Which tdee is right?

bubaluboo

Having just read a discussion on calorie intake, I was amazed at the number of calories people smaller than me said they could eat and lose weight. I always thought my allowance was low but then I haven't been exercising and thought it must be down to that. I had calculated my TDEE on fitness frog and it came up as 1640 (I'm 5' 9.5, 149lb and 45 yrs) so have been eating at 1200-1400 calories to lose at a sensible rate...and I have been with no plateaux in the 2.5 months I've been on MFP. I followed a link to health-calc.com this evening and that calculates my tdee at 2300 because I'm on my feet a lot in the day but even if I was sitting all day it would be 1900. That's such a difference! I don't want to increase calories and start gaining but it would be nice to eat more calorie rich foods like cheese and nuts! Does anyone know which is more accurate?

jwdieter

You can derive a TDEE calculation based on your actual results, if you've been tracking accurately.

22 lbs lost in 10 weeks, for example, indicates your TDEE would be ~2300-2500 (1100/day higher than your 1200-1400 intake).

RoyBeck

I was told take 3 different TDEE readings and average them out.

I get 2700, 2450 and 2550 so I use an average of 2540 or so. Hope this helps?

bubaluboo

Excellent answer! Now why didn't I think of that. I think I'd discount the first week's drop because it will have been water but after that I could get a good idea...and it appeals to my inner nerd

crisbabe81

If you use this website it will give you some info. If I'm looking at your info right you want to be 140lbs for goal?

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

Based on activity level you would need

Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1646
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1887
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2127
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2367
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2607


I definitely think you would be safe eating more. As you increase calories do so slowly. If you add them all in at once you may see a gain or a stall. Add in a hundred a week and you should still lose, just may be slower. Good luck.

ETA: website http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

caly_man

the best data will come from tracking food properly and not some calculator.

once you figure out how to consistently lose 1 lbs per week (as an example) at a given calorie intake, add 500 cals and that will be your maintenance calories.

just stay on top of your exercise routine.

I too was suckered into different calculators thinking, hell yeah, I've love to be able to cut the fat @ 2K per day. We'll it never happened and I wasted months dropping like 1/4 pound per week.

sun_fish

You can derive a TDEE calculation based on your actual results, if you've been tracking accurately.

22 lbs lost in 10 weeks, for example, indicates your TDEE would be ~2300-2500 (1100/day higher than your 1200-1400 intake).

I second this method. Calculators are just estimates, your true TDEE should be based on your results. Ditto on tracking accurately - that should be the first thing you look into is whether you are logging your intake accurately. I suggest getting a food scale and weighing everything.

sarah44254

Your original post sounds like you are confusing TDEE with BMR

TDEE - Total daily energy expenditure = what you burn in a day in your life, including all of your workouts, all of you sitting around time, sleep time, walking from here to there, everything. it is a total. to lose weight, you want to eat less calories than TDEE

BMR - basal metabolic rate = how many calories your body burns doing ONLY the necessary things, such as pumping blood, digesting food, you know, being an organism type things. this does not include any of your movement for the day. a good way to imagine it, is this is how much the hospital feeds you if you were in a coma.

The 2300 is a lot better bet than the 1600 (i really think the 1600 was a BMR calculation)

you seem to be at a really good weight range for your height, have you considered you do not want to lose more weight, but perhaps work on your muscle to look the way you want?

bubaluboo

Thank you all for your responses. I think I've been tracking pretty honestly and accurately. Everything goes in and is weighed where possible. I seem to be losing at about 1lb a week which is in line with a TDEE of 1650ish. I'm just so surprised that being tall, I don't get to eat more than 1200 calories a day to lose a 1lb a week. That also makes me a couch potato and I'm certainly not that. I don't formally exercise but I work near full time and am on my feet most of the day. I have a daughter and am active with her when not at work and only tend to sit down for an hour or so in the evening. So while I know it's a tired old subject, I am still surprised that so many women can lose weight and eat closer to 2000 calories a day. Did I ruin my metabolism already? Is it just my age and the need to regain some muscle? Unfortunately I didn't confuse BMR with TDEE...but apparently, a sedentary lifestyle appears to add very few calories to the BMR (220 to be precise - I mean surely I burn over 220 calories more than a comatose patient) but it's difficult to claim and active lifestyle if that involves working out 3 times a week when I don't.

HeidiCooksSupper

All TDEEs are estimates and there are several different ways to calculate it. What I do is average a bunch of them and subtract 20% and round it to the nearest number divisible by 50. When I stick to the calorie limits I lose weight, QED. Now, the TDEE-20% I use is an average of estimates and then rounded for convenience!?! How fuzzy can you get? But it's working so it must be right. Not very scientific but a good estimate. I adjust it every 10 pounds or so and I expect to need to change up what I'm doing at some point.

That's how it works, it's individualized. You and I don't have bones weighing the same thing. Your sedentary or active activities probably don't match mine. You resting heart rate is different from mine. Your body temperature varies during the day and is different from mine. You are different from me and therefore, even if we were the same gender, age, weight, height, etc., we would have different amounts of daily energy expenditure and it would differ from day to day for each of us.

jwdieter

If the numbers seem wrong, you might just want to re-check your math. What you're saying doesn't line up with your original post (1200-1400 intake) very well. 1650 sounds like a 0.5 lb/week (-250 cal/day) backout. 1900 is more likely for your size and estimated intake.

Also, you're running pretty tight on size/weight so going for 1 lb/week might be a bit much. Couple guesses to think on