am i eating too few calories?

chloeealicee
chloeealicee Posts: 204 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I eat between 1300-1650 calories a day and i've been working out all my numbers and i've figured out that my BMR is around 1300.
But for example today i have eaten 1400 calories but also burnt 200 calories running, 80 cycling and around 600 at work ,i added that onto my BMR so that tells me that i've burnt atleast 2100 calories today? i think

Sorry for sounding dumb, it's just all this BMR and TDEE i find very confusing. My goal is to just maintain my weight. Thank you.

Replies

  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    I eat between 1300-1650 calories a day and i've been working out all my numbers and i've figured out that my BMR is around 1300.
    But for example today i have eaten 1400 calories but also burnt 200 calories running, 80 cycling and around 600 at work ,i added that onto my BMR so that tells me that i've burnt atleast 2100 calories today? i think

    Sorry for sounding dumb, it's just all this BMR and TDEE i find very confusing. My goal is to just maintain my weight. Thank you.

    BMR = basal metabolic rate. This is if you stayed in bed all day.

    BMR + Activity level (ie: sedentary, lightly active) + exercise = TDEE

    TDEE - total daily energy expenditure = maintenance

    So starting with BMR .....just adding a workout is not enough calories. I assume you got out of bed, brushed your teeth, walked around a fair amount....you need these calories too (for maintenance).
  • martinel2099
    martinel2099 Posts: 899 Member
    Use fitness pal's estimates for calorie burn sparingly, being a guy trying to lose weight myself I generally cut what it gives me in half. If your exercise routine per week is consistent maybe you should consider not recording the exercise and just bump up your calorie intake to include exercise. If you notice a consistent trend going up or down in weight you can adjust your calorie allowance accordingly.

    Not a dumb question at all, this is a confusion topic.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    If you were set at sedentary (less than around 4000 steps - that would be work) and logged your 280 for running and cycling, you would need to eat your MFP recommended base calories plus 280 to maintain. MFP differs from TDEE calculations in that it adds your exercise in on top of the base, rather than including it in the regular number.

    Martinel says the MFP exercise numbers don't work for him. They do for me. However, I now use a fitbit zip and it also works fine.

    Bottom line - figure out what ACTUALLY works for your body in terms of how many base calories you eat and how many more you should add in for exercise. Everybody's body is a little difference and all we all log a little differently.

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