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BMR and TDEE
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Madisonbertram
Posts: 1 Member
Hi! Ive heard a lot about BMR and TDEE. I just figured mine out, can someone help me figure out a plan? I don't really know what I should be doing with this info or what it means. 😬
SW: 233
CW: 218
GW: 150-160
BMR: 1,736
TDEE: 2,690
Thanks!!
SW: 233
CW: 218
GW: 150-160
BMR: 1,736
TDEE: 2,690
Thanks!!
0
Replies
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How tall are you0
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Is there some reason why you don't just use this site's setup system? Technically, if you eat between BMR and TDEE, you should lose weight. That's *if* those numbers you posted are correct.
Where did you get those numbers? Myfitnesspal uses a somewhat different system to calculate weight-loss calories and Myfitnesspal treats exercise a little differently than regular TDEE calulators.
Here: https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
In short, eat between those numbers (BMR/TDEE) log food, do that for a month and see how close you are. In theory an intake of 3500 total calories below TDEE over any period of time would be equivalent to a pound of weight loss, but you have to run the experiment. So, for instance, "One pound loss per week (the recommendation of the Setup Tool,)" would be a 500 calorie per day calorie deficit below your TDEE.
500 X 7 (days) = 3500.
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Madisonbertram wrote: »Hi! Ive heard a lot about BMR and TDEE. I just figured mine out, can someone help me figure out a plan? I don't really know what I should be doing with this info or what it means. 😬
SW: 233
CW: 218
GW: 150-160
BMR: 1,736
TDEE: 2,690
Thanks!!
Your BMR is just the theoretical calories required for you to exist. Your TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure...it is you theoretical maintenance level of calories for your current stats. When you consume fewer calories than you require to maintain weight, you lose weight. A 500 calorie daily deficit from your TDEE equates to roughly 1 Lb per week weight loss provided those calorie requirements are accurate and your logging is accurate.0 -
I don't find MFP's TDEE to be accurate. It tells me I should only be eating about 1800 calories for maintenance but I need 2000+. People vary significantly in TDEE depending on their individual characteristics. The best way to find your TDEE is to start with 2000 (which is still way less than what the average American eats...the average American eats 3600 calories a day) and then adjust depending on if you're losing weight or not.0
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siberiantarragon wrote: »I don't find MFP's TDEE to be accurate. It tells me I should only be eating about 1800 calories for maintenance but I need 2000+. People vary significantly in TDEE depending on their individual characteristics. The best way to find your TDEE is to start with 2000 (which is still way less than what the average American eats...the average American eats 3600 calories a day) and then adjust depending on if you're losing weight or not.
Myfitnesspal calculates a different number than TDEE..."Maintenance" to Myfitnesspal is not the same as a TDEE calculator. Read the article I linked above.
With that said, she said she figured her TDEE - which you're not going to find on this site, so she is using numbers from somewhere else. A lot of people recommend https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ to calculate.
I also find Myfitnesspal sets my Maintenance calories a few hundred calories low. It's okay by me! Most of us have to run the full experiment of logging and weighing ourselves to find our own numbers.2 -
siberiantarragon wrote: »I don't find MFP's TDEE to be accurate. It tells me I should only be eating about 1800 calories for maintenance but I need 2000+. People vary significantly in TDEE depending on their individual characteristics. The best way to find your TDEE is to start with 2000 (which is still way less than what the average American eats...the average American eats 3600 calories a day) and then adjust depending on if you're losing weight or not.
MFP gives you your NEAT calories when set up as designed, not TDEE. Also, a lot of people underestimate their NEAT and select sedentary even though they aren't really sedentary. I have a desk job and even without deliberate exercise I'm lightly active. TDEE calculations include all of your activity...general (NEAT) as well as exercise (EAT) to include active recreation. MFP also uses different multipliers than a TDEE calculator so moderately active on MFP is different than moderately active on a TDEE calculator in that MFP multipliers are going to assume that moderately active is a good amount of very low level activity like being on your feet a lot and moving in a less deliberate manner (like service staff or retail, etc) while a TDEE multiplier is going to assume moderately active is an ok amount of low level activity along with a decent amount deliberate physical activity.0 -
I wish there was a way on MFP to set your TDEE rather that the couple of lifestyle choices. Maybe there is and I’m not aware of it?0
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tomcustombuilder wrote: »I wish there was a way on MFP to set your TDEE rather that the couple of lifestyle choices. Maybe there is and I’m not aware of it?
There isn't. The entire concept is based around your calorie needs for your day to day humdrum with exercise being additional activity to be accounted for after the fact when you log it. I started here when the original developer, Mike Lee still owned and operated the app and website. The reason for the NEAT method was that in his own personal experience he tended to have the best intentions when it came to exercise but often fell short so he wanted to develop something he could use to lose weight without any exercise and where exercise was a motivating factor for additional calories and food, but not necessary to lose weight. He basically built this in his basement while preparing for his wedding and then later joined with his brother to launch the company and make the application available to the public.
During my initial weight loss in 2012 I eventually switched to a TDEE calculator once my exercise became more regular and habitual and routine. The NEAT method works well for those who aren't in the practice of a regular routine or who are otherwise erratic in their exercise but I think TDEE is easier if you are in a regular routine. The best TDEE site I found and used to customize my calorie goals is sailrabbit as it has a wide variety of activity level settings as well as BMR methodologies that can be used to find an average of various TDEE calculations for the selected activity level.
https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
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tomcustombuilder wrote: »I wish there was a way on MFP to set your TDEE rather that the couple of lifestyle choices. Maybe there is and I’m not aware of it?
You can set your calorie goal manually to any value you like, then either log and eat back exercise; or set a number that reflects your exercise average and not log those calories separately (or not eat them back). You don't have to accept the goal that guided setup gives you. (The only consequence I know of is that the dumb "in 5 weeks" thing will be even dumber, and that's trivial IMO. I don't even close my diary day anymore, because I often eat after midnight anyway.)
If you like using TDEE rather than NEAT+ exercise, premium MFP has a setting to ignore exercise calories. You can still do the same thing in free MFP in various ways, pretty easily, too, just not explicitly.
If I set my MFP activity level accurately, I get a calorie goal that's 25-30% too low (as compared to 8-ish years logging experience and 7 years maintaining a healthy weight). Therefore, I started setting my calorie goal manually part way through weight loss. It works fine.
My steps-based activity is right around what others suggest is the expected border between sedentary/not very active and lightly active, depending on season (2000-some to 6000-some steps, generally). I don't sync my good brand/model tracker - one that estimates well for others who've posted here - because it's as crazy-low for all-day calorie burn (after several years of use) as MFP is for base (pre-exercise calories). That's rare, but obviously it can happen.
I exercise, estimate as carefully as intelligent estimation allows, and eat those calories back, too. My weight behaves pretty much as I'd expect, based on my experiential data.
TL:DR: Set your calorie goal manually, don't sync your tracker unless it estimates well for you. Works fine.
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Thanks Ann will do0
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tomcustombuilder wrote: »I wish there was a way on MFP to set your TDEE rather that the couple of lifestyle choices. Maybe there is and I’m not aware of it?
The Wolfman's and CM's responses are the correct ones.
In terms of what you ask directly, you COULD setup a custom exercise that adjusts MFP's value to the one you believe to be your correct TDEE.
This is the same mechanism that is used by apps and trackers to replace MFP's NEAT value with their estimated TDEE.
*Of course, If you were to do that, you would explicitly avoid logging any exercise you've already included in your TDEE so as to not double count.0
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