TDEE?

Fragilebird24

What exactly is it and how do I figure mine out? Has anyone had better success eating according to their TDEE vs. MFP calorie recommendations? Thanks!

yarwell

it's your Total Daily Energy Expenditure and is used by MFP and other calculators to set your calorie goal.

MFP calorie goal = TDEE without exercise that you log minus 500 cals per lb/week you want to lose

or 1200 if the above is less than 1200.

If you set MFP to lose 0.5 lbs / week and eat the extra calories of exercise it's like eating 10-15% less than your TDEE.

MityMax96

I like using this calculator....
http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

it allows you to factor in exercise

fatfudgery

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure; it's the amount of calories your body uses in a 24 hour period. MyFitnessPal's calorie recommendation is already based on an estimation of your TDEE based on your gender, height, weight and age. There are other calculators out there using different formulas that may give you slightly lower or higher estimates, but they're all essentially just that — estimates. To get a more accurate idea of your TDEE, eat a set amount of calories for 3-4 weeks and see what happens to your weight. If you gain weight, your TDEE is lower than the number of calories you ate each day; if you lost weight, your TDEE is higher; and if you stayed the same, you ate right at your TDEE.

FWIW, I used this method to come up with my maintenance calories and have been successfully maintaining my weight for a couple of months now (±5lbs) by netting 2300 calories/day, which is a little lower than what most online TDEE calculators say my maintenance calories should be. So use those calculators as a guide, but remember that the only way to get an accurate number is by trial and error.

Good luck!