TDEE and BMR someone dumb this down for me :)

svazquez820

Morning!

I have calculated my TDEE to be 2289 and my BMR is 1477. MFP has my calories set at 1540 a day. I workout 5-6 days a week for 2 hours on some days and an 1 the others depending on my mood. I do bodypump, zumba, HIIT, kick boxing and boot camp.

How much do I eat? I have been netting under my calories and this isn't what I want to do. If I am going to do this I need it done the correct way.


Someone dumb this down for me. How much am I supposed to be eating a day? Also since I burn about 500-600 for an hour workout and about 1000 for two hours. I am intense. What should be net over all?

Many thanks in advance!

svazquez820

bump

RedHeadDevotchka

Your TDEE is the amount you can eat to maintain your weight right now. BMR is the amount it takes to run your body if you were doing nothing but laying in bed and not moving all day.
A 15% cut to your TDEE will will fine for you if you wanna lose weight. So that's around 1800 calories, you'd have to do the exact math, but it's close.

Actually it's close to 1900 calories, I misread you tdee

Brizoeller

My personal opinion would be to set your own calorie goal to that of your BMR. Then when you workout and log that exercise, eat those calroies. I have found what works for me is trying not to net below my BMR. Some would also say to set your calorie goal to that of your TDEE minus 15 % and not eat your exercise calories back, considering TDEE accounts for exercise. I find it easier to take the BMR route so i can track my exercise

MoveTheMountain

What are your goals? There's no right answer to the question without knowing what your goals are, and how close you already are to them.

svazquez820

My goal is 130 I am officially 15lbs away from said goal

RedHeadDevotchka

My personal opinion would be to set your own calorie goal to that of your BMR. Then when you workout and log that exercise, eat those calroies. I have found what works for me is trying not to net below my BMR. Some would also say to set your calorie goal to that of your TDEE minus 15 % and not eat your exercise calories back, considering TDEE accounts for exercise. I find it easier to take the BMR route so i can track my exercise

She brings up a good point. If you set it at the BMR calories you eat your exercise cals, if you set it at tdee, you don't. Whichever is easiest for you.

reggie2run

bump

3dogsrunning

Here is a good post on the topic.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

MoveTheMountain

My personal opinion would be to set your own calorie goal to that of your BMR. Then when you workout and log that exercise, eat those calroies. I have found what works for me is trying not to net below my BMR. Some would also say to set your calorie goal to that of your TDEE minus 15 % and not eat your exercise calories back, considering TDEE accounts for exercise. I find it easier to take the BMR route so i can track my exercise

She brings up a good point. If you set it at the BMR calories you eat your exercise cals, if you set it at tdee, you don't. Whichever is easiest for you.

I agree with this^^. TDEE integrates another layer of estimation on top of BMR; if you go with BMR and then add the calories you burn from exercise, you'll have better day-to-day insight into what you should really be eating - obviously, if you burn 1000 calories on a given day, you'll want to take in more calories from than if you burned 600. This method lets provides that clarity.

OP, since you're trying to lose the dreaded 'last 15 pounds,' the clearly you want to be in a calorie deficit. So, take your BMR and reduce that by between 500 calories (for 1lb a week) and 1000 calories (for 2 pounds a week) a day. Then, add your exercise in each day, and MFP will add that to your daily calorie allowance. BUT, keep in mind that's only an estimate. Depending on your metabolism, you may actually not want to eat back all of your calories, or you may want to eat back more than your calories. Monitor it closely for a week, keeping in my how you feel, and whether you are or are not making progress toward your goals. If you're making progress, then great. If you're not, you might want to cut back a bit more on the calories.

Also, just to throw this out there... Are you sure you need to work out every day for 1-2 hours? Working out too much can actually hurt your progress. Just be sure you're getting enough rest and recovery between workouts - the real improvements come during recovery, not during exercise.

Brizoeller

My personal opinion would be to set your own calorie goal to that of your BMR. Then when you workout and log that exercise, eat those calroies. I have found what works for me is trying not to net below my BMR. Some would also say to set your calorie goal to that of your TDEE minus 15 % and not eat your exercise calories back, considering TDEE accounts for exercise. I find it easier to take the BMR route so i can track my exercise

She brings up a good point. If you set it at the BMR calories you eat your exercise cals, if you set it at tdee, you don't. Whichever is easiest for you.

I agree with this^^. TDEE integrates another layer of estimation on top of BMR; if you go with BMR and then add the calories you burn from exercise, you'll have better day-to-day insight into what you should really be eating - obviously, if you burn 1000 calories on a given day, you'll want to take in more calories from than if you burned 600. This method lets provides that clarity.

OP, since you're trying to lose the dreaded 'last 15 pounds,' the clearly you want to be in a calorie deficit. So, take your BMR and reduce that by between 500 calories (for 1lb a week) and 1000 calories (for 2 pounds a week) a day. Then, add your exercise in each day, and MFP will add that to your daily calorie allowance. BUT, keep in mind that's only an estimate. Depending on your metabolism, you may actually not want to eat back all of your calories, or you may want to eat back more than your calories. Monitor it closely for a week, keeping in my how you feel, and whether you are or are not making progress toward your goals. If you're making progress, then great. If you're not, you might want to cut back a bit more on the calories.

Also, just to throw this out there... Are you sure you need to work out every day for 1-2 hours? Working out too much can actually hurt your progress. Just be sure you're getting enough rest and recovery between workouts - the real improvements come during recovery, not during exercise.

Hold on, are you telling her to reduce her calories to 500 below her BMR. Thus reducing them to 977 and then eating back her exercise calories? That is not correct at all. And would have her eating too little. Then she will only be netting less than 1000 calories a day. Hopefully you meant reduce it 500 to 1000 calories a week....

AmyRhubarb

Here is a good post on the topic.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

This! Excellent advice in this topic - helped me out big time. I never net below my BMR, and on days when I eat more, as long as I stay under my TDEE, I know I'm good.

MoveTheMountain

My personal opinion would be to set your own calorie goal to that of your BMR. Then when you workout and log that exercise, eat those calroies. I have found what works for me is trying not to net below my BMR. Some would also say to set your calorie goal to that of your TDEE minus 15 % and not eat your exercise calories back, considering TDEE accounts for exercise. I find it easier to take the BMR route so i can track my exercise

She brings up a good point. If you set it at the BMR calories you eat your exercise cals, if you set it at tdee, you don't. Whichever is easiest for you.

I agree with this^^. TDEE integrates another layer of estimation on top of BMR; if you go with BMR and then add the calories you burn from exercise, you'll have better day-to-day insight into what you should really be eating - obviously, if you burn 1000 calories on a given day, you'll want to take in more calories from than if you burned 600. This method lets provides that clarity.

OP, since you're trying to lose the dreaded 'last 15 pounds,' the clearly you want to be in a calorie deficit. So, take your BMR and reduce that by between 500 calories (for 1lb a week) and 1000 calories (for 2 pounds a week) a day. Then, add your exercise in each day, and MFP will add that to your daily calorie allowance. BUT, keep in mind that's only an estimate. Depending on your metabolism, you may actually not want to eat back all of your calories, or you may want to eat back more than your calories. Monitor it closely for a week, keeping in my how you feel, and whether you are or are not making progress toward your goals. If you're making progress, then great. If you're not, you might want to cut back a bit more on the calories.

Also, just to throw this out there... Are you sure you need to work out every day for 1-2 hours? Working out too much can actually hurt your progress. Just be sure you're getting enough rest and recovery between workouts - the real improvements come during recovery, not during exercise.

Hold on, are you telling her to reduce her calories to 500 below her BMR. Thus reducing them to 977 and then eating back her exercise calories? That is not correct at all. And would have her eating too little. Then she will only be netting less than 1000 calories a day. Hopefully you meant reduce it 500 to 1000 calories a week....

I don't know how tall she is - the bottom limit of 1200 calories per day (like everythign else) is an estimate, but in some cases it might be wrong. What it boils down to is this: if you're not eating at a calorie defecit, you're not going to lose weight.

Also, do the math: if she's reducing her cals by 500 a day, and also exercising for 500/cals and eating those calories back, then guess what? She's netting even, and still eating at her BMR, which is over the magic 1200 number.

Clearly, I'm not saying anyone should starve themselves, and if you feel at all light headed, really tired, etc. you need to eat more. But if you're doing the same workouts, and you're not losing weight, then additional calorie restriction is the only way to go.

What I would really suggest trying is dropping 2 workouts each week and on one of those rest days, try fasting for 24 hours: 6pm - 6pm. Then, after the fast, return to your normally scheduled programming - on the other days, eat normally, and don't worry about reducing calories or eating back calories.