I don’t understand the TDEE calculation

[Pinkbakewell]

I put my weight and height into the calculator on the website. Yes I’m classified obese. I’m a size 20-22. Want to lose a stone or two at least. Just being more mindful about what I’m eating generally.

Surely the calories should be less than that? 2516 seems a lot.

At the moment I’ve set my fitness pal to 1800 calories.

Am I doing something wrong?

Maintenance is how much you need to eat to stay the size you are - if you're a bigger person, your maintenance will be higher than a smaller person. 2500 doesn't sound an unusually high amount for someone who wears a size 22.

If you want to lose weight you'll need to eat in a calorie deficit, so if you were to eat 2000 calories you'd lose weight gradually and it should feel quite sustainable. The hard part is that as you get smaller the number of calories you need gets lower.

I’m aiming for 1800 - so I assume I’ll lose weight that way?

Or should I start at 1900 instead?

Yep, eat 2000, then when you have lost a stone or 2 recalculate and the eat at 500 cals less than your new maintenance, and so on.

increasing your activity levels may also give you more calories to play with as your allowance becomes smaller.

Then when you reach your goal weight you slowly reverse diet to start eating at maintenance. I have never managed this bit properly

They suggest dropping 500 calories from your TDEE to lose weight.

900 would give you a margin of error for logging calories

The problem you’re going to face OP, and the reason that the advice is not to drop calories too drastically, is that if you drop massively with the aim of losing quicker all that actually happens is you hit a wall much quicker and end up bingeing or giving up on the diet altogether.

At your size & weight you will lose weight even if all you do is reduce your calories by a few hundred and aim for 10k steps a day. Doing it that way will be slower progress, yes, but you also won’t feel starving hungry, you’ll still be able to fit treats of crisps, chocolate, a takeaway etc into your weekly calories and therefore you’re going to be able to stick at your diet for much longer and it will become a lifestyle change. If you drop too dramatically and have to be super strict with no treats as a result you might last a week or two before you break and binge, the more you deny yourself the more you crave and eventually you give in, everybody does. The best diet is a balanced one.

Ok thanks for the advice. So I’ve set it for 1900 now, with room for a few extra calories here and there.

I will be eating more protein too which I hope will help keep me fuller.

You will lose weight on 1800 but if you want to keep the weight off long term you want it to be sustainable. And that means cutting down gradually.
If you cut calories too fast you'll lose weight but you'll end up in a situation where your maintenance is say, 1500 and to lose weight you need to eat 1000. No one wants to be in that position!

Whilst 'starvation mode' is a bit of a myth (if you starve people enough they will lose weight and can die) the body DOES adapt to a certain extent if calories are very reduced, ie it thinks food is scarce it will try and manage on fewer calories, making weight management really hard.

What you want to do is start on the highest possible calories you can that will still allow you to lose weight.

The reason for this is when you slow down/stop loosing weight, you then can reduce them by a further 100 a day and you can do this 3 or 4 times over the space of several months/a year.

The allows you to sustain your weight loss journey long term and healthily.

Interesting - definitely going to try for 1900 and see how I go.

Yeah 1900, make sure you are gettign plenty of fibre and protein, increase the water & walking, prioritise sleep... good luck!