Eat back exercise calories or eat at TDEE -20%

This is a confusing situation for sure. I do not eat back my excersise calories. I eat 1900 a day, burn 400-500 calories and end up netting 1400-1500 a day. I'm currently on my first round of P90X and on the fat shredder diet. I need 2400 calories to survive, so I have quite the deficit right now!

I do not log my excersise into MFP anymore as it screws up my daily goals.

Depends on whether you want to follow the MFP numbers or do something else. Personally, I follow the MFP numbers.

If you're burning that much every day, your BMR is very low if your TDEE is only 1900. You may be cheating yourself on your activity level.

Through using a bodybugg, I've found that calculators overestimate my TDEE. I have a non-sedentary job and work out 6-7 days a week (Usually 2-3 lifting, 2 short HIIT, and others just steady state cardio). According to fat2fitradio.com my TDEE should be

Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1992
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2246

In actuality, according to my bodybugg, my TDEE is ~2100


And I believe my bodybugg numbers, because my deficit based on my food log and bodybugg is damn near bang on what I lose.

Hi Mary,

This question has been asked on this website more times than you can imagine.

No matter who you ask, half will say "eat your exercise calories", and the other half will argue not to.

I feel the best advice at this point is to experiment for two weeks on, and two weeks off. What makes your question complicated is that everyone has a different metabolic rate, especially when you factor in "non-exercise activity thermogenesis" (NEAT), for instance. The other challenge is that our weight fluctuates each day depending on how much water we take in or how much sodium and caffeine we ingest. Believe it or not, even going #2 can take pounds off your daily reading.

So even if you choose to eat into 500 of your exercise calories for two weeks and it doesn't work out for your particular body composition and metabolic rate, the most you're going to gain is one pound in a week (500/day x 7 days). Not a bad price to pay for figuring out your own metabolism. And who knows, you may even pick the proper eating method for your body type and end up losing a pound after the 7 days.

Again, be careful to not be led or mislead by others, as it is more helpful if you learn how your own body works.

Good luck!
Steve

I'm confused on this.

I have my calorie goal at 1550. According to several calculators my TDEE is around ~1933. If I calculate TDEE less 20% for fat loss, the amount is ~1545.

If I'm burning an extra 500-800 calories a day with exercise, MFP says my net calories is usually below 1100...while my actual food intake is around 1500-1600.

So should I always aim to eat 1545-1550 regardless of my exercise? Or should I be eating back my exercise calories? I'm so confused!!!

If I use only Fitness Frog TDEE calculators, my TDEE is:
lightly active (1-3x wk) 2149
moderate (3-5x wk) 2422

(I normally work out hard about 4 days a week and just stay active the rest of the time.)

This calculator is higher than another online calculator I've used which showed my TDEE at 1933. Either way, I've only been eating in the 1500-1600 range hoping for weight loss. In the past 2 months I've only lost 2 pounds and that has been recently when I started cutting back on white carbs.

I'm just worried that if I eat too much I'll gain weight and if I eat too little I'll hit another plateau.

Quite often it's the other way around in that eating a little more will accelerate your weightloss.

Knowing your TDEE is at least 2100, and thus eating any less than that will cause weightloss, try eating at a 15% deficit to that (normally I'd say 20 but it looks like you don't have that much to lose), so 1780 cals a day, give or take 50. If you try that for a few weeks (read; not days - be patient) and finding nothing happens, drop 50 cals and try for a few more weeks.