Just another question about TDEE's, BMR's etc.

S_Arr_Uh

So I've been trying to get my head around TDEE, BMR's etc. etc. and I was wondering (particularly with those of you who eat until you have '0 calories remaining') if you guys log every little bit of 'exercise' or activities that you do? That is, things like walking for about 20 minutes during your daily commute etc., other than gym workouts. I've been using MFP a month now and at first (until a few days ago) I was logging everything I could, but this was mostly because I was in the mindframe of getting my net calories looking as low as possible. Last few days, I've decided to up my intake to match my goal/BMR to see if it will work better but I've been lazy and not truly been logging those short walks to the train station.

Now, I'm come to realise that BMR is what your body would be burning if you were bed-bound/in a coma, right? So does this mean that those of us NOT in a coma (hopefully all of us!) are burning EXTRA calories that we're not even aware of? A lot of people are saying not to eat under your BMR as you're creating a large deficit than already so are we not already doing this? Or is this just included in the TDEE?

Sorry if this is all mumble-jumble, trying to sort out my mind. Or maybe I just want more food (I seem to be more hungry now that I've upped my calories..)

azanne07

good questions. i also dont understand bmrs and ect.

RobinvdM

My understanding to date is murky, but if I do understand it correctly, TDEE is how many calories it takes you to maintain weight at your current lifestyle, be it sedentary, highly active, moderately active, etc.. so the exercise is basically already accounted for in THAT aspect. However if you are trying to create a weight loss deficit based on being lightly active and yet you hit the gym 5x per week you should probably keep track of that and eat back as many of those calories as you can since youre already officially operating at a deficit with the TDEE minus X%.

Did you look at the http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12 ?

I used http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ to figure out what my BMR/TDEE is supposed to be (estimate) and while I can't say this is a great tool, it's been working pretty well for me.

Don't know if this helped, but sure hope it didn't make things worse :laugh: :flowerforyou:

edited to fix a few sentence flow issues :P

Colbyandsage

When I was losing, I set my daily calories just above my BMR and logged exercise to eat back my calories. I didn't log everything but I have an office job and honestly didn't do much real activity besides exercise. I tend to work a lot!

Jaulen

BMR = what you'd 'burn' if you stayed in bed all day

TDEE = what you'd burn from normal daily activities (going to bathroom, eating, walking around the house, shopping, etc), higher TDEE if you move/exercise more.

BMR < TDEE

Eating TDEE is what you would eat to maintain weight, over TDEE you gain weight, less than TDEE you lose weight.

MFP Gives a calorie cut from your BMR and assumes you will log your exercise and eat back exercise calories.

If you don't want to log exercise, calculate your TDEE and take calories off of that. the Roadmap people use a 20% cut generally. Smaller % off of TDEE if you have less to lose.

Melo1966

If you call yourself sedatary and have a low calorie amount like 1,200-1,400 then you should log walking and eat more.

heybales

BMR = what you'd 'burn' if you stayed in bed all day

TDEE = what you'd burn from normal daily activities (going to bathroom, eating, walking around the house, shopping, etc), higher TDEE if you move/exercise more.

BMR < TDEE

Eating TDEE is what you would eat to maintain weight, over TDEE you gain weight, less than TDEE you lose weight.

MFP Gives a calorie cut from your BMR and assumes you will log your exercise and eat back exercise calories.

If you don't want to log exercise, calculate your TDEE and take calories off of that. the Roadmap people use a 20% cut generally. Smaller % off of TDEE if you have less to lose.

Correction there actually.

MFP gives a calorie cut from a non-exercise included TDEE, NOT your BMR.
The program doesn't care if your selection of activity level and loss goal cause the eating goal to be below BMR by horrendous amounts though, but they don't start and deduct from there.

crystalflame

Your BMR is how many calories you would burn if you were in a coma. It's what your body needs to stay alive and maintain functionality without lowering your metabolic rate. Your TDEE is what you burn throughout the day - this includes all internal processes, breathing, getting up and going to the bathroom, strenuous exercises, etc. If you eat above your TDEE, you gain. If you eat below it, you lose.

If you're trying to follow the TDEE method, you calculate it using one of the many available calculators and subtract 20%. You don't eat back your exercise calories. I still log my exercise because I like to have it noted that I did it, but I don't eat those calories back.

If you do a search in the forums for "spreadsheet", Heybales has a post with a link to a very detailed spreadsheet that will do all the relevant calculations for you. It will help you determine how many calories to eat depending on what method you want to follow.

RobynMWilson

Sometimes I think people overcomplicate this. Here's my life...I drive a 15-ton vehicle for job #1 and sit for about 2-3hours per day on a computer for job#2. When I'm home and not working at job #2, I don't really sit down much. I'm hyper by nature so don't do sitting still very well lol. I work out 6 days per week most weeks. I have my activity set to "mildly active' (or whatever it says, the one above sedentary) and I log my workouts only. I never log when I walk down to the basement to get water or do laundry, when I sweep and fuel my bus, when I vacuum, etc because that all falls under my activity level.

I did have it set to sedentary but found I was hungry all the time so that's when I upped it. I've always relied on instinct and hunger when I lost my weight. We didn't have internet or MFP or BMR or TDEE back in the 80s when I lost weight. I relied on instinct and hunger, but was very careful to not overeat and ONLY eat when I was hungry and starting using exercise to make me feel better rather than food. It was simple, really. Exercise and portion control.

If you sit all day at your job and then come home at night and sit, set your activity to sedentary. Then log your workouts. If you tend to do a lot or have a job that requires SOME physical activity, set it to lightly active. If you're eating when you're not hungry, write down why and also write down if you REALLY felt better after that emotional binge or the chips you ate out of boredom.

I've noticed the more people overcomplicate this, the more they get frustrated, the more they "fail", and the more they quit. Keep it simple...

heybales

So I've been trying to get my head around TDEE, BMR's etc. etc. and I was wondering (particularly with those of you who eat until you have '0 calories remaining') if you guys log every little bit of 'exercise' or activities that you do? That is, things like walking for about 20 minutes during your daily commute etc., other than gym workouts. I've been using MFP a month now and at first (until a few days ago) I was logging everything I could, but this was mostly because I was in the mindframe of getting my net calories looking as low as possible. Last few days, I've decided to up my intake to match my goal/BMR to see if it will work better but I've been lazy and not truly been logging those short walks to the train station.

Now, I'm come to realise that BMR is what your body would be burning if you were bed-bound/in a coma, right? So does this mean that those of us NOT in a coma (hopefully all of us!) are burning EXTRA calories that we're not even aware of? A lot of people are saying not to eat under your BMR as you're creating a large deficit than already so are we not already doing this? Or is this just included in the TDEE?

Sorry if this is all mumble-jumble, trying to sort out my mind. Or maybe I just want more food (I seem to be more hungry now that I've upped my calories..)

The selection of non-exercise daily activity level does actually have some activity in it. Like about 7 hrs of weekly walking around time. About 56 hrs of sitting/standing time. 56 hrs sleeping weekly, 40 hr desk job.

So yes, even if you pick Sedentary, the logging of weekly cleaning, and eating that back as you would normally do anything you log as correct way to use MFP - means you are eating away your deficit, no loss.

But, if you walk to work briskly everyday 20-30 min, that is not assumed. So either can log and eat it back, or get the exact same effect by selecting activity level of Lightly Active. Do that and your job is a nurse on your feet, now Active level.

But those MFP levels don't go high enough to include exercise in them.

If you want to do that, you have to manually set goals and forget the math MFP is doing.

I'll defer to the correct posts about BMR and TDEE already explained.

sandradev1

You can either go the route where you find your BMR and TDEE numbers following the road map:

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

OR

You follow MFP and be honest with your daily activity and do not set your loss per week too high - slower is better & healthier. Then with MFP programme, as it says in the stickies on the main forum, you log your exercise, it will increase your calorie goal by the amount of calories burned, and you try to eat as closely as you can to the newly amended calorie goal.

Both ways actually come out somewhere around the same number, provided you have input the data correctly in the first place.

Hope this helps:flowerforyou: