Confused with TDEE and BMR

cwash0918

Hi, I completely stopped loosing weight and have been eating 1480-1600 calories a day and walking about 40 mins 3x a week. My question is am I still not eating enough to loose weight. According to the TDEE this is at 2080 and my BMR is 1731. Am I suppose to consume whats in between these amounts??

yarwell

Hi, I completely stopped loosing weight and have been eating 1480-1600 calories a day and walking about 40 mins 3x a week. My question is am I still not eating enough to loose weight. According to the TDEE this is at 2080 and my BMR is 1731. Am I suppose to consume whats in between these amounts??

If your TDEE is 2000 then 1600 is a 20% deficit and should give you a weight loss for sure. How long have you been stalled ?

Rilke

Calculate 80% of your TDEE (in your case, 1664) and eat that much *before* exercise. If you are still hungry and you've "earned" some calories back that day with your walking, eat those too.

sunshinebee

Yeah I don't quite get it either. My TDEE is 1667 and my BMR is 1295. I'm aiming for 1100 calories a day. Is that too little as I have heard you should aim between the two?

80% of my TDEE would be 1333.

vklebanova

Yeah I don't quite get it either. My TDEE is 1667 and my BMR is 1295. I'm aiming for 1100 calories a day. Is that too little as I have heard you should aim between the two?

80% of my TDEE would be 1333.

1100 calories a day is WAY too low. THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM YOU SHOULD EAT TO FUNCTION IS 1200.

sunshinebee

1100 calories a day is WAY too low. THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM YOU SHOULD EAT TO FUNCTION IS 1200.

I am sat on my bum most of the day doing nothing though because of my injury. I'm finding I don't even need 1100 some days? Should I try and up it to 1200?

majones_orl

Calculate 80% of your TDEE (in your case, 1664) and eat that much *before* exercise. If you are still hungry and you've "earned" some calories back that day with your walking, eat those too.

I am so confused on this.
My BMR is 1828, which I calcualted on Military Body Fat Calc first, then the BMR tool.
So if I understand correctly I should consume 80% 1462 calories per day.
I normally do cardo and get about 400 calories, so I eat those back.

I initially had a BMR to go to my final goal. After readying on http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ i suggested I establish an interim weight, which is how I came to the new BMR.

I am so confused.

vklebanova

1100 calories a day is WAY too low. THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM YOU SHOULD EAT TO FUNCTION IS 1200.

I am sat on my bum most of the day doing nothing though because of my injury. I'm finding I don't even need 1100 some days? Should I try and up it to 1200?

Absolutely yes - your body definitely needs at least 1200 to even exist properly. You're probably in starvation mode. Also make sure you're drinking at least half your body weight in ounces of water. (So if you weight 150 you should be drinking 75 oz of water EVERY DAY!)

Rilke

Yeah I don't quite get it either. My TDEE is 1667 and my BMR is 1295. I'm aiming for 1100 calories a day. Is that too little as I have heard you should aim between the two?

80% of my TDEE would be 1333.

1100 calories a day is WAY too low. THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM YOU SHOULD EAT TO FUNCTION IS 1200.

No need to yell.

sunshinebee -- your situation is a little different. Are you hungry?

Rilke

Calculate 80% of your TDEE (in your case, 1664) and eat that much *before* exercise. If you are still hungry and you've "earned" some calories back that day with your walking, eat those too.

I am so confused on this.
My BMR is 1828, which I calcualted on Military Body Fat Calc first, then the BMR tool.
So if I understand correctly I should consume 80% 1462 calories per day.
I normally do cardo and get about 400 calories, so I eat those back.

I initially had a BMR to go to my final goal. After readying on http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ i suggested I establish an interim weight, which is how I came to the new BMR.

I am so confused.

BMR and TDEE are not the same. Here, read this: http://calorieline.com/tools/tdee

yarwell

your body definitely needs at least 1200 to even exist properly

I'm not sure what that even means, but let's not forget the quarter million calories of fat we can use too.

There are two strands to the confusion, one is the "you must eat your BMR" nutters promoting their fad approach to metabolism. You don't actually know what your BMR is, and nobody with a degree and a medical licence has shown it to be necessary to eat that amount.

Second is the basic understanding that your Total Daily Energy Expenditure or TDEE is the number to worry about, that's the energy you use and if you want to take some out of your fat reserves then you need to eat less than that. 10,15 or 20% less are all options. BMR is the largest component of TDEE, but it is just one component.

Think of it like money, your fat is your bank balance, your TDEE is the rate at which you spend money, what you eat is the income going into the account. If you want to empty the account faster then you need to take it out faster than you're putting it in.

sunshinebee

sunshinebee -- your situation is a little different. Are you hungry?

Not at all. If I was hungry I would eat more! It's not like I'm not snacking or not eating.. I've only been on MFP for a week. Before this I used to eat at least one packet of noodles a day, maybe a couple of packets of crisps. All empty carbs. I am eating less now that I'm tracking my food, but not to the point that I'm cutting down - just adjusting what I'm eating. I guess the biggest change is having the smoothie each day, but before I never even used to have breakfast.. (I made my food diary public)

I try to drink as much water as I can a day. Normally this is about 6 cups. If I have any more then I just wouldn't eat

itsjustdawn

1100 calories a day is WAY too low. THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM YOU SHOULD EAT TO FUNCTION IS 1200.

I am sat on my bum most of the day doing nothing though because of my injury. I'm finding I don't even need 1100 some days? Should I try and up it to 1200?

Yes... Keep in mind that your body is still burning even while sitting on your butt all day :-)

rebeccap13

your body definitely needs at least 1200 to even exist properly

I'm not sure what that even means, but let's not forget the quarter million calories of fat we can use too.

There are two strands to the confusion, one is the "you must eat your BMR" nutters promoting their fad approach to metabolism. You don't actually know what your BMR is, and nobody with a degree and a medical licence has shown it to be necessary to eat that amount.

Second is the basic understanding that your Total Daily Energy Expenditure or TDEE is the number to worry about, that's the energy you use and if you want to take some out of your fat reserves then you need to eat less than that. 10,15 or 20% less are all options. BMR is the largest component of TDEE, but it is just one component.

Think of it like money, your fat is your bank balance, your TDEE is the rate at which you spend money, what you eat is the income going into the account. If you want to empty the account faster then you need to take it out faster than you're putting it in.

Partially agree with this. And I don't believe in starvation mode particularly or at least as willy nilly as it gets thrown around on here. However, I lost a lot of muscle mass while running every day and eating below 1500 cals net. I have spent the past six months repairing my metabolism and it is not a fun process. Eat enough to properly fuel your body or it will get burnt out, use TDEE calculators as guidelines and incorporate strength training as well as cardio and you're going to see much better results than losing only from eating at a deficit.

FrugalMomsRock75

Yeah I don't quite get it either. My TDEE is 1667 and my BMR is 1295. I'm aiming for 1100 calories a day. Is that too little as I have heard you should aim between the two?

80% of my TDEE would be 1333.

Do you not exercise? Your TDEE - 20% is only 1333 if you do nothing. So you would either eat 100% of exercise calories using that number, or you would not use that number. Select your exercise, and it goes up.

1525 with 1-3 hours/week
1719 if 3-5 hours/week.

The 1333 would be your minimum. It already takes off 20%. Why go down to 1100???

(and you should never eat less than your BMR, btw, so 1100 is really ripping yourself off).

rebeccap13

sunshinebee -- your situation is a little different. Are you hungry?

Not at all. If I was hungry I would eat more! It's not like I'm not snacking or not eating.. I've only been on MFP for a week. Before this I used to eat at least one packet of noodles a day, maybe a couple of packets of crisps. All empty carbs. I am eating less now that I'm tracking my food, but not to the point that I'm cutting down - just adjusting what I'm eating. I guess the biggest change is having the smoothie each day, but before I never even used to have breakfast.. (I made my food diary public)

I try to drink as much water as I can a day. Normally this is about 6 cups. If I have any more then I just wouldn't eat

Stop eating empty carbs! Focus on proteins, veggies, a few fruits and some nutrient rich carbohydrates, get a little more bang for your buck with those kind of foods.

sunshinedean

What is TDEE? :ohwell:

alasin1derland

http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/calorie-calculator.html

i use this calculator and then take away 1000 calories to lose 2lbs per week

FrugalMomsRock75

What is TDEE? :ohwell:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

The calories you need for maintaining your weight.

alasin1derland

i was just using what MFP told me then someone posted this site, it actually is giving me the same calories as MFP

itsjustdawn

Calculate 80% of your TDEE (in your case, 1664) and eat that much *before* exercise. If you are still hungry and you've "earned" some calories back that day with your walking, eat those too.

I am so confused on this.
My BMR is 1828, which I calcualted on Military Body Fat Calc first, then the BMR tool.
So if I understand correctly I should consume 80% 1462 calories per day.
I normally do cardo and get about 400 calories, so I eat those back.

I initially had a BMR to go to my final goal. After readying on http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ i suggested I establish an interim weight, which is how I came to the new BMR.

I am so confused.

Nope, you need to calculate your TDEE and it's 80% of that :-)

itsjustdawn

http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/calorie-calculator.html

i use this calculator and then take away 1000 calories to lose 2lbs per week

So how many calories are you limiting yourself to???

sunshinebee

Do you not exercise? Your TDEE - 20% is only 1333 if you do nothing.

At the moment no. Not even much walking as I have fractured my spine. When I start to move around more and do exercise of course I will up my intake.

Stop eating empty carbs! Focus on proteins, veggies, a few fruits and some nutrient rich carbohydrates, get a little more bang for your buck with those kind of foods.

The noodles and crisps were before. I eat a lot of chicken/ham and veggies now. And wholemeal pasta, almonds etc - I'm moving in the right direction.


It's hard to compute the whole eating more will make you loose more :huh:

rebeccap13

Do you not exercise? Your TDEE - 20% is only 1333 if you do nothing.

At the moment no. Not even much walking as I have fractured my spine. When I start to move around more and do exercise of course I will up my intake.

Stop eating empty carbs! Focus on proteins, veggies, a few fruits and some nutrient rich carbohydrates, get a little more bang for your buck with those kind of foods.

The noodles and crisps were before. I eat a lot of chicken/ham and veggies now. And wholemeal pasta, almonds etc - I'm moving in the right direction.


It's hard to compute the whole eating more will make you loose more :huh:

Your body has to be properly fueled to work efficiently... ie burn calories how its supposed to. Your body is pretty smart and will begin to adapt to certain conditions over a period of time.

Also if you don't have a lot to lose, then shoot for a lower loss per week goal, like TDEE - 10 or 15%.

yarwell

However, I lost a lot of muscle mass while running every day and eating below 1500 cals net.

Excessive deficits are potentially bad whether through eating less (kittens will die) or exercising a lot (sainthood awaits).