For the nerds in you! TDEE estimation, with graphs :)

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Replies

  • tindy5799
    tindy5799 Posts: 221 Member
    you are fabulous!! THANKS
  • Jettisson
    Jettisson Posts: 24 Member
    Bumpety bump for later!
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
    this is beautiful and in a language i dont (yet) comprehend.
    hopefully the discussion will clear up my uncertainties of what is shown in these very fun graphs and i can learn something

    hey, if not, there are fun graphs, and that makes me happy
  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
    Very nice.

    If you are interested in extracting the data automatically see http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1122752-export-and-analyze-your-own-data-in-excel

    Oh I'll make sure to look into that! Thank you for posting such a tool, I think it's much needed for people like me!:)
  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
    DAT DATA!!!!

    tumblr_ljxlsgbqvT1qct3ne.gif

    Love it!
  • adamgottlob
    adamgottlob Posts: 36 Member
    The data was great (I am a professional geek) but what it was missing for me was some analysis. For example:

    - Is the estimated calories per day in MFP on target?
    - Is the MFP estimation for calories burned in exercise on target?
    - Did how much you eat per day or week change your results? For example, does it make a difference if you eat 8400 calories a week (variable each day) or if you eat 1200 calories each day?
    - What would you recommend to others based on your analysis of what you did and the results you've seen?
  • EDollah
    EDollah Posts: 464 Member
    I think this is my very first BUMP

    I'm a data analysis nut myself.
  • tasharock
    tasharock Posts: 136 Member
    bump
  • Wolfeaj19
    Wolfeaj19 Posts: 8 Member
    New to the boards but I am a data junkie. Accountant by profession.
    Thanks for posting this.
  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
    The data was great (I am a professional geek) but what it was missing for me was some analysis. For example:

    - Is the estimated calories per day in MFP on target?
    - Is the MFP estimation for calories burned in exercise on target?
    - Did how much you eat per day or week change your results? For example, does it make a difference if you eat 8400 calories a week (variable each day) or if you eat 1200 calories each day?
    - What would you recommend to others based on your analysis of what you did and the results you've seen?

    For the first 3 points: Yes that would be wonderful to do, but I don't have such data. The only way to get it would be to:
    - stop exercising completely for weeks
    - eat the exact same thing every day and at maintenance for weeks
    - vary my intake drastically and for weeks at a time
    Since I do not see myself as a guinea pig, and all these things would change my quality of life by quite a bit, I'll leave it to someone else to answer such questions:)

    As for my recommendations - I've put most of them in my original post: Weigh yourself daily, use that data to your advantage and don't freak out about 3 week "plateaus":)
  • The_WoIverine
    The_WoIverine Posts: 367 Member
    Bump
  • beckywilliams1967
    beckywilliams1967 Posts: 58 Member
    Bump thank you!
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    Impressive.
    For anybody who wants to figure out their own TDEE before exercise (that "daily burn") number that MFP uses on your goal page, but doesn't have quite this much dedication or time, you can just add up your daily net calories over whatever time period makes sense to you (bearing in mind that if you're losing weight, your BMR and TDEE before exercise are slowly falling), and add to that 3500 calories times weight lost over that same period (in pounds). Divide the total by the number of days in the period you're looking at, and that's your average TDEE over that period.

    Like the OP, I then go back and use this number in conjunction with my BMR (as calculated by online calculators) to figure out what I think the OP calls the TDEE coefficient, and I call the activity level factor.* I saw that it was between lightly active and active, rather than between sedentary and lightly active as I had been supposing (I had selected sedentary since I have a desk job, but I could see from my rate of weight loss before I did the calculations that that seemed to be an underestimation). I did a mental happy dance (shoot - should have done a physical happy dance and burned some calories) when I realized that with that activity level factor, I'll still be able to have 1850 calories before exercise at maintenance for my dream weight at the midpoint of the BMI healthy range for my height, which also happens to be what I weighed when I started my senior year of high school, after dropping about 10 pounds over the summer. That seems totally do-able.

    I recalculate TDEE before exercise every week for the trailing eight weeks (seems like the right amount of time to take account of female hormone cycles without bringing in data from when I weighed lots more).

    *ETA: Sorry, I left out a step there. You divide your average TDEE before exercise by your average BMR for that same period (I just rough it with a BMR calculation using the midpoint of my weight range over that time) to get the activity level factor.
  • TX_Rhon
    TX_Rhon Posts: 1,549 Member
    This is just so awesome! I love numbers!!! :drinker:

    @Chevy.......how did I know you were gonna be in here, LOL!! :laugh:
  • shopperdisguise
    shopperdisguise Posts: 14 Member
    Bumping, so that I may use later.
  • janer4jc
    janer4jc Posts: 238 Member
    So excited to use this. Thanks so much for sharing.
  • owlandolive
    owlandolive Posts: 10
    Thank you for doing the work on this! This answers all my MFP questions!

    Going to close my forum now.
  • mumblemagic
    mumblemagic Posts: 1,090 Member
    I've posted this question in a thread on its own, but does anyone here know whether there is a way of exporting data to csv or ascii?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1162594-question-for-the-nerds-exporting-data-for-excel
  • SkimFlatWhite68
    SkimFlatWhite68 Posts: 1,254 Member
    Thanks so much, I'm going to look into this later - I love a good spreadsheet!!!
  • ell_v131
    ell_v131 Posts: 349 Member
    I love data but I'm not that advanced, thanks for this!

    I'm a little confused as to how to use this for now, but it may be because it's past midnight and I've been to 3 different airports today and just need rest lol
  • PatheticNoetic
    PatheticNoetic Posts: 905 Member
    I love this post.
  • katzba
    katzba Posts: 19 Member
    wow...impressive!
  • twisted88
    twisted88 Posts: 294 Member
    I love it.
  • greengnome1977
    greengnome1977 Posts: 6 Member
    wow!! that's really cool! very informative :) I'm impressed! thanks!
  • 4daluvof_candice
    4daluvof_candice Posts: 483 Member
    bump
  • 04ward
    04ward Posts: 196 Member
    bump
  • kristarablue2
    kristarablue2 Posts: 386 Member
    bump to try to figure this out later...this is going to take more brain power than I have access to right now.
  • Armagan123
    Armagan123 Posts: 72 Member
    Bump!
  • kelleybean1
    kelleybean1 Posts: 312 Member
    Love it! I'd really like to adapt this for my own use, but need some help. Now for us data idiots--how do you change to inches/pounds. (pretend you're explaining it to a 5 year old!) And what else would I need to change besides starting date, weight and age?
  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
    Love it! I'd really like to adapt this for my own use, but need some help. Now for us data idiots--how do you change to inches/pounds. (pretend you're explaining it to a 5 year old!) And what else would I need to change besides starting date, weight and age?

    To change to pounds you can just copy the formula for BMR in pounds (that's on the right side of the spreadsheet) and paste it in the first cell of the BMR column and then drag the cell down till the end of the column (to replace the old formula that's in kg). You need to change the dates, age, height, daily weigh-ins, calories in, calories from exercise and exercise duration for each day.

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