WHAT does the TDEE even include?

ok, so are you saying that my 58 calories in today's 'exercise' really is the amount i burn all day aside from my BMR? I'm asking if my real TDEE is thus 58+1118.

Ur BMR is literally what is needed to keep u alive if u laid in bed all day. I'm not expert but from what I understand with tdee is if u put sedentary would take into consideration stuff like working a desk job, walking around a little, making food, walking to the loo etc, just everyday stuff. There are other levels of tdee to chose from which take into consideration other types of work such as construction which obv burns more cals than a desk job and whether u work out and the amount per week etc.

And yes, it sucks being short, I would have thought with maintenance I could eat a bit more but apparently not...

yeah i understand how you feel. you mentioned the working a desk job and whatnot...what I'm asking is are those 58 calories i am obsessing over part of that desk job? is that what they mean?

Yes, I would think those 58cals are probably part of ur tdee. Like I said I'm no expert but personally I wouldn't count them as extra.

people get way to hung up on trying to work out there TDEE and BMr, the fact is that it will fluctuate each day and your never going to be able to measure it accurately tre are just to many variables.

Set a calorie goal and eat that amount of calories for 2 weeks. If after two weeks you have gained weight you are eating above your TDEE if you have lost weight you are eating below it. if you loose more then a pound then increase what you are eating, if you gain weight then decrease what you are eating . Then keep repeatingthis cycle

hey...good advice but I want your opinion, too...I've eaten like this for, i dunno, 4 months now and gained 1-2 pounds. would you call that maintaining? what if i eat like this and keep gaining? don't want that.

If you have gained 2 lbs of fat over the last 4 months, that means you have gained (on average) 2/16 = 0.125 lb a week.

It takes ~ 3500 calories to add a pound of fat.

0.125 lbs of fat is then = 0.125 * 3500 = 438 calories per week (or about 63 per day) above however many calories you need to maintain your weight.

So, if you have been logging and know that you have averaged 1377 per day, your true current maintenance level (or your TDEE, if you prefer) is 1377 - 63 = 1314 calories per day.


NOTE: I have assumed, for this, that the 2 lb gain is 100 % fat. If any of it is water, then obviously your actual fat gain is less. If its only 1 lb over this time, then you have only been 30-ish calories per day high. 0.5 lb fat, and you are only up by 15 cals per day!

NOTE 2: these numbers only works if you know you have actually averaged 1377 calories per day.

NOTE 3: 1-2 lb per 4 months is pretty damn close to maintaining, even if it is all fat! Congratulations!


Bottom line here seems to be that if you truly gained 1-2 lb of fat over 4 months you are very slightly over your TDEE (maintenance calorie level). But small overages can add up over time. To halt/reverse the gain, you need to eat very slightly less per day, or add a small amount of EXTRA exercise per day. If you move a bit more than you were doing these past 4 months, you will raise your TDEE by that amount, meaning you could eat the same and lose that tiny gain.

TDEE is total daily energy expenditure, so if you exercise/move more, you expend more energy, and your TDEE increases.

If you are maintaining your weight, you are at your TDEE, by definition. All any calculator will do is give you an estimate: real world results trump calculators.

Eat below TDEE you lose weight; eat above, you gain weight.

I just started using Pacer, a pedometer app, and today it told me I took 3375 steps, and burned 58 cals. Now, do those 58 cals count as exercise calories and would I add them to my TDEE, or does the TDEE already take those into account?

Ooops - meant to address this bit too.

If those steps are part of your normal daily activity (i.e. if those are the normal steps you take getting to and from work etc) then this is already part of your current TDEE.

If these are 3375 steps you added to your normal routine, then these steps will become part of your new TDEE.

Note: TDEE will not be the same everyday. If you normally walk 5 miles uphill both ways to the market every Saturday, your TDEE will be higher than on Sunday when you laze around in your PJ's reading the funnies. Look long term though, and average it out over a week or so.