BMR, TDEE, Exercise, OH MY!

Izanami66

I have a question regarding BMR and TDEE. My BMR is around 1200, and I am a dancer who practices 3-4 days a week for 1-2 hours. On my off days, I try to do a mix of cardio and strength traning (a DVD which incorporates aerobic/dance with squats, crunches, leg lifts, etc.) If I figure that activity in and add it to my BMR to get my TDEE, I would think that most of my exercise would already be accounted for. So my question is, is it still a good idea to eat back exercise calories, even though it's accounted for in my TDEE?? This is the one thing that I still don't quite understand. Any thoughts would be appreciated. :flowerforyou: (I haven't done all the calculations yet, so any thoughts on the best site to do those would be helpful, too.)

Izanami66

Bump.

BerryH

BMR + exercise calories is NOT your TDEE, you also need to include your activity level. Even when you're sedentary, that is BMR * 1.2 + exercise.

MFP is designed to do all the hard work for you - when you enter your stats, activity level before exercise and desired rate of weight loss (1lb a week is best for most people), it gives you the calories you need INCLUDING the deficit to lose the amount your want each week, e.g. a 500 calorie deficit for 1lb a week.

When you exercise you create a bigger deficit. MFP works by you eating this difference so the weight loss is sustainable and you don't feel hungry, yet you still maintain the same deficit for a steady loss. It also provides you with sufficient nutrients for all your body and brain's processes and gives you the energy you need to work out to the best of your ability, especially in an active profession as yours.

Some people choose just to eat a proportion of their exercise calories to allow for discrepancies in calculation. I eat at least 80%, usually 100%.

Hope that helps! :flowerforyou:

rileysowner

It depends which calculator you use. MFP does not include exercise when it calculate TDEE, just daily activity. Most other include exercise in their calculations. If you used them, that would be the amount to eat including exercise. It would likely have to be fine tuned a bit, but it would be close. This is one calculator you can use. http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

Another helpful post is the one here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/510406-tdee-is-everything

Izanami66

Thank you both! I will look into it further. Oh, and dancing is just a hobby, not a profession, although it takes almost as much time as my day job(which is sedentary)! Maybe one day it'll be my profession!

cmriverside

If you are dancing that much on a regular basis, your TDEE is much higher than you think. Recalculate.

jsapninz

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/512956-tdee-what-is-it-and-why-you-should-not-eat-below-your-bmr

Life saver!