tdee - 20% means I net below BMR-- is this bad?

keeks2486
keeks2486 Posts: 14
in Health and Weight Loss
So my TDEE is 2300. My calorie goal is 1800-1900 a day. I just got a heart rate monitor and realized my exercise sessions are 500-600 calories each (5-6x/week), which would mean I am netting below my BMR of 1500 on exercise days. Is this bad? Should I eat a little more to at least net my bmr when I workout and then eat more like 1700 on rest days?

Replies

  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    my understanding of HRM's is that you should not use them to measure calories burned during exercise calories…so your burn estimates my be off..but then again, I might be wrong about HMRs, but I recall reading that somewhere...
  • pastrychefoz
    pastrychefoz Posts: 22
    HRMs are great for tracking cals burned as long as they are set up well e.g age starting weight sex resting heart rate etc.

    With this info you can find your target heart rate and also track calories burned as you lose weight. Most brands like polar etc.. That work off a chest strap give quite a accurate reading, better than wrist monitoring.

    Only reported downside with HRM is that when you are doing strength training your cals will be off a bit ( I just keep a consistent workout and don't play on my phone between sets :) and take off 30% of cals burned so that I don't overestimate)
  • MrsRobertson1005
    MrsRobertson1005 Posts: 552 Member
    When you foud out your tdee if you set your activity level to sedentary you should be eating back most of you exercise calories to keep you from going under your bmr. Hope that helps :)
  • kennie2
    kennie2 Posts: 1,170 Member
    then you worked out your TDEE wrong, you should put it as very active if you're working out daily
  • KinoM
    KinoM Posts: 359 Member
    TDEE = *Total* Daily Energy Expenditure. That includes all exercise, so if you're burning more when you exercise than you thought you did when you calculated your TDEE, it means your TDEE is wrong and you should adjust it based on your new data.
  • keeks2486
    keeks2486 Posts: 14
    thanks all, so I should be netting at/a little above BMR with exercise? Gonna up my TDEE to very active and recalculate accordingly
  • Howl2013
    Howl2013 Posts: 32 Member
    OK so I'm new to this TDEE thing. Apparently mine is about 1800. So, should I only be eating that amount on workout days? or all the time? Or am I still supposed to subtract something from that and set that lower number as goal if I want to lose? I've basically got my calorie goal set just above BMR right now (which ends up being about 75% of TDEE) - but I do add back and eat (mostly) my exercise calories.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    HRMs are great for tracking cals burned as long as they are set up well e.g age starting weight sex resting heart rate etc.

    Only for certain types of exercising, like running/cycling at a fairly consistent pace for a reasonably long period of time.

    They were never intended for anything "intervaly", and will grossly exaggerate the burn if used as such.

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