BMR and TDEE Explained for Those Needing a Guide

suewestcountry

Brilliant explanation, its been like a foreign language to me up till now. I now know the correct calories etc

sunbunny66

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kmcosgrove115

Hope this helps everyone! I am in week 2 of reset - eating more and saying to myself that my body needs to re-learn......................and that's ok.........................:)

LinFlemmer331

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NormInv

MY DREAM POST IS:

TL;DR OF BMR AND TDEE FOR THE CHALLENGED.

Cincypsych

Thank you for this!,

sac4fd

If you exercise HARD above the level you went with on the TDEE chart, then in those cases only, factor it in. This is why so many diaries have that they burned 1 calorie in a workout - they want to visually see the workout in the journal but know it is most likely already factored in to their TDEE less 20% - make sense?

Yes, this does make sense thanks! My dilemma was whether to pick sedentary and then enter my workouts and eat them back or pick an activity level that matches my workout and not eat workout calories back. I love entering my workouts because it feels like a job well done but I hadn't considered that I could still enter them just put their calorie burn at 1! Good idea!

Thank you to the other responders as well, that article was helpful!

jazzedorange

You have helped SO many of us! Thanks!!!

dimsumkitty

Thanks for the info

Thought I'd let everyone know that Body Fat Percentage calculator is not very accurate at all! It gave my 23% when calipers are giving me about 30%.

balancedbrunette

Awesome post, thank you for laying it out so clearly very helpful. .

nannukka

I loved the write up! Thank you!
B
ut I am still confused about the exercise part. Can somebody clarify for me if am doing it correctly. So when I signed up, I put all the info (weight, height, gender, activity level in general and how many times a week you exercise etc) on THIS (MFP) website and it spit the number of calories I should eat on non-exercise days. I have put my info on some other sites too and that number seems to be pretty accurate regadless where I get it. Then when I exercise I have been logging it in and then MFP increases the calories I can eat. I have eaten close to that number (little under usually). Have I been doing it wrong?

kmcosgrove115

Since the TDEE is already acctg for exercise, you can log in your workout so you can see it but then manually make the calories burned only "1" - that way you bypass the increase MFP would do looking like you should eat more.

The general consensus says unless you are doing a very HARD workout, don't eat back the calories, log in the exercise and manually adjust the calories burned to only read as "1" - hope that makes sense!

nannukka

ahhh....I see. I do hard cardio for about 1 hr (30 cardio and 30 weights). I am so soaked that my hair is wet in the end of cardio and I do serious weights (no minnie mouse weights and no big breaks if any breaks, lifting until failure). Would this be considered HARD.....I don't want to eat the calories if I actually shouldn't, but at the same time I do not want to deprive my body either. shoots. I do notice I am pretty hungry on the exercise days so maybe my body is telling me "Eat" (unless there is some terrible trickery going on with my body and it is snickering behind hunger feelings and rubbing its hands with glee of getting more calories to HOLD ON TO :laugh: )

debbie6868

bump so can read later

Vailara

MY DREAM POST IS:

TL;DR OF BMR AND TDEE FOR THE CHALLENGED.

If you're using the site recommended here ( http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ ) to work it out, you only really need your TDEE.

Put in your current weight as your goal weight (as if you were trying to maintain).

Scroll down the page to the box for Activity Level and choose your activity level (sedentary, etc.). Those calories are your TDEE (if you ate that figure you would stay the same weight, not gain or lose).

As long as you eat below your TDEE you should lose weight.

Subtract 20 % from that TDEE to get a more precise figure of how much you should eat. (e.g. if your TDEE figure is 2000, you should be eating 1600 calories a day).

Put that figure as your goal calories in MFP and ignore exercise (you've already included it in your activity level).

Recalculate as you lose weight (because your TDEE will get smaller as you get smaller!).
.....................................................

That's the basic idea. If you had less to lose you might have a smaller deficit of 10 % or 15%.

Where does BMR come in? A lot of people recommend that you don't eat below your BMR. I believe that for most overweight people, TDEE - 20% will be above their BMR, but you might want to check by going back up the fat2fitradio page. You'll also need your BMR if you want to work out your TDEE more precisely, using body fat measurements and working out your activity level individually.

curvycarrie

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CRKERR94

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Django1977

Nice article....

redheadedgal

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kmcosgrove115

nannukka -

The activity level you selected on the chart factors into TDEE # - if you are saying you do this HARD cardio for an hour over and above normal workout that you already figured in, then yes, you could log it in but I would still not be eating back ALL that it says you burned, some maybe at most................that is just me............and what I concluded after reading on this topic alot.

Or, like many do here, log in the HARD workout, manually override the calories burned in MFP and type in "1" so you at least can see the workout logged in for that day.

Rule of thumb - TDEE already accounted for your activity level in that # - if this is something you did NOT factor in with the chart, then yes, it is additional and it's your call as to whether or not to eat it back - many do not, they log in "1" as you never know if you may have underestimated calories during your day...........so they eat some back but many do not eat all of it back for that "underestimated" concern / reason................

So it comes down to what you chose for activity level for TDEE and knowing most workouts are included in that # already - make sense?

Kristen

amyshield

Thank you for this explanation!!

sararixe

Could someone take a look at my food and exercise and tell me if im on track. I think at this point i might need to up my cals but not 100% sure.I like earning my my workout cals it makes me fell good to know i kicked my own but and can eat a bit more because of it. Im a stay at home mom so I do what comes with that lol (cooking,cleaning,laundry.....) At this point I have about 14lbs left to hit GW so whats the next step for me? Thanks

kmcosgrove115

At first blush, your sodium and sugars seem high in your food choices - maybe lower them some. I am sure someone else here will also have some advice

Stephiestephs

It's was very helpful but fat 2 fit gives two bmr's. Harris said 1505 but katch 1332 that is a huge difference. Also Harris said I had 28% bf but I typed in 40% and the match acknowledged that I was at 40% bf I am so confused

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

sararixe

At first blush, your sodium and sugars seem high in your food choices - maybe lower them some. I am sure someone else here will also have some advice

ya i try to keep those low but its hard.. I drink A LOT of water though

ashmike12

Thank you soooo much for explaining this!!! This helped soooo much!!!

leeannewgeorge

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Vailara

It's was very helpful but fat 2 fit gives two bmr's. Harris said 1505 but katch 1332 that is a huge difference. Also Harris said I had 28% bf but I typed in 40% and the match acknowledged that I was at 40% bf I am so confused

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

I don't think the Harris-Benedict figure takes into account your body fat %. Try putting any body fat % in the calculator and you'll get the same figure. The trouble is that I believe fat2fitradio uses Harris-Benedict for the TDEE calculation, even though they give you the Katch-McArdle BMR (which does take into account body fat %).

You can still use the Katch-McArdle figure and multiply by the right amount to find your TDEE. Somebody has helpfully posted the multipliers here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/921403-yes-you-can-quick-start-guide-to-fat-loss

For instance, if you were sedentary, you would multiply the Katch-McArdle BMR by 1.2 to find your TDEE. If you have a high body fat %, like me, that gives you a lower TDEE than fat2fitradio gives you, but hopefully it's more accurate!

nik2710

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Tercob

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