Calculating TDEE and activity level

Thorbjornn

All the TDEE calculators activity level descriptions are pretty much the same. For example Fat 2 Fit:

Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)

I sit at a desk all day but I am in the gym 3-4 days a week, full body workout for about 60 minutes, working up a sweat, plus 30-40 minutes treadmill hill program (walking, I can't run). When the weather is nice, I walk outdoors for about 45 mins. - 1 hour, avg. 3.8-4 mph.

So where do I fit given those 3 activity levels? Do I split the difference between sitting on my butt all day, and my workouts, and use the Lightly Active level? This is something I could never figure out.

cwolfman13

Just pick one that sounds the most reasonable to you and then make adjustments as per your actual results. All of these calculators are great starting points, but that's all they are...nobody has a TDEE of exactly XXXX calories as per one of these calculators.

You're likely to find that you're somewhere between light active and moderate.

Thorbjornn

Thanks, I was kind of leaning towards splitting the difference between light and moderate. That let's me bump up calories by about 200/day, and still maintain a 500 calorie/day deficit. That does sound reasonable... I wanted to get another set of eyes to look at it.