Calculator for TDEE using REE
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momof2winsplus
Posts: 137 Member
Here's a calculator that uses REE to determine TDEE. It was still really close to other calculators(2340 vs 2390)
http://calorieline.com/tools/tdee
It has a great explanation of weight drift/plateaus, too.
Consider Mary. She has hit her target weight of 130 pounds many times over the years, but always winds up floating back up to 150 lbs. The weight always comes back slowly but surely. Why? Mary always loses weight the same way, with her trademark system of exercise 5 days a week, skipping lunch, and not eating anything after 7pm. Eventually, she hits 130 lbs, and she starts to celebrate and relax. She's earned it.
Mary is 42 year old, stands 5 feet and 6 inches tall, and gets a moderate amount of exercise each week. When she's not on a diet, she eats about 1900 calories each day on average. A tad high for her height and the amount of exercise she gets, but really not too bad. Now that she's lost her 20 lbs, she wants to go back to her normal habits. Mary assumes that it is the occasional binge, or overly festive weekend, that typically causes her to put her weight back on. She only needs to binge a little less often, and she'll be fine, right? Wrong. Mary, at her height and age, should be getting about 1750 calories each day if she is going continue her moderately active lifestyle, and she is averaging 1900. Those extra 150 calories per day may not seem like much, but they are consistent with being 150 pounds. That is, her "Total Daily Energy Expenditure" (TDEE) is not that of a 130 pound person who exercises moderately -- those extra 150 calories per day add up to the TDEE of a 150 pound women of her height and age and exercise routine. Because of this, her weight will slowly but surely creep back up. Conversely, if she were to start out at 170 pounds (maybe due to an unusually indulgent Christmas season), her weight would simply drift down to 150 pounds. One way or another, given Mary's height, weight, age, and exercise level, her weight will just settle at about 150 pounds if she eats 1900 calories per day. That is the real meaning of TDEE.
Jump forward 6 months. Mary has put the weight back on. She is now back to 150 pounds. But she's grown tired of her trademark diet, and decides to go hunting around the web for a new diet -- one that lasts. Along the way she discovers TDEE. After playing around with the BMR and TDEE calculator on a certain web site, she discovers that to maintain a weight of 130 pounds, at her age and height and exercise routine, she would have a TDEE of 1745 calories per day. Mary decides that she is not ready to do her regular hard-core diet yet, but she is willing in the interim to limit herself to 1745 calories per day, just to get in the habit. It's only 150 calories. She starts tracking her calories on a certain, awesome web site, develops her calorie-counting skills, and sets a target date for starting her diet in a couple of months.
Alas, Mary is not able to get all the way down to 1750 calories per day, instead averaging about 1800. But a funny thing happens -- Mary's weight starts to drift down anyway. The scale does not lie. What is happening? By eating 1800 calories per day, Mary adopted the TDEE profile of a 5'6", 42 year old female of 140 lbs who exercises at a moderate level. At 1800 calories per day, Mary's body could not sustain a weight of 150 pounds, and began to drift down, slowly but surely towards 140 lbs, where it would eventually level off. If mary went on a diet, dropped all the way down to 130, but then resumed eating 1800 calories per day, her weight would then drift up to 140. Diets are temporary -- TDEE is for good.
After tracking her calories for a few months, Mary discovers that over the long term, it's going to be hard to eat less then 1800 calories per day on average. Sure, she can go a few days at 1700, or even less, but then she always breaks down with a little splurge. When she looks at her monthly averages, they always wind up at about 1800. That seems to be as low as it goes for her when she is not dieting. So now what? Oy, another diet is coming on. But then Mary remembers TDEE, and that there are two 'sides' to TDEE equation -- calories eaten, but also calories burned. Mary realizes that if she can increase her exercise so that that it amounts to an extra 50 calories per day, on average, then her TDEE will be consistent with that of a 130 pound woman, and her weight will drop. And so she does just that. And her weight drifts down.
Mary may not realize it at first, but with that small adjustment, she just got off the diet roller coaster. Having played around with her caloric intake, making minor adjustments, and with a little help from the TDEE calculator, she has zeroed in on a regime that works for her. She no longer thinks in terms of diets, but in terms of what her average number of calories and average amount of exercise need to be to hit her weight (in other words, what her TDEE should be). She knows that if she gets enough exercise, then she gets to have about 1800 calories per day. It does not matter whether her weight starts at 120 pounds or at 150 pounds -- regardless, her weight will simply drift towards 130 pounds.
http://calorieline.com/tools/tdee
It has a great explanation of weight drift/plateaus, too.
Consider Mary. She has hit her target weight of 130 pounds many times over the years, but always winds up floating back up to 150 lbs. The weight always comes back slowly but surely. Why? Mary always loses weight the same way, with her trademark system of exercise 5 days a week, skipping lunch, and not eating anything after 7pm. Eventually, she hits 130 lbs, and she starts to celebrate and relax. She's earned it.
Mary is 42 year old, stands 5 feet and 6 inches tall, and gets a moderate amount of exercise each week. When she's not on a diet, she eats about 1900 calories each day on average. A tad high for her height and the amount of exercise she gets, but really not too bad. Now that she's lost her 20 lbs, she wants to go back to her normal habits. Mary assumes that it is the occasional binge, or overly festive weekend, that typically causes her to put her weight back on. She only needs to binge a little less often, and she'll be fine, right? Wrong. Mary, at her height and age, should be getting about 1750 calories each day if she is going continue her moderately active lifestyle, and she is averaging 1900. Those extra 150 calories per day may not seem like much, but they are consistent with being 150 pounds. That is, her "Total Daily Energy Expenditure" (TDEE) is not that of a 130 pound person who exercises moderately -- those extra 150 calories per day add up to the TDEE of a 150 pound women of her height and age and exercise routine. Because of this, her weight will slowly but surely creep back up. Conversely, if she were to start out at 170 pounds (maybe due to an unusually indulgent Christmas season), her weight would simply drift down to 150 pounds. One way or another, given Mary's height, weight, age, and exercise level, her weight will just settle at about 150 pounds if she eats 1900 calories per day. That is the real meaning of TDEE.
Jump forward 6 months. Mary has put the weight back on. She is now back to 150 pounds. But she's grown tired of her trademark diet, and decides to go hunting around the web for a new diet -- one that lasts. Along the way she discovers TDEE. After playing around with the BMR and TDEE calculator on a certain web site, she discovers that to maintain a weight of 130 pounds, at her age and height and exercise routine, she would have a TDEE of 1745 calories per day. Mary decides that she is not ready to do her regular hard-core diet yet, but she is willing in the interim to limit herself to 1745 calories per day, just to get in the habit. It's only 150 calories. She starts tracking her calories on a certain, awesome web site, develops her calorie-counting skills, and sets a target date for starting her diet in a couple of months.
Alas, Mary is not able to get all the way down to 1750 calories per day, instead averaging about 1800. But a funny thing happens -- Mary's weight starts to drift down anyway. The scale does not lie. What is happening? By eating 1800 calories per day, Mary adopted the TDEE profile of a 5'6", 42 year old female of 140 lbs who exercises at a moderate level. At 1800 calories per day, Mary's body could not sustain a weight of 150 pounds, and began to drift down, slowly but surely towards 140 lbs, where it would eventually level off. If mary went on a diet, dropped all the way down to 130, but then resumed eating 1800 calories per day, her weight would then drift up to 140. Diets are temporary -- TDEE is for good.
After tracking her calories for a few months, Mary discovers that over the long term, it's going to be hard to eat less then 1800 calories per day on average. Sure, she can go a few days at 1700, or even less, but then she always breaks down with a little splurge. When she looks at her monthly averages, they always wind up at about 1800. That seems to be as low as it goes for her when she is not dieting. So now what? Oy, another diet is coming on. But then Mary remembers TDEE, and that there are two 'sides' to TDEE equation -- calories eaten, but also calories burned. Mary realizes that if she can increase her exercise so that that it amounts to an extra 50 calories per day, on average, then her TDEE will be consistent with that of a 130 pound woman, and her weight will drop. And so she does just that. And her weight drifts down.
Mary may not realize it at first, but with that small adjustment, she just got off the diet roller coaster. Having played around with her caloric intake, making minor adjustments, and with a little help from the TDEE calculator, she has zeroed in on a regime that works for her. She no longer thinks in terms of diets, but in terms of what her average number of calories and average amount of exercise need to be to hit her weight (in other words, what her TDEE should be). She knows that if she gets enough exercise, then she gets to have about 1800 calories per day. It does not matter whether her weight starts at 120 pounds or at 150 pounds -- regardless, her weight will simply drift towards 130 pounds.
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Replies
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This is awesome. Thank you. Now the last time I measured my height at a doctor office where I can 'trust' the measurement I had shrunk. Being that the calculator does not take half inch measurements should I round up or down or does it matter?
VERY shocked to see that my caloric intake is 1900-2000 calories depending on exercise. Hard to measure on chart. I suppose I am mostly sedentary and I run 3+ miles at least 3x's a week. It doesn't really have that. It has running but I sure don't run 6mph!
There has to be some differences. I would go all day w/out food and eat a 2000 calorie meal. I guess that would fall into binge eating and even though that's what the chart says I should have then the WAY a person consumes their food must have an impact too.0 -
Great post.0
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I am curious about what successful losers have to say also. I have been logging since early February and have gained and lost the same 3 lbs twice which tells me that it is probably water weight.
Momof2winsplu - Great explanation of eating at TDEE your height and the weight you would like to be! It makes sense on paper, but is scary. If I did this I would be eating around 2100/calories per day - which feels CRAZY to me. I have been burning between 2100 and 2600 calories per day eating between 1200 and 1600 and also not losing. If I look at my net calories it is really hard for me to get to 1200 because I am really active (constantly going up and down stairs, walking the dog and working out really add up).
I have read the newbie threads and upped my calories but still have not seen a loss. Meanwhile am seeing some definition from lifting heavier and focusing on HIIT for my cardio.
My next plan of attack is to add more veggies, try to further reduce my sodium and really restrict my alcohol consumption - even though I am staying within my calorie allotment each day - I know drinking and salt can really mess with weight loss efforts.0 -
OKay...a little comparison:
MFP says my BMR is 1500 calories as well as calorieline.com. However, I'm am trying to make sense of it all. If I eat 1500 calories I will stay right where I am. If I continue to eat 1500 calories and exercise, I should lose OR eat less calories and no exercise and I should lose. But...
In the past 14 days I averaged 1524 calories and I have stayed the same. Now, broken down 7 of those days I was over (some way over) and 7 of those days I was under. What DOESN'T make sense is I exercised. Some days burning over 400 calories. Not only that, but calorieline.com says that I should set a goal for 1400 calories and with my type exercise eat a total of 2000 calories. I would totally gain weight with that. It is obvious with this formula that the reason I have struggled so long is that my body maintains it weight regardless of exercise. At least the amount I do. I can not put forth more time in my exercise so I must need to find something more strenuous to see if it will actually kick-start my bod into burning calories. What I fear in doing that is that I will get way more hungry as I did on things like Weight Watchers.
So, the alternative is to lower my calories even more which everyone yells is soooo bad. First of all I can't do it without the help of phetermine to curb my hunger. Otherwise, I cave on the first day of my hormone drop and binge. Second, everyone screams that is starvation mode and I am losing muscle mass and lowering my metabolism (which is obviously next to nil anyway).
My conclusion: I'm just too messed up. Fits right in with everything else about me :ohwell:0 -
bump0
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Very nice post--I know people have different needs and that bodies react differently, but too many people restrict their diets too much and don't understand why the weight comes back so quickly. Eat for the size you want to be, but keep in mind that it won't be a temporary change--that's the hardest part!0
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Bump....0
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