BMR/TDEE Question

EHisCDN

Sorry for the redundancy in advance about asking more BMR/TDEE questions.

I am 5'1.5, 21 years old and 166lbs. I put myself as moderately active (working out for 3-5 hour or 3-5 times a week depending on the question asked in the calculator) since I typically bike for that amount of time but otherwise am quite sedentary.
I have calculated my BMR and TDEE on 5 different online sites. I then averaged them out. The average was:
TDEE 2441
BMR 1595

That seemed pretty high to me and I'm worried that I overestimated my activity level although reading on through this site people seem to encourage others to make sure they don't underestimate their activity and to generally eat more.

Question: Is 1750 calories a day healthy for me? Would it be beneficial to eat my BMR every day and then eat back any exercise calories? Or should I stick with the MFP settings since they were working in the past, I'm just afraid of being unhealthy if I do so. I feel like the TDEE method encourages more of a healthy long-term lifestyle whereas MFP gets me in the mindset of a "diet".

Edited to add my age, since that seems important in the calculators.

honeysprinkles

Either way will work, just make sure you don't eat back your exercise calories if you include them in your activity level. I use a heart rate monitor so I prefer to add in all of my exercise calories so I know that it's accurate.

Just start with whatever is easier for you, consistency is what really gets results. After you get used to what you're doing, see how well it's working for you and re-evaluate!

EHisCDN

Did you calculate your BMR for when you're sedentary and then eat back exercise calories each day? I've been thinking of trying that.

honeysprinkles

Did you calculate your BMR for when you're sedentary and then eat back exercise calories each day? I've been thinking of trying that.

No, I don't really pay attention to any of that. I have my goal set to "maintain my weight" and I add in my exercise and just try to reach a reasonable deficit everyday. I net closer to 1200 than my bmr, but that's just what works for me.

Also, your BMR should be the same regardless of activity level...but it's just a guess anyways because an online calculator can't really take a lot of the important factors into consideration!

psuLemon

Just eat 1800 calories daily, track your progress for 1-2 months and then figure out your true TDEE. For example, I eat 2500 calories daily, I averaged 1 lb per week for 7 weeks. With this, I was able to estimate my TDEE to be 3000 calories.

michellekicks

I echo everything honeysprinkle has just said.

You can either eat BMR + all exercise calories (I prefer to add about 100 calories to that too, so BMR+100+exercise calories), or you can spread your exercise calories out and eat the same amount every day of the week. If you find it hard on a rest day to just eat the minimum, spread the calories out. If your TDEE is over 2400, I'd recommend you take a 500 calorie cut and leave it at that - eat 1900 daily. If that isn't working for you after a month or so, then reduce by 100 calories.

I don't think your numbers are high at all. Height has very little to do with burn; I'm 5'7" and 158-ish lbs and my BMR is about 1500 and my TDEE on a rest day is about 2200 on average. I work out 5 times a week and eat 2100 calories to lose and about 2500 daily to maintain.

affacat

Sorry for the redundancy in advance about asking more BMR/TDEE questions.

I am 5'1.5 and 166lbs. I put myself as moderately active (working out for 3-5 hour or 3-5 times a week depending on the question asked in the calculator) since I typically bike for that amount of time but otherwise am quite sedentary.
I have calculated my BMR and TDEE on 5 different online sites. I then averaged them out. The average was:
TDEE 2441
BMR 1595

That seemed pretty high to me and I'm worried that I overestimated my activity level although reading on through this site people seem to encourage others to make sure they don't underestimate their activity and to generally eat more.

Question: Is 1750 calories a day healthy for me? Would it be beneficial to eat my BMR every day and then eat back any exercise calories? Or should I stick with the MFP settings since they were working in the past, I'm just afraid of being unhealthy if I do so. I feel like the TDEE method encourages more of a healthy long-term lifestyle whereas MFP gets me in the mindset of a "diet".

1750 sounds reasonable. As previous poster stated, stick to that, ensure you do your exercise, and see if you're losing in 4-8 weeks (1-2 weeks isn't long enough).

If you want an alternate way to calculate just to see, set your level to sedentary. That will give you a goal cal that includes no exercise. Now, add on your exercise burn estimates, and it should be around the same value of 1750.

1750 is definitely enough to feel full everyday if you're good about what you eat. TDEE does seem high at first -- I know that the diet i set up before i knew about TDEE was only around 1500-1600 cals. Then i found this site, did the math, and have upped it to 2000-2100 (and might add more). I'm still losing steadily... I was undereating before.

The only thing of note is it looks like you're setting it to 25% off TDEE... 20% is probably a better setting.

EHisCDN

bump? Any other opinions?
I've been told that my calculations for my BMR are too high and it is probably in the mid 1400s. I'm going to try eating 1600 calories each day and see how far that gets me.

mammakat0830

I do BMR +100+ exercise calories... For me, its an in-between eating 20% less than TDEE and eating what MFP recommends. The answer is not "right" or "wrong"... I have not been losing weight but rather inches with this... I am considerign uping my calories... Use the military calcualtor on this... http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/...

I would also do some digging on these forums, there is tons of information.

Good luck with your goals!