TDEE help?

Options
thesophierose
thesophierose Posts: 754 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay so I workout for an hour 5-6 times a week with the other two being rest days. Now that i am on board with muscle building, I need a little explaining with this.

So I calculated my BMR which was 1212. Which seems reasonable, I did this with my LBM % and what not. Plus my height of 5'4 and my weight of 110.6 lbs. So since I work out this much would I be moderately active even though my job (I work in a bank) is a basic 'desk job' type ordeal?

If so, that would make my TDEE 1880 right? So should I be eating that to maintain and build muscle? with my burned calories?

Replies

  • Ainar
    Ainar Posts: 858 Member
    Options
    Forget about BMR. It's how much calories you burn if you do not do anything at all just rest in bed 24/7. Once you actually move to scratch your nose or something you are exceeding BMR. It's irrelevant in real life unless you are paralyzed completely due to a stroke or something.

    TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is how much cals you burn in a day. Aka your maintenance calories. That also includes exercises calories. To gain muscles you have to be in caloric surplus and to lose weight you have to be in caloric deficit, therefore ate below or above your TDEE. So if you wanna build muscle you have to ate more calories than you burn a day. Somewhere between 10 - 20% above your TDEE.
  • moondawg14
    moondawg14 Posts: 249 Member
    Options
    Okay so I workout for an hour 5-6 times a week with the other two being rest days. Now that i am on board with muscle building, I need a little explaining with this.

    So I calculated my BMR which was 1212. Which seems reasonable, I did this with my LBM % and what not. Plus my height of 5'4 and my weight of 110.6 lbs. So since I work out this much would I be moderately active even though my job (I work in a bank) is a basic 'desk job' type ordeal?

    If so, that would make my TDEE 1880 right? So should I be eating that to maintain and build muscle? with my burned calories?

    It seems you followed the process, and you know your numbers. As the other poster said, in order to actually build muscle MASS, you need to be eating around 2100 calories or so, and lifting heavy things.

    If you just want to build STRENGTH without gaining mass, then you should lift heavy things and eat around 1880 calories.

    If you start lifting heavy, you'll have a small amount of gains no matter what you're eating. Don't freak out, even if that's not what you're shooting for. Just stick with it. You won't end up looking like Ah-nold unless that's really what you're after, and eating and lifting to achieve it.
  • thesophierose
    thesophierose Posts: 754 Member
    Options
    I know gains come along with muscle building, it's why people go through bulks and cuts. So I assume after I get so muscle mass I would do a cut and keep doing a cycle of that? When I start a lifting program I'll try to eat at a surplus once I get into routine.

    Thank you for the tips :)
  • xinit0
    xinit0 Posts: 310 Member
    Options
    Forget about BMR. It's how much calories you burn if you do not do anything at all just rest in bed 24/7. Once you actually move to scratch your nose or something you are exceeding BMR. It's irrelevant in real life unless you are paralyzed completely due to a stroke or something.

    BMR is not unimportant. Plenty of people run into problems because they're netting out substantially below their BMR when trying to lose weight. Think of all the threads here from people with a 1200 calorie intake, plus 600+ daily burns...

Categories