Observed TDEE

krawhitham
krawhitham Posts: 831 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I had a MFP friend kindly explain to me how to get my "observed TDEE" after being confused about a slight & consistent gain (most likely water weight) in the month of April.

I went thru a few 28-day cycles, and this is what I got

January 1-28th: TDEE is 2290
February 1-28th: TDEE is 2212
March 1-28th: TDEE is 2261
March 20th-April16th: TDEE is 2274

But, when I do the TDEE for April 3rd - April 30th, it makes no sense since I technically gained ~3-4 lbs, so my TDEE is like 1644?! How do you get observed TDEE if you GAIN weight?

And, how accurate, in your experience, has your Observed TDEE been and how much of it can you really go on?

I know weight loss is not linear, I'm just obsessed with numbers so I like doing the math :wink:

Replies

  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Hi kraw-

    I brought this topic up not to long ago. Not sure if what was said there would be helpful to you or not but let me link to it

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1270543-attempting-to-calculate-my-tdee-math-heavy

    Basically I think what you want to do is calculate a moving average where you take the TDEE value you get for month long blocks day by day (so like Jan 1st to Jan 28th then Jan 2nd to Feb 1st etc etc) plot that out and use a trendline to establish any changes. This will blur out any fluctuations and give you a more stable number I suspect.

    Seems to me like you can be pretty confident your TDEE is about 2250 and that one month was just an aberration due to some water retention. Seems unlikely your TDEE would drop by 1000 calories.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I agree...TDEE doesn't drop that drastically...

    When I calculate mine I do not include the 4lbs gained over vacation or the subsequent loss of those 4lbs in the next 2 weeks..skews the results...
  • krawhitham
    krawhitham Posts: 831 Member
    Thanks guys!! Very helpful :D
  • minizebu
    minizebu Posts: 2,716 Member
    Basically I think what you want to do is calculate a moving average where you take the TDEE value you get for month long blocks day by day (so like Jan 1st to Jan 28th then Jan 2nd to Feb 1st etc etc) plot that out and use a trendline to establish any changes. This will blur out any fluctuations and give you a more stable number I suspect.

    Yes, this is what I do (a moving average). It smooths out the day to day fluctuations.

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