tdee??!?

It really does seem to work - i lost 32 in 2 months, then it stopped as MFP dropped my cals to 1700. For a month, nothing really lost. I went and found my BMR & TDEE and upped my cals to 20% less than TDEE, but always aim to eat over my BMR and started weight loss again.

Basically, dropping too low in cals make your body go into storage mode over burning. Up the intake and your body will leave the storage and go back into burning mode.

Just dont log your workouts or if you do, log them as 1cal burns.

I'm confused. Shouldn't we be logging everything we eat and drink plus our workouts?

Just dont log your workouts or if you do, log them as 1cal burns.

I'm confused. Shouldn't we be logging everything we eat and drink plus our workouts?

Depends on how you are using this site. If you let MFP calculate your target calories, then yes, log your workouts and eat back some or all of your exercise calories.

If you do your own calculations on a reduction of calories from TDEE then do not log your workouts, or if you do, don't eat back exercise calories.

Depends on how you are using this site. If you let MFP calculate your target calories, then yes, log your workouts and eat back some or all of your exercise calories.
If you do your own calculations on a reduction of calories from TDEE then do not log your workouts, or if you do, don't eat back exercise calories.

Ahhhh. Gotcha. Thanks!

It also depends on levels of accuracy. I (usually) log every last little calorie in and out BUT I log food carefully (to the gram) and I am fairly sure I know a decent level of calories burned/minute for my most common exercises. I set my MFP activity level as sedentary since I'm not including exercise in that calorie calculation.

Of course being compulsive isn't for most people, and I'm aware that plenty of folks lose weight without logging anything at all.

All in all, your mileage literally varies..

You wake up in the morning and brush your teeth, eat breakfast or not, get dressed, go to work, do your work thing, come home, do 500 jumping jacks, feed the fam, brush your teeth, go to bed.

You just burned 2400 calories.
Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure was 2400.

Eating anything less than this will help you lose weight.

BMR, the amount of baseline calories needed for vital organ function, is the absolute lowest amount of cals you should consume per day...if you stay in bed...

THANK YOU...for explaining that!

I'm still very confused. I'm sorry lol ... My stats are 5"5 I weigh 137 and my goal is 118 ... I am currently on the third day of 30 day shred ... I walk about 20 min about 4-5 times a week ... I also incorporate zumba about 3 times a week .... Someone please tell me how.many cal to eat to lose the rest of.my.weight ... I am having a hard time.figuring this.out! Thanks

If you want to log exercise (and not include it in your MFP calories when you adjust your settings here) you need an accurate way to measure (heart monitor with a chest strap). MFP's exercise calories always seem inflated.

MFP pal Anewlucia started the group EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS ....I copied and pasted this information below from one of her threads that may helpful.

You can get your bmr and tdee number from here :http://www.scoobyworkshop.com/calculators

What is BMR? Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed all day!

What is TDEE? TDEE is the common abbreviation for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is a metric to calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day. This is quite similar to BMR; in fact, you need your BMR to calculate your TDEE; but your TDEE accounts for your average daily activity as well to give a figure truer to your specific situation. Basically, the TDEE calculation relies on categorizing your daily activity into one of the metrics' predetermined groupings:

Sedentary - desk job and little to no exercise Lightly Active - light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk Moderately Active - moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk (****SIDE NOTE - even if you have a desk job most people fit right here when you workout 3-5 days a week) Very Active - hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk Extremely Active - hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training Once you have determined where you fit in on the TDEE activity rate scale, this activity rate is used to weight your BMR giving you a more accurate assessment of how many calories you really need throughout the course of the day.

Here is a link to a site that you plug in your information and it will provide your BMR and TDEE along with your Cut value (again, if you workout 3-5 times a week select "Moderate" and the "Select Your Goal" option you will select is "Lose Fat - 15% caloric reduction.



So now, you should have your BMR, TDEE, and Cut Value (TDEE - 15%)

Here is a video that talks about this in great detail that hopefully will clear up any questions you may have: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi9xjIRvbY&feature=g-all-u

If TDEE is figured out correctly, then exercise cals don't *have* to be eaten back because, technically, TDEE figures them in. The underlying factor here, is that most people underestimate their activity levels, (for fear of being told to eat "too much") and then proceed to under eat. If a person is burning 1000 cals/day in exercise, then that should be figured into their TDEE, meaning their TDEE should be AT LEAST 1000 cals more than their BMR. If this is not the case then they are undercutting themselves on the cals. So a person w/a BMR of 1300, that puts up 1000 cal burns should have come up w/a TDEE calculation of 2400 or more. So any situation where a person is not getting those calculations, they should be eating back some of those exercise cals.

So if you come up w/BMR=1300, TDEE=1800, you need to either A)eat back some cals, or recalculate your TDEE to include the *actual* burns that you're getting.

So to cut using *true* TDEE figures, you'd just eat a flat TDEE (-15%), as long as TDEE is correct. It should be fine. But if you are using MFP's calculations, or are not getting a TDEE that includes the amount you burn each day *plus* BMR, you need to eat back some exercise cals.

This is soemthing I am just starting to learn now. Time for a paradigm shift!!!