Tdee+bmr=confused

monkeygirl351

Ok I want to make sure I'm not eating too much or too little. MFP was making my calories 1200 which was a little too low and I was hungry. I know to eat back exercise calories, but on days without exercise I stil was hungry. Plus I don't know how accurate mfp is with their exercise calories. Seemed a little high for some stuff. Anyways, I checked out some bmr calculators and mine is about 1550 currently and 1493 for my goal weight. I'm a 33 yo female and my current weight is 180 and I want to get down to 165 before I reset my goal. Well tdee seems a bit trickier and it varies according to site. It can be anywhere from 2100 down to 1600 depending on activity level and such.
I think I am lightly active. I have a desk job, but I'm active when not doing that. I have lots of pets that require cleaning , feeding and vacuuming everyday. I take my dog on a mile or two walk everyday. Now I am also doing cardio for an hour three days a week and weight training 2 days a week for 30-45 minutes. I would rather use my tdee and not worry about eating back exercise calories as I don't know how accurate MFP is and my treadmill I think says I burn more than I believe I do. Now one site, fattofitradio, says I should eat 1834 calories for no exercise, and 2101 if lightly active. It also says I can eat 2-300 calories less to jump start weight loss.
Now on another site, scoobysworkshop, it says my bmr is 1586 and my tdee for current weight is 2181 and for weight loss at 20 percent reduction is 1745. This is at the lightly active setting
There are others I've tried and they seem all about similar but it still varies a little. Currently I've played around with settings on MFP. I was going to set it between 1750-1800. I'm just nervous because I lost 5 pounds right away, and have just got stck at 180. I did notice my belt has to go down a notch so something is working:). I've never been too successful losing weight but am determined to get healthy for this summer!

Raynn1

Honestly, based on the activity you have listed that you do in a week, you are MODERATELY active, not Lightly active.

TDEE calculates in your activity, so you would not have to add in your exercise cals into your daily amount.. You take your TDEE and subtract 15%.. thats your CUT value. That is the amount you have to eat daily regardless of whether you exercise that day or not... the only time you eat back any exercise cals is if you net below your BMR total. You never want to eat less than your BMR.

BrianSharpe

That's the hard part with calculating TDEE, you're already starting from an estimated BMR (unless you actually had your RMR tested) and then hoping the Harris Benedict formula closely approximates your activity level (which I suspect is why MFP took a slightly different approach with net calories).

Best suggestion is to pick the TDEE you feel most closely describes your activity level and knock off a modest deficit and see how it goes. If you're not dropping any weight increase the deficit in modest increments until you hit the sweet spot.

monkeygirl351

Cool! I think I'll try the 1745 and see if that works. It is a cut of the tdee to maintain my weight which is 2181. I'm going to stick with the lightly active as some days are easier than others. Weekends are pretty low key as those are my recovery days. I still walk most of the time. I'm also not able to push myself as much in the cardio as I am waiting for a knee injury to get better. I still work up a sweat, but sometimes have to knock it down if the knee is really acting up. We shall see!

Drastiic

I've never been too successful losing weight but am determined to get healthy for this summer!

Looks like you've done your research, which is appreciated. You're not only trying to get healthy for this summer, but also for the rest of your life. Most people that have had success make moderate changes for the long-term. No matter what number you go with, stick with it as consistently as possible for at least 3 weeks. Based off the average results, adjust accordingly. If you're losing 1-2 lbs/wk keep doing what you're doing. If less, then decrease calories by 10%. If you're losing more and noticing a decrease in your performance, then increase by 10%. All those calculations are estimates, and you'll have to see how your body reacts. The more consistent you are, the easier it'll be for you to figure out what to do when progress stalls.

Shayztar

I've never been too successful losing weight but am determined to get healthy for this summer!

Looks like you've done your research, which is appreciated. You're not only trying to get healthy for this summer, but also for the rest of your life. Most people that have had success make moderate changes for the long-term. No matter what number you go with, stick with it as consistently as possible for at least 3 weeks. Based off the average results, adjust accordingly. If you're losing 1-2 lbs/wk keep doing what you're doing. If less, then decrease calories by 10%. If you're losing more and noticing a decrease in your performance, then increase by 10%. All those calculations are estimates, and you'll have to see how your body reacts. The more consistent you are, the easier it'll be for you to figure out what to do when progress stalls.

^^ This! What's a couple of weeks worth of experimentation vs. what you've been doing before you got here. The good news is, if you are eating at a deficit, theory is that you should lose weight anyway. The question is, how fast do you want to lose it? And at what cost? You clearly know your stuff. Just play around until something works for you.

FYI - I am 5'7 and also 180 lbs. I currently eat 1800 calories and typically eat most of my exercise calories.

There is a group on here called "Eat more to weight less". You can search it. There are lots of great links with suggestions on how to eat more and still lose weight. The theory there is that you don't log your exercise until the calories burned until it goes over a certain amount.

Good luck!

dlwyatt82

Honestly, based on the activity you have listed that you do in a week, you are MODERATELY active, not Lightly active.

TDEE calculates in your activity, so you would not have to add in your exercise cals into your daily amount.. You take your TDEE and subtract 15%.. thats your CUT value. That is the amount you have to eat daily regardless of whether you exercise that day or not... the only time you eat back any exercise cals is if you net below your BMR total. You never want to eat less than your BMR.

This looks like it comes out of the "Eat More to Lose" group, but it's bad advice by itself unless you follow the rest of their program (which involves using a separate website to determine your TDEE, and setting manual goals on MFP). If you're using MFP's calorie targets based on activity level, etc, then comparing your "Net Calories" to BMR is not going to mean anything.

Always eat your exercise calories back, so you're maintaining a consistent and healthy deficit.

reddi2roll

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