Using my data to figure out my true TDEE.. check my numbers?

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hannah_ryann
hannah_ryann Posts: 259 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I've taken my data from the past 4 weeks in terms of net calories consumed and weight lost to try and figure out my true TDEE. I would appreciate any input or suggestions for errors that I made in calculations to be addressed. Thanks!

Stats:
Height: 5'3
Current weight: 156


I added up my daily NET calories from the past 30 days and came up with an average NET intake of 1398 calories per day. For simplicity's sake, I rounded to 1400 per day average NET intake.
I also looked and I've lost 7.4 pounds over the same 30 days. If I'm doing this correctly, 1400x30 =42000 total NET calories consumed over the past 30 days.

I played with various average TDEE numbers until I found this one.
2260x30(days)=67800 calories total for same time.
67800(total estimated TDEE calories)-42000(NET calories consumed)=25,800 calorie deficit over the past 30 days.

25,800/3500(rough amount of calories equal to a pound)=7.37 pounds.

So, with this data, does this mean I can safely estimate my TDEE as around 2260 calories a day?

Replies

  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
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    Yes your math is correct. Just beware that a month may not be enough to estimate safely.
    Here's my data, for comparison:
    z7538.png
    I've used the same logic (but worked in kgs not pounds). The black line is the weight loss "Expected" based on what I "found" to be my TDEE using the same way as you did. You see there's a slight discrepancy between the two lines because the initial month had both the newbie gains and a water retention period. If I had calculated only on one month I would've been pretty "off" (well, ok.. by 100 calories! :D )
  • hannah_ryann
    hannah_ryann Posts: 259 Member
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    Yes your math is correct. Just beware that a month may not be enough to estimate safely.
    Here's my data, for comparison:
    z7538.png
    I've used the same logic (but worked in kgs not pounds). The black line is the weight loss "Expected" based on what I "found" to be my TDEE using the same way as you did. You see there's a slight discrepancy between the two lines because the initial month had both the newbie gains and a water retention period. If I had calculated only on one month I would've been pretty "off" (well, ok.. by 100 calories! :D )

    Awesome! I've been doing this since January but took a break for a couple of months. I have consistent data since July.. Think I should run the numbers since then?

    And also, I would love it if you could explain to me HOW in the world you set up that chart. I've been playing with Excel a little but I definitely cannot make anything like yours at this point!
  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
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    ^^ nice graph!

    To the OP, yes, that is your maintenance before exercise (because you are using net calories). If you want your TDEE, which by definition includes exercise, you should do it with gross calories.
  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
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    Haha it's pretty easy. If you can give me some time I'm actually working on setting up a "blank sheet" anyone can use (it's really very simple math, but right now it's all over the place). I'll send you a friend request?:)
  • hannah_ryann
    hannah_ryann Posts: 259 Member
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    ^^ nice graph!

    To the OP, yes, that is your maintenance before exercise (because you are using net calories). If you want your TDEE, which by definition includes exercise, you should do it with gross calories.


    That's a good point. And I exercise quite often (4-5 times/week) so it'll be interesting for me to see what those numbers look like.
  • hannah_ryann
    hannah_ryann Posts: 259 Member
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    That would be great! And already accepted. :)
  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
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    About previous data: Depends how much weight you've lost. Right now I'm using a fixed TDEE (without exercise, good point jsl) because my losses are not that big (I'm rather small to begin with) so my TDEE didn't vary much. I'll try to figure out if I can build a TDEE formula to take into account weight loss. If you dropped or gained a lot, then extra data might do more damage than good:)

    Also, if you want to check if your data is "reliable" enough try to add a trendline over your 1 month data that is polynomial, not linear, and see if it looks almost "straight" (right click on graph, "add trendline", type -> polynomial, degree 2). if it's very curvy then that's probably not a good estimate.
  • hannah_ryann
    hannah_ryann Posts: 259 Member
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    Ooh it is pretty curvy for the 1 month. I just typed in all my data backdated from July 15 so I'm gonna check to see how that reliable that data is using the trendline.
  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
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    Ok it depends on the data as well... it's supposed to be straight IF your overall caloric deficit is roughly the same (say you're always at a 500ish deficit on a weekly average). If your habits changed, then more complicated stuff needs to be done.

    I do this for a living so I like the challenge:)

    But overall, if you're just looking for a TDEE estimate then this is gonna be good enough. The error is going to be small enough not to cause distress. I'm overly complicating things.... :)
  • hannah_ryann
    hannah_ryann Posts: 259 Member
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    No, you're totally not over complicating things! The more I learn and the closer I get to my goal weight, I am HUNGRY for knowledge about this kind of stuff. I have fallen in love with data; I just dont know what to do with it haha.
  • nelinelineli
    nelinelineli Posts: 330 Member
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    No, you're totally not over complicating things! The more I learn and the closer I get to my goal weight, I am HUNGRY for knowledge about this kind of stuff. I have fallen in love with data; I just dont know what to do with it haha.

    Ohh you're my kind of person then! I'm a bit busy right now, but if you want to share your data with me I can try to take a look at it after work and do some simple things to get you started:)
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    I added up my daily NET calories from the past 30 days and came up with an average NET intake of 1398 calories per day. For simplicity's sake, I rounded to 1400 per day average NET intake.
    I also looked and I've lost 7.4 pounds over the same 30 days.

    I would then take 7.4 pounds at 3500 cals to get a deficit over the 30 days of 863 calories a day. ( 7.4 * 3500 / 30 )

    Add that to the 1400 and the TDEE is 2263

    But that's your TDEE without exercise, as you used "NET" calories, so be mindful of that when using the number. It isn't T as in Total.
  • hannah_ryann
    hannah_ryann Posts: 259 Member
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    Here are the numbers for the past 64 days (gross calories eaten and weight lost)

    -15.4 pounds
    Average GROSS calorie intake of 1875.

    15.4*3500=53900

    53900/64=842 calorie/day deficit.

    842+1875=2717 gross calories for TDEE..

    OMG! Is this right? That's a crazy amount of calories for my TDEE. I'm still 15 pounds from goal so I'll obviously recalculate the numbers based on the data I gather between now and then but... shew. I must be doing something wrong with the calculations because that seems crazy ridiculous.
  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
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    Here are the numbers for the past 64 days (gross calories eaten and weight lost)

    -15.4 pounds
    Average GROSS calorie intake of 1875.

    15.4*3500=53900

    53900/64=842 calorie/day deficit.

    842+1875=2717 gross calories for TDEE..

    OMG! Is this right? That's a crazy amount of calories for my TDEE. I'm still 15 pounds from goal so I'll obviously recalculate the numbers based on the data I gather between now and then but... shew. I must be doing something wrong with the calculations because that seems crazy ridiculous.

    I don't see anything wrong with it . . . comparing that to your calculations with the net calories, it seems like you are burning around 500 cals a day on average with exercise. Does that seem right?

    It is still all somewhat of an estimation (both cals consumed and the 3500 cals/lb figure) but for someone very active I could believe it. That also would be your "average" TDEE over the last 64 days and you would expect it to be decreasing as you lose weight so your current TDEE might be a bit lower now.
  • 40rods
    40rods Posts: 5 Member
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    Hey nelinelineli, I would be very interested in the blank sheet as well. I found this thread and tracking this info would be awesome. Could I add you? Thanks!

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