TDEE/BMR/ HELP!

Yes, exactly what leahestey said. BMR is Base Metabolic Rate, it's the amount of calories the doctors would feed you through a tube if you were in a coma in the hospital, the amount needed to keep you alive and breathing and nothing more.

TDEE on the other hand is Total Daily Energy Expenditure, and takes into account your blinking and brushing your teeth and walking around and exercising and going to the bathroom and everything else you do in a day. It is the amount of calories you need to maintain all that.

So if you want to lose weight you have to be eating a little less (a deficit) than your TDEE, so that you won't just maintain your current weight (which is what happens when you eat your total TDEE). So yes, you subtract your 10% deficit from your TDEE number to arrive at the amount of calories that you ought to aim for eating in a day.

I am trying to figure out how many calories I should be eating and I am so confused on the TDEE stuff and I could really use some help. I am a 25 year old female, 185 lbs, and 5' 8". On fitnessfrog, it says my TDEE is 2277 and my BMR is 1656. Do I take 10% of the TDEE to figure out how many calories I should eat daily? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

The % you take off TDEE depends on how much weight you need to lose. People who have a lot of weight to lose can take a bigger percent than people who have less to lose.