BMR and TDEE Explained for Those Needing a Guide

purplekty · March 2013

bump

SarahBeth0625 · March 2013

Great post. Thank you for the links.

According the the calculator, my body fat percentage is 22.6% (neck: 12", waist: 27.5"; hips: 36").

I am 32 years old, 5'7", and 126.2 lbs and my lowest goal weight I want to be is 125, so I am ~basically~ maintaining at this point.

I am looking into recalculating my MFP calorie numbers but am not sure on activity level. I go to the Y 7 days a week and do 31 mins on the elliptical and 20 minutes of strength training 2-3 days a week. I do pushups every day (65-75 of them but don't really count those as a ton of activity as it only takes me a few minutes).

I have a mostly sedentary desk job 40 hours a week, but do some walking around.

I have 3 young kids but since I'm here at work during the day, it's hard to say I'm actively "chasing them around" a lot.

I get calories for tandem nursing (older baby/toddler + toddler, but they nurse 8 times a day and more on weekends). ETA: the calories get deducted (-600) every day from what I eat and this was a figure I found in the database.

I would think "very active" based on me working out 7 days a week, but since it's intense cardio for a half hour, is that enough to be considered "very" active?

Thank you in advance! I would love to know what I should set my calories to, based on current activity. This is the levels it is giving me (image below screen capture):

jporter2004 · March 2013

Bump! Thanks for posting this

losingdreamie · March 2013

bump

jfo2343 · March 2013

Thank you for your explanation of all this! Honestly, I had read through several other TDEE posts and felt my head spinning by the end of them; I'm a fairly intelligent person, but I just couldn't grasp all the numbers and calculations and ways to figure out this and that about eating the number of calories I should (instead of the 1429 that MFP spit out for me when I first joined). Your explanation is the first one I've read where I really feel like I understand the concept. Thank you, thank you, thank you! =>

MissesForrester · March 2013

BUMP!!!

ggeise14 · March 2013

Bump

littlemom1983 · March 2013

Good post on explaining how it works. Thank you for sharing.

jamerican23 · March 2013

Bump......

TillyNix · March 2013

I was trying to explain this to someone and this comes in a very good time. Thank you for sharing your research.

cald0nia · March 2013

Bump

blisser99 · March 2013

Bump

ktully93 · March 2013

Bump..this reconfirms that I understood the formula. Thanks for sharing!

MissesForrester · March 2013

I've been on a plateau for 3 weeks. So i am giving this a try. Great post, makes a lot of sense!

ladyark · March 2013

Going to save this for a later read...thanks

currlee · March 2013

many thanks

kmcosgrove115 · March 2013

Sarah Beth -

If I were guessing, I'd pick moderate activity - very active from all I read seems like serious weight training and lifting where the exercise is for an extended amt of time per day - that is the "feel" I had from the posts I read reg activity level. You could always bounce this to the forum as well and get a consensus. Or, someone suggested this for me as well when I could not pick, you could take the TDEE from moderate and very active and average them - then you are sort of covering both.................my first inclination is moderate based on your descrip and the things I read online reg the definition of very active with HARD workouts for long amts of time per day.

Hope this helps.

Kristen

TheStephil · March 2013

bump

LesaLu4 · March 2013

This is laid out so well. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

kmcosgrove115 · March 2013

Thanks guys - hoping it helps - once I understood the original post Dan did, I figured many others might be in the same boat. I check it periodically to see if anyone has questions and I think the "bumps" every now and then help others who may not have seen it the 1st go around.....................Happy Easter all!

SarahBeth0625 · April 2013

Sarah Beth -

If I were guessing, I'd pick moderate activity - very active from all I read seems like serious weight training and lifting where the exercise is for an extended amt of time per day - that is the "feel" I had from the posts I read reg activity level. You could always bounce this to the forum as well and get a consensus. Or, someone suggested this for me as well when I could not pick, you could take the TDEE from moderate and very active and average them - then you are sort of covering both.................my first inclination is moderate based on your descrip and the things I read online reg the definition of very active with HARD workouts for long amts of time per day.

Hope this helps.

Kristen

Kristen, yes!! This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. THANK YOU!! I had set my activity already based on "moderate" because I hemmed and hawed and figured it was closer to what I was doing for activity. Glad I was right with my instinct, and that you could confirm that.

Thanks again!