Tdee question- 20% lower than my bmr

Don't overly stress about it. Try eating at 1850 for a few weeks and see what happens.

You'll lose weight at that intake - but you'll need to check whether you're happy with the rate and whether you are hungry.

Online calculators are notoriously inaccurate so you'll just have to judge for yourself.

Online calculators are notoriously inaccurate so you'll just have to judge for yourself.

yah this is the truth. probably at your start weight the calculators will be off as your BMI is too high, so its over estimating your muscle mass. the calculators are only really accurate at relatively lean BMI's.

so just keep going! it is recommended that you eat a week or two of maintenance every 3 months, but you don't have to do that, I didn't cause I didn't want to loose my resolve.

so yeh, don't worry!

It is common to lose weight faster at the beginning because you lose water, muscle, and glycogen in addition to losing fat. You have gone through those things now, so later weight loss will likely be much slower. Don't compare your first 3 weeks result with any later results.

There are some who insist that 20% below TDEE is the only way to go. Others have different views. In part, it depends on your starting point. The more you have to lose, the more you can go below your TDEE.

Keep in mind a few other key numbers as well.

3500 calories = 1 pound
To lose 1 pound in 1 week, you need a deficit of 500 calories per day
To lose 2 pounds in 1 week, you need a deficit of 1,000 calories per day


If you start eating 20% below your TDEE, that's only about 420 calories daily deficit. That means you will expect to lose less than 1 pound per week. People who start heavier (like you and me) can lose faster than that.

When MFP sets your target, it does NOT subscribe to the TDEE - 20% idea. Instead, it relies on your target weight loss pace. So if you tell MFP that you want to lose 2 pounds per week, and your TDEE is, say, 2500 calories, MFP will tell you to eat 1500 calories per day. That gives you a 7000 calorie deficit per week, which should equate to 2 pounds. (If your TDEE is less than 2200, MFP will set you at 1200 calories as the minimum healthy intake.)

But as P4 commented, the online calculators disagree about what your BMR and TDEE are, and about what deficit you should have. In the end, your best bet is to track everything and see what level of consumption and what level of activity give you the weight loss pace that is right for you.

You have a lot to lose so it's not a big deal, I think.