Could use some help with TDEE calculations

TheRealParisLove

I'm a little confused about where I should set my daily calorie levels. In a nutshell:

1. I sit at a desk all day for work
2. I do some kind of moderate to vigorous exercise at least 3 days a week, sometimes up to 6 days a week. On the 6-day weeks I'm exercising up to 14 hours per week. This week I'm "resting."

So am I sedentary due to my job or active due to my exercise schedule?

I've tried several online calculators, and have gotten wildly different results. I would like to have a baseline number for resting bmr and then adjust my calories by how much exercise I do on any given day.

Lately I've felt like I'm not eating enough to enhance my athletic performance, and am now losing lean body mass. So I'm pretty sure I need to increase my calories. But the obvious concern is that I don't want to also increase my body fat at the same time.

Is there a better way to calculate resting BMR for someone who is very active?

jaz050465

I would set it as sedentary and then add your exercise seperate ly. People give you different opinions about whether to eat all or just some of your e excise calories. A lot depends on how accurate they are.

LilacDaffodil

try this calculator - you can put in how much time you sleep and do very light, light, moderate, heavy and very heavy activities

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

sammys1girly

I've been confused about all this for awhile too. So many opinions and choices!:noway:
After joining on here about a year and a half ago, I lost 10lbs within 4 months and basically
did lots of cardio and some strength training and have been at the same spot for over a year now.
I had started at 1200 calories and was eating back most of my exercise calories, then upped, then
lowered, nothing budged. So I finally did the Scooby calculation of my TDEE (1800 whether I work out that day or not)
and am sticking with that for at least a month, and lifting heavy (Stronglifts 5x5) to see what happens. I am a stay at home
mom but I am pretty busy helping to coach and work out at least 4-5 days a week. But some days I
do alot of computer work, so I never know how to figure my activity level.
I think it all comes down to trial and error, since every body is different.
Hope you can find something that works well for you!

sarahg148

I keep jumping all over the map with my calories. I try to restrict it to 1400-1600 then eventually end up having a binge day. So then I set my calories to 2000...then don't see quick results...so I then again say "screw it" and have another binge day. I just looked up my TDEE as if I were at goal weight of 148 lbs and exercising 1-3x/wk and it says my TDEE would be at about 1990. SO...think I'm just going to bite the bullet and keep my calorie count set at 1900. At least that way I'll know I won't be gaining...but possibly losing very slowly. Now the difficult part is just STICKING to that plan and not jumping back and forth from one plan to another. :ohwell:

jaz050465

I'm like that. If I don't lose quickly I want to change things before I give them a chance.

angiechimpanzee

When calculating my TDEE, I IGNORE activity that comes from my workouts. It doesn't make sense for me to include that in my TDEE when I'm already adding those calories burned to my allowance each day. Plus, what's considered "lightly active", "moderately active", etc, can vary WILDLY from person to person.

Besides my 5x a week workouts, in my day to day life I'm pretty much sedentary. I don't have a job that requires me to walk a lot. The only walking I do is to & from classes. So I consider myself sedentary.