Best device to figure out my actual TDEE ?

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untogether01
untogether01 Posts: 23
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all!
I've been at this for several months, and I've seen little progress. I've done all the BMR/TDEE calculators (based on "In place of a road map") but of course that's an educated guess.. I'm wondering what monitor would be the best way to figure out what I actually burn over a 24 hr period. I don't necessarily need it for exercise (my treadmill gives me calorie info and I feel fairly confident that it's pretty close to the my actual burn, also I don't eat back my exercise calories).

Anyway, I'm always reading all the Fitbit/HRM posts, but I'm still unsure what would work best for me...

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  • untogether01
    untogether01 Posts: 23
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  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    This article from yesterday's New York Times suggests that motion-activated energy monitors are good for some activities but not others: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/how-accurate-are-fitness-monitors/?ref=health

    None of them measures your RMR, though, which is the biggest part of TDEE (unless you're riding in the Tour de France). Measuring that is a lot more involved. Some of the methods commonly used are discussed in references 3-8 to this article: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/78/6/1141.full

    If you're keeping an accurate food log, though, you can calculate TDEE indirectly: simply add up all the calories you consumed in a given period (say a month), and add 3500 for each pound lost during that period (or subtract 3500 for each pound gained, if you put on weight).
  • djeffreys10
    djeffreys10 Posts: 2,312 Member
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    Best device to accurately determine your tdee is to log every calorie as accurately as possible (weighing and measureing, not estimating). After four weeks, add up your total calorie consumption. If you lost weight, multiply the pounds lost by 3500 and add that to the total to determine your tdee. If you gained weight, multiply the pounds lost by 3500 and subtract that from the total to determine you tdee.

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