BMR and TDEE Explained for Those Needing a Guide

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

MY DREAM POST IS:

TL;DR OF BMR AND TDEE FOR THE CHALLENGED.

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!

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%.

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?

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: )

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!).
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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.

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Thank you for this explanation!!

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

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