Tdee

[StrongLikeMamma]

If my tdee is 2000 - do I just need to eat 1500 to be in a calorie deficit?

I have been going to the gym for over a year and eating high protein… whole foods…. But just lose and regain the same 3lbs every month. It’s infuriating.

So am going to have to resort to the tedious calorie counting.

Just checking I’m calculating this correctly…

Yes, if your TDEE is 2000, then 1500 is a 500 cal deficit per day. That should mean a loss of around a pound a week, assuming you have calculated it correctly and are correctly tracking calories consumed.

Thanks. Is that a reasonable amount below the tdee? Should i eat less?

You’ll have gained muscle from the gym though, which weighs more than fat, worth factoring that in to what’s showing on the scales. 500 calories in deficit every day is the usual recommendation to see a pound or more in fat loss per week, just remember you’ll also be gaining lean muscle mass from the gym. Worth using other measurements as well like a tape measure, how your clothes are fitting etc

Can I ask what the best way to work out tree is?

I know own there are lots of sites but it's a bit confusing.

@PreciousTatas The sites tend to use the same formulas, so I would use several different sites and take an average of what they work out. It’s worth erring on the side of caution when estimating your activity level too.

Good grief

fat does not weigh more than muscle

for the same weight fat looks more because it’s less dense

and if you go to the gym and gain muscle that means you are eating enough to enable your body to make muscle and that’s therefore not deficit

when you use a calculator don’t allow for your exercise - use that as a baseline tdee

why? Because people overestimate their activity level , and because your body attempts to reduce your background activity level if it’s in deficit - you may decide you CBA to run the vacuum over the floor or pop out to visit aunt Mary or chat to your mum on the phone - sneaky ways your body reduces activity level

I didn’t say fat weighs more than muscle?

I'm currently using an adaptive TDEE app. You log your daily morning weight, your previous days calories and over several weeks it will give you a more personalised TDEE

@gallivantsaregood please could you tell me the name of the app? Thank you.

This one

@gallivantsaregood thank you