Very confused- BMR, TDEE,etc; How much to eat each day?

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I'm 42, 5'3", 140 lbs. I've been trying to figure out my TDEE and BMR. I tried the calculator that someone had posted earlier (scoobysworkshop) but I'm still confused. It returned a TDEE of BMR of 1356, TDEE of 2102. Keeping to 80 % of my TDEE would put me at 1681. The 1681 is considerably more than I'm currently eating which has been close to my BMR. (1200 + most of my exercise calories is usually putting me between 1350 and 1450.)

Am I one of those people that probably needs to eat more to lose? This seems a little counter-intuitive to me but I've been stuck at around the 140 mark for a while so I'm open to suggestions.

Replies

  • katmumn
    katmumn Posts: 78 Member
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    bump. Hoping for replies.
  • gemrat
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    Struggling with the same issue. I'm scared to eat more and if I do, what macros work best!?
  • JamesChargerWolf
    JamesChargerWolf Posts: 83 Member
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    For a full month I barely lost anything. Looked into TDEE numbers and saw I wasn't even eating the bare minimum to run my organs (BMR) after exercise. Switched to doing TDEE - 20%, which is A LOT of food. Lost .8lbs the first week. My 2nd week at TDEE-20% will end Friday but I'm already down another full lb.

    It is completely scary at first but I am very happy with it.

    Read this.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • Yooperm35
    Yooperm35 Posts: 787 Member
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    If you've been stuck for awhile, it won't hurt to try, right? Good luck!
  • katmumn
    katmumn Posts: 78 Member
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    Thanks all fo rthe replies. I'm going to try setting my base calories to 1500, figuring with my exercise calories I will be close to the 1680 80% of TDEE mark.

    I'm hoping this works. I'm trying to lose at least 10 lbs, not just for the weight loss , but I'm hoping it will help bring down my cholesterol numbers a bit.