Interesting caloric deficit tool I found

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ana3067
ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
Was Googling to see what people thought of the health-calc TDEE calculator, which I have seen both good and bad comments about, when I somehow came across this:

http://www.niddk.nih.gov/research-funding/at-niddk/labs-branches/LBM/integrative-physiology-section/body-weight-simulator/Pages/body-weight-simulator.aspx

Just have java installed and put in some info, and it seems quite similar to the health-calc website. You input both your work/daily living activity AND your exercise activity, so I feel like it'd be a good way to recalculate your needs if you suddenly become way more active or you take a break from exercising for a week or two. I work out 4x a week ~5 hours a week overall, so I selected "Active" as I don't really think my strength training classifies as strenuous most of the time. I also am pretty sedentary outside of this so I chose the very light setting for daily living. Gives me an estimated TDEE of 2690 at 175lbs!

A cool thing about it though is that it graphs out your estimated losses over the time period you input. I started with my current weight and it gave me around 2100 to lose 20 lbs in 160 days. Inputting my starting stats, it has me at 2lbs lighter than I actually am for how many days I've been doing this, but I have not been in a consistent deficit this whole time, so that's pretty impressive! For current stats it puts me at ~168lbs at the end of september if I eat 2094 calories a day. Since I want to refeed weekly I'm going to start with 2026 6x a week, 2500 once a week, and see if my weight lines up well with the graphs (totals to 2093.7 cals daily on average). Of course I won't be eating EXACTLY 2026 calories every day, but I will be aiming to get as close to that every day to get the best results.

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  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,520 Member
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    I tried health-calc. It placed my BMR a good 250 points higher than the average I had gotten from 4 or 5 other calculators. Weird.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    I tried health-calc. It placed my BMR a good 250 points higher than the average I had gotten from 4 or 5 other calculators. Weird.

    Yeah I don't know which formula they use, but their BMR is higher for me as well. Although the total TDEE usually doesn't seem so crazy high compared to other websites for me, depending on how I'm calculating things!
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    Tagging to use later. I'm going to Ireland end of next week for two weeks. I'll be plenty active, but I won't be lifting but I will be walking a lot, and maybe running a few times. Not sure yet.

    Thanks for the link.
  • schmoovey
    schmoovey Posts: 32 Member
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    Java apps always scare me. Thanks for the tip though!
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    There are a bazillion calorie calculators on the web. I put my info into a bunch and got everything from 950 to 2200.

    WebMD gave me the lowest. I don't remember what gave me the highest.

    That's when I decided the number wasn't all that important.

    Doctor never gave me a number, anyway. He gave me a diet. The diet took care of the overeating, lol.