almost 100 cals from my own calculations at . If you want me to help you can give me your age/weight/height/activity factor ( how much do you think you exercise) and I can calculate your TDEE for you. I'm not too familiar with MFP so others can chime in and help you determine your calories. 15-20 % deficit in TDEE is basically a 1-2lbs fat loss every week so I'll calculate it at 20% for you.

    Thank you, so just to clarify the TDEE figure is how many calories I should consume in a day?

    Age: 26
    Weight: 68kg (149.9lbs)
    Height: 165cm (5'4" - 5'5")
    Activity level: Moderately active - I have a desk job but I go to the gym 4-6 times a week for an hour
  • reneealyse
    reneealyse Posts: 100
    MFP only takes into account your NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) when calculating your TDEE unlike the usual wherein it also accounts how many days a week you exercise. Normally this is what other sites classify people when computing TDEE:

    Other Sites
    Sedentary - little to no exercise
    Lightly Active - exercise 1-3 times a week
    Moderately Active - exercise 3-5 times a week
    Very Active - hard exercise 6 times a week
    Extremely Active - hard exercise daily

    So if you apply this calculation, there would be no need to log your workouts nor eat back your exercise calories since your workout is already accounted here. However in MFP it is not the case.

    MFP
    Sedentary - Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
    Lightly Active - Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. nurse, salesman)
    Active - Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
    Very Active - Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

    For example you have a deskjob & workout 4 times a week, MFP will still consider you as sedentary & therefore your TDEE will be the same as with sedentary people because exercise isn't included. However when you log exercise then your TDEE will also increase & its why it requires you to eat back some of your exercise calories.

    Thank you that makes complete sense. So I definitely should be trying to eat back my exercise calories?
  • cdragon_88
    cdragon_88 Posts: 7
    On my calculations your amount of calories that you need to eat per day is: 1548.56 through 1638. The 1638 is if you believe you do workout pretty darn good. 1548.56 if you believe that you would like a better restriction on your calories. TDEE multiplier for 1548.56 at 1.3 and 1638 at 1.375. Notice 1.3 and 1.375 is not too big a difference but eating about a 100 calories more is pretty darn big. For me its the difference between a beer after a day of hard work or none at all ;)
  • reneealyse
    reneealyse Posts: 100
    On my calculations your amount of calories that you need to eat per day is: 1548.56 through 1638. The 1638 is if you believe you do workout pretty darn good. 1548.56 if you believe that you would like a better restriction on your calories. TDEE multiplier for 1548.56 at 1.3 and 1638 at 1.375. Notice 1.3 and 1.375 is not too big a difference but eating about a 100 calories more is pretty darn big. For me its the difference between a beer after a day of hard work or none at all ;)

    Thanks for this!
  • cdragon_88
    cdragon_88 Posts: 7
    No problem.

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