decent TDEE estimate?

mynameisaaronn

I'm 20 year's old, 6ft tall, male and weighing 247lbs at the moment.

As BMR I've taken 2,300 calories as a general amount from all the calculators I've used.

for calories/energy used in the day, I cycle 6 miles total a day for work, which I'm guessing for my weight burns roughly 400 calories a day, then I work 8 hour shifts in a factory, constantly lifting loads, twisting bending down which I'm guessing i could be burning upwards of 150 calories an hour.

So in total I'm taking my TDEE as 2,300 + 400 + 1200 = 3,900

Is this a decent guess? then any other activity such as walking etc. I'm not counting

I just feel as though the count of 3900 is too high as a guess. any advice/input?

SusanMFindlay

Find a way to measure your daily steps. A fitness tracker does this wonderfully, but is potentially more money than you want to spend. Even a pedometer or step counting app on your phone would allow calculation of an approximate TDEE (to use as a starting point) based on your stats and step count.

FWIW, 3900 calories doesn't sound excessively high for a male of your size with a job involving a significant amount of manual labour. So, you could just use that as a starting point then adjust based on actual calories consumed and actual weight loss. Realistically, you may have to do that using any sort of calculator. They all work based on averages.

4legsRbetterthan2

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

So, you could just use that as a starting point then adjust based on actual calories consumed and actual weight loss. Realistically, you may have to do that using any sort of calculator. They all work based on averages.

This is my thought too. Your cycling sounds a little high to me but I honestly am not a cyclist, so Im not sure what that should be off the top of my head. Your job will probably be pretty hard for any type of tracker to accurately log, calories burned lifting is difficult. I would say just put in your info and set yourself to very active and see what results you end up with in 4-6 weeks.

SusanMFindlay

4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

So, you could just use that as a starting point then adjust based on actual calories consumed and actual weight loss. Realistically, you may have to do that using any sort of calculator. They all work based on averages.

This is my thought too. Your cycling sounds a little high to me but I honestly am not a cyclist, so Im not sure what that should be off the top of my head. Your job will probably be pretty hard for any type of tracker to accurately log, calories burned lifting is difficult. I would say just put in your info and set yourself to very active and see what results you end up with in 4-6 weeks.

I threw his stats into a calculator here: http://www.bicycling.com/training/calorie-counter It suggested somewhere between 350 cals and 450 cals for a man of his size cycling half an hour at 10-14 miles per hour. (350 for 10-12 mph; 450 for 12-14 mph) So, the estimate isn't a bad starting point.

The calorie burns for large men tend to sound crazy to the rest of us. I compare their numbers to my husbands' to get a sense for how reasonable they are or aren't. I can only dream of burning as many calories as my husband can.