How often should you lower your calories to your TDEE

This topic contains 3 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by LJoyce 7 years, 1 month ago.

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Musical

9:43 am
31 Mar 17
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Good morning everyone. My TDEE is currently 2140; and I’m on the 5:2 to reap the health benefits & lose weight. As ( hopefully ) my weight slowly reduces, how often then should I lower my TDEE?

For example, say I lose 1lb this week, do I re-enter my new weight on the TDEE calculator, and take that as my new TDEE for feast days for the next week ? And so on ……… ?

Second question !

On feast days is it ok to bank, say, 100 calories, to add them to my TDEE for my Saturday night pizza & garlic bread…. ok, and chocolate !

dykask

11:32 am
31 Mar 17
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I think you should make changes whenever what you are doing isn’t working for you. Another approach is to be just making changes all the time. As for TDEE, I personally disregard it. TDEE is something that you can use for a guide and if it works for you great. I also avoid consuming any calories during my fasts, so I’m not a good rule follower!

Typically I make some change almost every week. Lately I’ve been exploring ways to add more fiber to my diet. So I’ve been playing with different salads and things I can add to food.

So I think a good rule is you don’t have to make changes if your diet is working but when it isn’t it is probably time for a change. In my case I know if I stick in a rut (which I’m prone too) I’ll soon stop making progress.

The reason I don’t worry about TDEE is that personally I find at this point in my life calories are a second order effect. Sure if I were to start consuming 6000 calories a day I would gain weight but it still wouldn’t be anywhere near a pound of fat a day. My body just doesn’t work that way. Likewise sometimes I probably have a 5000 calorie deficit over a week and maybe only lose almost nothing. Calories have impact but not always control

Here is what I consider more impactful short-term
* What I eat (ie NO refined sugar for me … yea my liver doesn’t handle it)
* How often I eat – The 6+ meals a day just keeps me gaining weight.
* How long I don’t eat – fasting … kind of why I’m here
* Intensity of exercise

Important factors but generally longer term
* How much I eat
* How much I exercise

What works for me probably isn’t the same as what works for you. You have to learn how your body responds and take control. I think 5:2 is a great template and it can be very flexible. I hope you are successful with your weight loss.

Amazon

12:21 pm
31 Mar 17
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Hi,

TDEE is only a guide as it is impossible for it to be accurate for everyone and for quite a few the figure is too high.
It is up to you how often you re-calculate as there are no hard and fast rules which is one of the great things about 5:2.

I would stay away from banking calories as it can be a slippery slope.

If you are interested in the health benefits of fasting it would be better to try to improve your eating habits and not indulge in Saturday night binges.

I also don’t think of non fast days as feast days because they are just normal eating days and for me the feasting mindset is also a slippery slope.

The most important thing is finding what works for you,

good luck 🙂

LJoyce

1:54 am
1 Apr 17
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For a long time I felt compelled to eat every calorie I was “entitled” to. This is a risk of adhering too closely to a TDEE and it’s not really a healthy approach to eating.

For a few months I’ve been roughly estimating calorie intake rather than accurately counting them. I have a low TDEE (1400 calories) so initially I had to monitor to learn how to change my diet to fit my body’s low calorie needs. I feel I now have enough confidence to stop monitoring calories completely and beginning this month I am not going to monitor calories in any way as I now have a good knowledge of appropriate serve sizes and I know that if I actually trust my appetite and only eat when I’m hungry I do actually stay under my TDEE most NF days.

I’d suggest you aim for a healthy diet most of the time, then an occasional indulgence is just part of the ebb and flow of normal eating.