TDEE - What is it and why you should not eat below your BMR

What is BMR?
Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed all day!

What is TDEE?
TDEE is the common abbreviation for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is a metric to calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day. This is quite similar to BMR; in fact, you need your BMR to calculate your TDEE; but your TDEE accounts for your average daily activity as well to give a figure truer to your specific situation. Basically, the TDEE calculation relies on categorizing your daily activity into one of the metrics' predetermined groupings:

Sedentary - desk job and little to no exercise
Lightly Active - light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk
Moderately Active - moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk (****SIDE NOTE - even if you have a desk job most people fit right here when you workout 3 days a week)
Very Active - hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk
Extremely Active - hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training
Once you have determined where you fit in on the TDEE activity rate scale, this activity rate is used to weight your BMR giving you a more accurate assessment of how many calories you really need throughout the course of the day.

Here is a link to a site that you plug in your information and it will provide your BMR and TDEE along with your Cut value (again, if you workout 3-5 times a week select "Moderate" and the "Select Your Goal" option you will select is "Lose Fat - 15% caloric reduction") :

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

So now, you should have your BMR, TDEE, and Cut Value (TDEE - 15%)

Here is a video that talks about this in great detail that hopefully will clear up any questions you may have:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi9xjIRvbY&feature=g-all-u


If TDEE is figured out correctly, then exercise cals don't *have* to be eaten back because, technically, TDEE figures them in. The underlying factor here, is that most people underestimate their activity levels, (for fear of being told to eat "too much") and then proceed to under eat. If a person is burning 1000 cals/day in exercise, then that should be figured into their TDEE, meaning their TDEE should be AT LEAST 1000 cals more than their BMR. If this is not the case then they are undercutting themselves on the cals. So a person w/a BMR of 1300, that puts up 1000 cal burns should have come up w/a TDEE calculation of 2400 or more. So any situation where a person is not getting those calculations, they should be eating back some of those exercise cals.

So if you come up w/BMR=1300, TDEE=1800, you need to either A)eat back some cals, or recalculate your TDEE to include the *actual* burns that you're getting.

So to cut using *true* TDEE figures, you'd just eat a flat TDEE (-15%), as long as TDEE is correct. It should be fine. But if you are using MFP's calculations, or are not getting a TDEE that includes the amount you burn each day *plus* BMR, you need to eat back some exercise cals. (***NOTE-If you have been eating low calories for an extended period of time, you may want to consier taking a diet break by eating FULL TDEE for an 8-12 week period to do what is called a "Metabolism Reset". Information regarding is in the sticky "Metabolism Reset-Eating at TDEE Support Thread" at the top. Here is a video that will help you to decide if TDEE -15% or a Metabolism reset is right for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COzMKkXeiFo)

I make the following recommendations....Change the followiing in your MFP Goal settings under Custom:
Carbs 40%
Protein 30%
Fat 30%
Fiber 30
Sodium 2500
Everything I have read thus far in my journey suggests those macronutrient ratios. It forces you to eat more protein which is important for maintaining and building muscle. Break up your food inake too, eating small meals during the course of the day helps keep the body burning calories. Feel free to check out my diary "AnewLucia", it is open to the public. ***I didn't think it was necessary to say this, but have been asked...eating clean should go without saying because we all are trying to achieve a heathly lifestyle in general. However, we all have "loves" and this is about "living", so I also believe all things in moderation. Lastly, if you are truly sticking to your numbers and ratios, there is no way to junk out...hence the reason I never stressed it before..so now it has been stressed! ***

I almost forgot to mention, I always drink a protein shake right after a workout, so important to give the body good protein after exercising because those muscles are hungry...so take your shake with you to guzzle right after.

Ok ladies, If you aren't currently strength training you are missing out...weight lifting is what transforms the body. You would be amazed, but those beautifully toned women you just dream about looking like...you will rarely see them in a cardio class sweating to the oldies but goodies....they are in the weight room pushing some heavy steel. If you haven't read it, a good read is "New Rules of Lifting Weights for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess". It gives an excellent nutritional break down (which finally made my bulb light up,) and for beginning lifters it gives you a great program to get you going....for those that are already familiar with weights and have routines and all that...it is time to start challenging yourself...go up 5lbs each lift session, you would be absolutely amazed at what your body can do....and now that you are fueling it you will have the energy to challenge yourself as well!

Lastly, for those that love to weigh in daily, we all know it can be a bit disheartening watching the scale (please make sure to read "What to expect when you up your calories" in another of the topics on this board.) Someone found this great tool to track your weight. You weigh daily and it graphs not only your weight, but how you are trending. It also allows you to note what is happening with you(ie. TOM, sodium, constipation, heavy lift) so you can see the causes of the fluctuations....I ABSOLUTELY ADORE this tool.
https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/HackDiet?s=022WQ9WF6Q200JFJJKFF2K288F0JQK950K003894&q=logout&HDiet_tzoffset=240

Ok one more last thing, if at week 6 you have not lost weight or inches (which is rare) post a topic and let's review what you have been doing during the timeframe. I have yet to find it is due to too many calories. The culprit has been inconsistency and/or underestimating calories burned. We can't stress enough to be consistent in fueling and making sure your activity level is correct.


ONCE you have your TDEE and BMR...next step:

I have received this question quite a few times so hopefully this will help (of course please plug in your own numbers).

Let's say your TDEE is 2300 then you subtract 15% so that you now have your cut value of 1955.

Let's say your BMR is 1500.

Ok, so now you know the numbers, I suggest you then go into MFP Goal custom settings and change daily calorie goal to 1955, carbs 40, prot 30, fat 30, and fiber 30.

So, this takes into account your exercise so you shouldn't have to eat back any extra calories UNLESS (as in this example 1955-1500= 455) you burn over 455 calories. If you burn lets say 655 calories then you would need 200 extra calories on top of the 1955 to NET BMR.

If you make that change to your MFP goals then you can input your exercise and on your homepage of MFP it will show you where you stand with your NET calories...as long as it is higher than your BMR on that workout day you are good to go...if not, then eat calories until you at least NET your BMR.

Here is a video that you should watch that may answer questions you may still have right now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKQF3_8LVI8&feature=g-upl

If you have decided to do a full Metabolism Reset, then you would eat your TDEE value daily. You would still be sure not to NET below your BMR on any workout day.