BMR and TDEE

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kellyw036
kellyw036 Posts: 58 Member
Hi All,

I am sure there is a post within the group, but I wanted to start a newer thread.

Being tall and weighing more, our BMR and TDEE are naturally higher. Right?

My BMR is 1995 and TDEE is 2394. That is HIGH. I have a hard time imagining I can lose weight eating at least between those two numbers. Are you guys eating between your BMR and TDEE and losing? I know everyone is different, just a difficult concept to grasp since I see so many people (who are shorter and weigh less I am sure) with numbers much smaller. ARGH!

Thanks for any input :smile:

Replies

  • Jenn152
    Jenn152 Posts: 373 Member
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    yes maam! i'm 5'11, right now i'm 209. and i eat around 1850-1950 cals a day and lose weight. my BMR is 1750, TDEE is 2406, and a -20% is 1925.

    it only seems HIGH because as a society we are conditioned to think to lose weight we have to eat 1200 calories...

    i do this to be sustainable for a lifetime. no one our size can live on 1200 cals a day for the rest of their life.
  • kellyw036
    kellyw036 Posts: 58 Member
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    yes maam! i'm 5'11, right now i'm 209. and i eat around 1850-1950 cals a day and lose weight. my BMR is 1750, TDEE is 2406, and a -20% is 1925.

    it only seems HIGH because as a society we are conditioned to think to lose weight we have to eat 1200 calories...

    i do this to be sustainable for a lifetime. no one our size can live on 1200 cals a day for the rest of their life.

    I know..It has been sinking in for about 2 weeks now. I'm understanding more and more-I LOVE IT! I just need to hear it from fellow tall girls haha. Reassurance I guess! And yes, I am doing this for the long haul.... *Stepping ahead confidently**

    THANK YOU!
  • Laura_beau
    Laura_beau Posts: 1,029 Member
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    Hi There

    My BMR & TDEE are almost exactly the same as yours, calculated at sedentary level (I'm 6'1" and currently about 260lbs). I tend to zig zag my cals throughout the week and eat more on a weekend. I think it roughly averages out at about 1800.

    ie: Mon-Thurs 1500-1800 and Fri-Sun 1900-2300

    It's what works for me and I am steadily losing weight and enjoying my weekend glasses of wine ;o)
  • tracywaz
    tracywaz Posts: 53 Member
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    5'11", 172 lbs- 2200 TDEE-- 1760 Weight loss
    MFP has me at 1930 TDEE with 1200 for weight loss (I'm set a 1.5 lbs per week, but at this point, don't know if that's realistic since I'm 12 lbs from goal). Now THAT seems low to me, although I weigh less than you guys.

    Does your TDEE change as you lose weight? It should.

    Laura- I read about zig zagging. I haven't tried it yet. The program I'm doing (sort of a boot camp) has us on a generic eating plan (don't count calories- have one protein, one carb and a veggie) but I learned halfway through that I really need to be counting cals & macronutrients. We get one free day per week, which is awesome. I'm usually so full and sick from the junk that I really only have a couple of cheat meals on that day. I always look soooo forward to Saturday and when it gets here, I have that first pig out meal and I can't finish it! Of course then the scale is up for a couple of days and doesn't normalize until about Tuesday.

    I think I want to try zig zagging so that I can see if it makes a difference in how I feel. I just really like the idea of no holds barred!
  • RachelAngel01
    RachelAngel01 Posts: 77 Member
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    I'm so glad you posted this! I just had a thread asking if my TDEE was too high! It was ranging between 2600-3200 every time I would calculate it. That seemed crazy to me. I'm not even very active. My BMR is consistently between 1800-1900, and I've been eating about 1450-1500 every day. I guess I should boost my calories, but I am staying full and happy where I am. I am just not sure what to do. I eat a LOT of fat and protein, and few carbs. My fats/proteins are healthy choices, so I feel fine with that. My energy has been up, and I've been feeling fine.

    I'm not sure what to do to increase my calories, actually! I don't want to add carbs, and I'm just about proteined out every day, lol! If I add more fat, that will throw my macros all out of whack...I try to stay about 30 protein-25 carb-45 fat. I can't figure out how to get more protein without doing eggs--which I kind of hate. :-)

    It's a relief to see my numbers probably aren't that unreasonable. I will figure this out someday.
  • kellyw036
    kellyw036 Posts: 58 Member
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    I'm so glad you posted this! I just had a thread asking if my TDEE was too high! It was ranging between 2600-3200 every time I would calculate it. That seemed crazy to me. I'm not even very active. My BMR is consistently between 1800-1900, and I've been eating about 1450-1500 every day. I guess I should boost my calories, but I am staying full and happy where I am. I am just not sure what to do. I eat a LOT of fat and protein, and few carbs. My fats/proteins are healthy choices, so I feel fine with that. My energy has been up, and I've been feeling fine.

    I'm not sure what to do to increase my calories, actually! I don't want to add carbs, and I'm just about proteined out every day, lol! If I add more fat, that will throw my macros all out of whack...I try to stay about 30 protein-25 carb-45 fat. I can't figure out how to get more protein without doing eggs--which I kind of hate. :-)

    It's a relief to see my numbers probably aren't that unreasonable. I will figure this out someday.

    I have heard a lot of people recommending peanut butter for additional calories. That is great that you are feeling full!
  • BeckyJo19
    BeckyJo19 Posts: 49 Member
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    Thank you for posting this...I've really been struggling with trying to find balance. MFP tells me to net 1200 to lose 2 lbs/week. That just seems so low.
  • kellyw036
    kellyw036 Posts: 58 Member
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    Thank you for posting this...I've really been struggling with trying to find balance. MFP tells me to net 1200 to lose 2 lbs/week. That just seems so low.

    Much too low.... Have you checked out the Road Map thread?
  • majoki
    majoki Posts: 151 Member
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    I'm 5'11" and ~157 lbs. My TDEE seems to vary between 2300 and 2900 (according to my new Body Media Fit). My BMR is 1502 in the Harris-Benedict formula.

    I'd been eating 1400 (+ exercise) cals for 5 weeks. I lost weight the entire time. It wasn't bad for that time period, but I realized last week that I didn't want to drop much more weight. I'm working on increasing to 1800 cals right now.
  • amanda_ataraxia
    amanda_ataraxia Posts: 400 Member
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    Thank you for posting this...I've really been struggling with trying to find balance. MFP tells me to net 1200 to lose 2 lbs/week. That just seems so low.

    Much too low.... Have you checked out the Road Map thread?
    THIS.

    And there are some great online calculators for anyone interested-
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    And this site will "zig-zag" your calories for you which I find helpful-
    http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
  • nyssalynne
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    New here. Can someone explain these numbers to me and how to find them?
  • kristy_n0831
    kristy_n0831 Posts: 108 Member
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    6'1 270lbs


    MFP had me eating 2090, plus eating back exercise calories. A friend pointed me to the spreadsheet and it told me to eat 1814 and no eating back exercise calories. I've only recently starting doing the spreadsheet way of things, but so far I'm feeling better, and I think the calorie reduction has me making better choices.
  • Jenn152
    Jenn152 Posts: 373 Member
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    this is a long post, but EXCELLENT information regarding eating enough to fuel your body during weight loss... it explains everything and gives great resources.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/937712-in-place-of-a-road-map-ver-3-0
  • Lunarbeanie
    Lunarbeanie Posts: 107 Member
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    I'm 5'9" and weigh entirely too much.

    acording to the fat 2 fit metabolic calculator


    sedentary 1837
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2105
    Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2373
    Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2641
    Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2909

    I'm a SAHM so I always say that I'm lightly active. I was working out approx 6 days a week, but I've slowed down the couple of weeks. I'll pick it back up again. Anyways, for lightly active, it suggests I eat 2105calories per day. MFP suggest 2050/day.

    I'm slowly losing weight. I had a big drop in the first week or two and then it slowed right down, but I'm still dropping slowly.

    HTH!
  • difabu
    difabu Posts: 143
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    5'9", 175 lbs. BMR = 1818; TDEE = 2412 (-20% = 1930).

    I've been losing well staying between 1900-2100. But when I disregarded IPOARM in favor of MFP's "Net Calories" approach, my weightloss stalled. Works for most but not for me. :/ Now I'm back on the Roadmap.
  • doughnutwretch
    doughnutwretch Posts: 498 Member
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    6' tall
    BMR - 1736
    TDEE - 2750 average

    I consume between 2000-2400 a day, depending on how hungry I am, and have been losing consistently since January, post-bulk.
  • ladyace2078
    ladyace2078 Posts: 460 Member
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    Yes you are correct. I'm 5'11" and 170 lb. When I was cutting I was eating ~2700 calories a day (and working out 6 days a week)! I now eat 2500-2700 calories to maintain (exercising 2-5 days a week).
  • majoki
    majoki Posts: 151 Member
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    I'm 5'11" and ~157 lbs. My TDEE seems to vary between 2300 and 2900 (according to my new Body Media Fit). My BMR is 1502 in the Harris-Benedict formula.

    I'd been eating 1400 (+ exercise) cals for 5 weeks. I lost weight the entire time. It wasn't bad for that time period, but I realized last week that I didn't want to drop much more weight. I'm working on increasing to 1800 cals right now.

    So I wrote that on 3/27 (about a month ago). I've since moved to eating 1800-2000 calories a day (generally), and I've lost 4-5 more pounds... I think I can easily bump up to 2500 calories a day and maintain just based on my body media fit numbers.

    [I noticed that on a particular day recently where I sat on my butt all day and did almost nothing, I burned ~1900 calories. ]
  • wrinkledsheets
    wrinkledsheets Posts: 5 Member
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    My RMR, which I assume is the same as BMR, is 1454. That's measured by a breath test. That was at 5'10" and 195 lbs.

    TDEE is 1454 + 435 from lifestyle + 181 exercise = 2070. I've been working on upping my daily activity and exercise.
  • lorierin22
    lorierin22 Posts: 432 Member
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    I am not super tall, I am 5'10" (and a half...lol), but my BMR has been a lot lower than that from the beginning. When I started it was around 1550 and my TDEE was about 2200...I lost about 15 pounds doing things the hard way between 1200-1350 calories, and the last 15 eating around 1850-1900 each day. I have decided that I would like to lose an extra 10 pounds and I have moved back to using MFP (as intended, by eating back my exercise calories) just to motivate me to go on my run and actually work out. I had been slipping, so eating the higher number AND skipping my workouts was not working for me. That being said...my base number on MFP before exercise calories is still 1470, which is right above my current BMR.