BMR and TDEE Explained for Those Needing a Guide

heybales · April 2013

So, just so I have this right.. Using the tools from Fat2FitRadio, my BMR is either 1906 (Harris) or 1735 (Katch). From what I read, Katch is more accurate as it takes into account body fat (27.8%). Basically, I don't want to be below 1735.

Lightly Active = 2621, less 20% (524.2) = 2078.8

I aim to eat 2079 calories per day.

I do some cardio and burn, say, 400 calories. 20% off of that (80) means I eat back 320 calories, for a total of 2399 for the day.

Does that sound about right?

Well, there's the rub, fat2fit may help you estimate BF%, may ask for it, and may display the BMR based on it - but it does NOT use it in that eating table. Change the stat, the table stays the same.

Use this to get perhaps better BF%, use that Katch BMR, better Activity Calculator to estimate your daily level, leave out the exercise calories though.
Now go to the MFP Tweak tab.
Enter in Katch BMR shown and BMR multiplier shown from Simple Setup tab.

Tell's you your goal based on amount to lose, and what to change where in MFP.

Right below this is table to enter in exercise calories and time, and it will tell you how much to log and eat-back as exercise calories.

You can log your progress on that tab too.

Because you may be light active, may be tad less.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

Alan · April 2013

Thank you heybales! That's a mighty impressive spreadsheet you did up. Using the values I entered in, I'm now going to bump my daily calorie goal from 1270 (MFP) to 1880 plus eating back the percentage of my exercise calories.

I'll be honest, I'm a little concerned about gaining back pounds I've lost as my metabolism re-stabilizes. I know it'll be for the better in the long run, but it'll be interesting to see.

Interestingly, my bathroom scale gave me the same body fat % as the US Navy calculations.

Mittzu · April 2013

Bump

bjahil47 · April 2013

Thanks for all the great info. I think I understand everything but I cannot find anywhere how many calories I should subtract out as I have had gastric bypass surgery (in 2000). My BMR according to the Katch formula is 1440 and my TDEE based on light activity is 2498. so if I am understanding I should consume about 1998 calories/day (2498 less 20%) to lose weight. I could never consume all that and I read that gastric bypass people need to subtract out more calories. I have about 50 pounds to lose. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Lessismore98 · April 2013

EXCELLENT SUMMARY -- you are a good, clear writer, and actually using your personal numbers as examples lets the reader know whether they are understanding each step as you go through the process. Very well done!

Kreider86 · April 2013

bump! it finally makes more sense to me.. so confusing.

emilyahartmann · April 2013

Incredibly helpful!

marinatan1982 · April 2013

thank you SO much!

heybales · April 2013

Thank you heybales! That's a mighty impressive spreadsheet you did up. Using the values I entered in, I'm now going to bump my daily calorie goal from 1270 (MFP) to 1880 plus eating back the percentage of my exercise calories.

I'll be honest, I'm a little concerned about gaining back pounds I've lost as my metabolism re-stabilizes. I know it'll be for the better in the long run, but it'll be interesting to see.

Interestingly, my bathroom scale gave me the same body fat % as the US Navy calculations.

Men generally luck out in the BF measurement space. I'd avg all 3 together then in case Covert was different.

And men also recovery metabolism faster.

But, you might start with an increase of 200 daily for just 1 week. Figure out where it goes and somewhat habit, as much as a week will give you.
Then 200 more daily the week after.
3rd week you are at 1880.

And any fast gain is the same fast loss you had at the start - water weight.

So for eating 200 more daily, even if you suppressed your TDEE down to 1270 because that is all you really ate, it would take 18 days of it staying suppressed to gain 1 lb, eating 200 more daily. Reread that the first couple lbs you gain. Wasn't fat, not possible.
And your metabolism, if even suppressed, won't stay down that long, likely.

heybales · April 2013

Thanks for all the great info. I think I understand everything but I cannot find anywhere how many calories I should subtract out as I have had gastric bypass surgery (in 2000). My BMR according to the Katch formula is 1440 and my TDEE based on light activity is 2498. so if I am understanding I should consume about 1998 calories/day (2498 less 20%) to lose weight. I could never consume all that and I read that gastric bypass people need to subtract out more calories. I have about 50 pounds to lose. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Special situation you need to talk to your Dr about. There are probably limits to the amount of food you should try to eat.
Though some that had long term failed results from GP did start eating more in lines with retaining muscle mass, just had to do it on many meals and calorie dense food. But they started losing.

130annie · April 2013

bump

akrae · April 2013

Bump

stefa087 · April 2013

Thank you for going through all this as it was very helpful. I'm not sure if this question was asked already and if it was, I apologize. I understand BMR and TDEE -- that makes sense to me. What I don't get is isn't myfitnesspal misleading so many people if it's telling them to eat under their BMR? Why doesn't it at least make your BMR the minimum? If anyone could provide some insight on this that would be greatly appreciated-- also again, I'm sorry if this has been addressed already.

keithf1138 · April 2013

Couple questions.

I currently track burn with a combination of my FitBit for general every day life and MFP for working out. If I spend 60 minutes on an Elliptical I record it in MFP and that gets transferred to my FitBit. I track my calories on MFP and pretty religious about it. So if for my height information I find says I should be at most 190 and I am currently at 226 then I should look to cut 20% from my calories needed to stay at 226.

So rather then doing the calculation and then looking at what my BMR is and how much I should consume should I simply look at what my FitBit says and cut 20% to loose the 36 pounds? I generally try to workout 5-6 days per week. I also try to get up and move at work. For instance 6-7 times per day I will walk down to the 1st floor of the office and then back up to the 6th floor. My rule is every time I leave the office I need to go down to the 1st floor and back up and elevators arent allowed. Generally my FitBit says I hit 40-50 flights per day.

heybales · April 2013

Couple questions.

I currently track burn with a combination of my FitBit for general every day life and MFP for working out. If I spend 60 minutes on an Elliptical I record it in MFP and that gets transferred to my FitBit. I track my calories on MFP and pretty religious about it. So if for my height information I find says I should be at most 190 and I am currently at 226 then I should look to cut 20% from my calories needed to stay at 226.

So rather then doing the calculation and then looking at what my BMR is and how much I should consume should I simply look at what my FitBit says and cut 20% to loose the 36 pounds? I generally try to workout 5-6 days per week. I also try to get up and move at work. For instance 6-7 times per day I will walk down to the 1st floor of the office and then back up to the 6th floor. My rule is every time I leave the office I need to go down to the 1st floor and back up and elevators arent allowed. Generally my FitBit says I hit 40-50 flights per day.

Instructions in this post for setting MFP to same activity level as sedentary FitBit days.
Setting manual eating goal.
Allow adjustments to reflect exercise done above non-exercise days.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/952171-confused-fitbit-tdee-and-nursing?page=1#posts-14727343

heybales · April 2013

Thank you for going through all this as it was very helpful. I'm not sure if this question was asked already and if it was, I apologize. I understand BMR and TDEE -- that makes sense to me. What I don't get is isn't myfitnesspal misleading so many people if it's telling them to eat under their BMR? Why doesn't it at least make your BMR the minimum? If anyone could provide some insight on this that would be greatly appreciated-- also again, I'm sorry if this has been addressed already.

How do you retain active subscribers to get more advertising revenue?

Make them happy, at first. Those levels will almost always cause great weight loss for some period of time.

Depending on following the program correctly (eating back exercise calories) and your other stresses, you may be successful the whole time, with only some muscle mass loss. You may be surprised you can't go back to the suggested maintenance level without gaining weight, so then you stick around and keep food counting even longer.

But even if you stall, look how many stay as active subscribers doing the same thing time after time expecting different results, which is the numbers advertisers want to know and sell to.

It's about the money, and not getting sued, so cutoff is commonly accepted minimum for a sedentary person to get their nutrition in on avg diet variety.