Daily calorie goal

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I've seen a lot about BMR and TDEE the last couple days, and it's really confusing me. I did some reading on the subject, but I still don't really get it. MFP set my daily goal to 1200,(I'm 5'5"ish And weigh 185) but the calcutors I found varied for BMR and TDEE but were usually around 1675, and 2050. I've lost 13lbs in the first 3 weeks, so I'm not complaining there, I'm just concerned maybe I'm eating too little as a goal, I'm trying to get healthier, not cause more health problems down the road.
Thanks

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  • phildawson75
    phildawson75 Posts: 205 Member
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    BMR = how many calories your body uses to keep you living ie breathing, organs functioning etc. Think of it as how many calories your body would use if you slept for 24hrs.

    Your TDEE is the same as BMR but also includes your daily activity of moving about. The more active you are the more calories you would obviously burn so you need a higher intake of food.

    What its telling you is if you simply take BMR away from TDEE it shows 2050-1675= 375 calories is what it estimates you would be burning each day from just moving about in your daily life.

    If you enter your details here and click on an activity level then press calculate, you can see how it estimates more or less depending on how active your avg day is.

    http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html
  • nicoled6842
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    Okay, that makes a lot more sense now :) thanks. And I think I really need to up my intake.
  • luxyt
    luxyt Posts: 8 Member
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    Hi, my BMR is 1544, and i'm planning to do exercise 5-6 days. so based on moderate exercise my TDEE is 2393. with -20% it is 1914. If i put no exercise to calculate my TDEE os 1852 and with -20% it is 1482. i'm really confused with this. so to lose weight, with 5-6 days of exercise am i supposed to eat betwen 1544-1914 calories. but on the days i don't do exercise should i eat around 1482, but from what i read on other forums, I am not supposed to eat under my BMR right? this is really confusing. Can someone please tell me how many calories to eat with exercise and how many to eat when i don't do exercise. Thanks