Having trouble gauging my TDEE Activity Levels and Carb Cycling

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi there!

At the beginning of the quarantine I was pretty solid with my diet, but it didn’t feel sustainable. It was a typical bodybuilding style diet with meals 6x a day. From there I switched to Carb Cycling, which I enjoy as it offers me a bit of flexibility if I let my high carb days fall on the weekend. Not to mention, it just seems more sustainable long-term.

My current issue is having trouble gauging my TDEE levels when using the TDEE calculator. Although I may be weight training 3-4x a week with some form of conditioning 2-3x a week my job is incredibly sedentary to the point where I may not move in the course of a 10 hour day.

I’m currently using “Light Activity Level” under the guise that I’m not burning additional calories through steps during the day. Current plan has me at 2,345 calories, which I plan to maintain for a recomp through the holidays until I figure out if I want to gain weight or cut. Much of this decision is dependent on how safe I feel it is to compete in sports where I’m restricted to weight classes, and maintaining at 170-175 gives me the flexibility to bump up or down fairly easily.

In a nutshell, for TDEE calculations what are your guidelines for activity levels?

2

We don’t have any guidelines for activity levels and use TDEE calculators to ballpark intake. From there, looking at what your objective results are should help you dial it in. So, what has your weight been doing for the past month?

3

Unfortunately the past month is not the best gauge. When I was going through the previous dieting stages April - July I was averaging about 2300-2600 Cals with 1.25g protein/lb bodyweight. I was also performing a rather high intensity full body program 5x a week with short rests and LISS 7 days a week and got to a decent point where I was gaining roughly 1/2 lb LBM a month while losing fat.

The best thing for me to do may just be to stick around that same calorie/macro intake and see how I respond

4

I’m not sure that I believe you were gaining 1/2 lb of LBM /month and losing fat at the same time.

That said, if you set your calories to ~ 2400 and track how you do, that seems reasonable.