TDEE seems too high... How many calories should I REALLY be eating???

Chanchka
Chanchka Posts: 359 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, so according to my Fitbit Charge HR, my BMR is around 1700 calories and my TDEE is around 3000 calories. I've been eating around 1200-1300 cals/day...

Something doesn't make sense. Here are my stats right now:
Female, 5'5", 226 lbs, little exercise (walking around the neighborhood, cleaning the house, etc), desk job.

When I was not logging what I was eating, I gained weight and I really do not think I was eating over 3000 cals/day!!!! I would say that on a "bad" day I'd eat between 2000-2500 cals. Also, I would think that when eating at such a deficit as I am right now, I'd be losing much faster! I lost 10 lbs this past month -- that's 2.5 lbs/week. I went onto http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator to get some help figuring out how many calories I should be aiming for, and when I select activity level "desk job with little exercise", it says that I should be eating 1674 calories -- but it also estimates that my TDEE would be 2093 cals at that level! When I up my TDEE to 3000 cals, it says I should be eating 2407 calories/day! I'm starting to think that maybe my Fitbit just isn't so accurate!
I'm thinking maybe I should set my daily calorie goal on MFP to 1674 and see what happens.
Any thoughts???
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Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,422 MFP Moderator
    edited July 2016
    Your tdee is around 2450. So a goal of 1600 or 1700 is a good goal.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    At 2.5 lbs a week you are eating at a deficit of about 1250. So 1200-1300 plus 1250 would be 2450-2550 TDEE. A little lower than Fitbit estimates.

    So yeah, 1660-1700 sounds pretty good.
  • Chanchka
    Chanchka Posts: 359 Member
    Wow... so the Fitbit is really that off!?!? So annoying. Thanks both of you!
  • Colorscheme
    Colorscheme Posts: 1,179 Member
    Chanchka wrote: »
    Wow... so the Fitbit is really that off!?!? So annoying. Thanks both of you!

    I think the HR models tend to overestimate, which is why I did not get an HR fitbit. They are only good for steady state cardio. 3000 seems way too high. If I walk 5 miles a day, at 5'7" and 163 lbs, I burn about 2000 calories a day. But that's with purposful exercise, so 10k steps per day and about 30 mins of cardio a day.

  • ashjongfit
    ashjongfit Posts: 147 Member
    I'm 5'4 and 215 and my TDEE is around 2700 cals. MFP puts me at 2100 to stay the same, I often burn 400-600 calories a day working out so it more or less works out to the same. I eat around 1800-2000 daily and I lose 1.3-1.5 ish lbs a week.

    Fitbits never really worked out for me. I use a polar to give me an idea and it seems pretty accurate over all. TDEE freaked me out at first until I noticed it is basically the same thing as using MFP + adding my workouts.
  • fitandfunchar
    fitandfunchar Posts: 12 Member
    I have the same problem! My TDEE is in the 3000s but I weigh 243 lbs. I've been eating as close to 2250 as I can for the past two weeks and I have made no progress..but I also got my period at the same time so I'm going to give it another two weeks to see if it really works. I'm also 5'3.

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,422 MFP Moderator
    sativaandspice wrote: »
    I have the same problem! My TDEE is in the 3000s but I weigh 243 lbs. I've been eating as close to 2250 as I can for the past two weeks and I have made no progress..but I also got my period at the same time so I'm going to give it another two weeks to see if it really works. I'm also 5'3.

    Watch your weight for another 2 weeks. If you dont lose, your actually tdee isnt that high. If you dont see progress cut 20 to 30%.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,139 Member
    edited July 2016
    By evidence of weight loss and logged calories (1300 a day eaten, 30 days, 10lbs of weight lost), TDEE comes to about 2466 a day for this past month.

    Since OP is in the obese category an accelerated 25% deficit off TDEE is assumed to be safe (as opposed to a 20% deficit at a lower fat %).

    So a deficit of about 616 calories a day.

    Making the eating recommendation about 1850 a day to lose a bit more than 1lb a week.

    i.e. the OP should be eating a bit more and losing a bit slower to ensure optimum results :smile:

    Since you use Fitbit.com connect both www.trendweight.com and www.weightgrapher.com to help differentiate between scale weight and underlying weight changes.

    When setting up, Suggest you tell weightgrapher you're maintaining to eliminate annoying suggestions.

    You can always use a spreadsheet to look at the spread between your food logging and your gadget's caloric estimates based on your own results over time.

    Many of my friends use this half baked one I've put together: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VDmqNpLPu7sbQSochUJNXdp2F7AN15AGgkvS3zLw1GU/edit?usp=sharing

    It does not take body composition changes into account.
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    By evidence of weight loss and logged calories (1300 a day eaten, 30 days, 10lbs of weight lost), TDEE comes to about 2466 a day for this past month.

    Since OP is in the obese category an accelerated 25% deficit off TDEE is assumed to be safe (as opposed to a 20% deficit at a lower fat %).

    So a deficit of about 616 calories a day.

    Making the eating recommendation about 1850 a day to lose a bit more than 1lb a week.

    i.e. the OP should be eating a bit more and losing a bit slower to ensure optimum results :smile:

    Since you use Fitbit.com connect both www.trendweight.com and www.weightgrapher.com to help differentiate between scale weight and underlying weight changes.

    When setting up, Suggest you tell weightgrapher you're maintaining to eliminate annoying suggestions.

    You can always use a spreadsheet to look at the spread between your food logging and your gadget's caloric estimates based on your own results over time.

    Many of my friends use this half baked one I've put together: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VDmqNpLPu7sbQSochUJNXdp2F7AN15AGgkvS3zLw1GU/edit?usp=sharing

    It does not take body composition changes into account.

    Either an error with your spreadsheet or my laptop as can't make a copy.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,139 Member
    debrag12 wrote: »
    Either an error with your spreadsheet or my laptop as can't make a copy.

    If you're not logged in with a Google account it only offers you the option to download. I have not tested how the resulting excel or open doc spreadsheet behaves.

    I just remoted to someone else's computer and tried it: it did take a minute to make the copy but I did do it twice.
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    edited July 2016
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    debrag12 wrote: »
    Either an error with your spreadsheet or my laptop as can't make a copy.

    If you're not logged in with a Google account it only offers you the option to download. I have not tested how the resulting excel or open doc spreadsheet behaves.

    I just remoted to someone else's computer and tried it: it did take a minute to make the copy but I did do it twice.

    My laptop then as I am logged into google. Doesn't appear to download in .ods either just excel. Oh well. Downloaded excel to use in open office.

    EDIT the issue is crome, got it saved using firefox
  • fitandfunchar
    fitandfunchar Posts: 12 Member
    psulemon wrote: »
    sativaandspice wrote: »
    I have the same problem! My TDEE is in the 3000s but I weigh 243 lbs. I've been eating as close to 2250 as I can for the past two weeks and I have made no progress..but I also got my period at the same time so I'm going to give it another two weeks to see if it really works. I'm also 5'3.

    Watch your weight for another 2 weeks. If you dont lose, your actually tdee isnt that high. If you dont see progress cut 20 to 30%.

    I used the calculator on health-calc site. It asks you to time every thing you do, which varies a lot for me (and probably most people, but I work 12 hour shifts some days and 5 hours the next). When I set it to sleeping 9 hours and sitting the rest of the day, it says my TDEE is 2822 and my BMR is 2113. Assuming this is accurate, are you suggesting I cut down to 1976-2000 calories instead?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,139 Member
    A 25% cut from 2822 puts you at 2116. If you were to select that as your MFP target and assuming you've already included all your likely exercise in your 2822 calculation you would eat your 2116 and you would NOT add any additional exercise into your logging.

    Then you would re-evaluate in a month. if you have been losing at a rate of between 1lb and 1.5lbs a week I would leave things alone. If you've been losing at a faster rate I would eat a bit more. Slower rate a bit less. Don't forget to re-calculate your TDEE as you lose weight... every 5lbs or so.

    Also don't forget to use a trending weight program. They are very useful especially when dealing with water retention associated with your TOM :smiley:

    weightgrapher.com by itself or, at the same time as using trendweight.com and in conjunction with a free even without a device fitbit.com account.

    happy scale for iphone.

    Cheers.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Hey @PAV8888

    So I've just linked to weightographer, and it must be lack of coffee but I'm not sure what the trend line from 28 days ago is showing me in relation to my actual trendline? 6 month chart

    211qmmjbl62c.jpeg
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Oh I get it, I think, hormonal fluctuations on a 28 day cycle? Hmmmm
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Based on the spreadsheet @PAV8888 provided and my trendweight, I'm actually underestimating by 3.8%. I have Fitbit HR. Then again, it might be because I only have about a week of data and having a lucky week. Still, even if I'm overestimating by up to 10% it would still be acceptable to me. The tracker seems to be doing a good job at estimating my burns. Note that this is based on random walking, as I haven't been able to exercise for a month, so the tracker might be only reasonably accurate for NEAT.

    Thanks for the spreadsheet PAV. It's very handy and I will be utilizing it often. I just wish you could pick kg or pound for the weight because converting each entry to pounds is a bit of a hassle.
  • mochi622
    mochi622 Posts: 15 Member
    Bump : )
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,139 Member
    @amusedmonkey are you looking for Kj and kg or just kg but still using Kcal?

    I'll have a quick look tomorrow but I think that if you just replace every instance of 3500 with 7700 you can then use kg and it will do the trick

    Remember that this estimate ignores body composition changes. This has more of an effect when the scale moves down.

    For example

    If I use up 2lbs of fat and 1lb lean mass in a 3lb drop this represents a deficit of about 7800 Cal not 10500.

    If I gain 3lbs and 2.5lbs is fat and 0.5lbs is lean this represents a surplus of between 10 and 11000 Cal, so 10500 is a closer approximation

    Also the sheet "assumes" your logging is perfect and your activity tracker wrong and expresses the results as a TDEE estimation error.

    It could just as easily assume your tracking is off and express the results as a % of your tracking.

    The truth is probably in between the two :smiley:
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,139 Member
    edited July 2016
    Sued0nim wrote: »
    Oh I get it, I think, hormonal fluctuations on a 28 day cycle? Hmmmm

    Correct, shows the previous 28 superimposed. This is user adjustable to match one's cycle.

    I am half asleep but in your case I would say you are not showing matching water retention in relation to your cycle
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Sued0nim wrote: »
    Oh I get it, I think, hormonal fluctuations on a 28 day cycle? Hmmmm

    Correct, shows the previous 28 superimposed. This is user adjustable to match one's cycle.

    Yeah I noticed, but it would only work if you have a regular cycle ..would be better if you could pinpoint first day of menstruation / ovulation instead

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