Can someone explain BMR and TDEE to me in SIMPLE terms?

freckles88

A friend of mine just told me about BMR and TDEE to lose weight but I am totally confused! Basically I want to know:

1) What is it and how does it benefit me?
2) How can I calculate it?
3) How do I know which one is accurate? I just did a BMR caculator and they came up with all different results with up to 150 calories difference!
4) What is classed as sedentary? I work in a school so am sat down most of the day but then walk around a bit, go on a walk on the weekend and sunday I spend all weekend doing DIY on my house and barely sit down all day...so I really dont know if i'd be sedendary or light exercise or what!

Help, I'm so confused!

bcattoes

1) What is it and how does it benefit me? - BMR is the amount of calories the average person of your age/height/weight burns at rest. TDEE is the average number of calories that a person of your age/height/weight/avtivity level burns in a day. It's beneficial to know these numbers to get a good guess of how many calories will properly fuel your body without causing weight gain.

2) How can I calculate it? There are a number of online calculators. http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ is a popular one.

3) How do I know which one is accurate? I just did a BMR caculator and they came up with all different results with up to 150 calories difference! They are just general recommendations based on averages. They won't be 100% accurate but they will likely be close. You may have to tweak it a bit to find the right amount for you.

4) What is classed as sedentary? I work in a school so am sat down most of the day but then walk around a bit, go on a walk on the weekend and sunday I spend all weekend doing DIY on my house and barely sit down all day...so I really dont know if i'd be sedendary or light exercise or what! It's a personal preference but since I have a desk job during the week, but I'm also fairly active on the weekends, I like to figure my TDEE at sendentary and then just log my activities and add calories for it.