So confused - TDEE vs MFP vs Fitbit
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kte120
Posts: 10 Member
ive been trying to do all my research and go through past boards on this but am just so confused that I'm putting it out there for support!
I am committed to doing this the right way - CICO with no crazy fad diets. So, step one, figure out my calorie goals. MFP has me set at 1200. When I eat that I'm at the point where the 5 week calculator has me losing less than 1 pound per week. I know this is an acceptable loss, but this seems to imply that my actual calorie goal must be much lower than 1200 as I set it to lose 2 lbs per week. So, MFP clearly thinks I should be eating much less but won't go below its rule of 1200.
I wanted to be more precise so I tried calculating TDEE. I ended up with a BMR of 1494 and a TDEE of 1793. This the advised me to eat 1434 calories. Yet MFP disagrees. Fitbit has me eating around 600 calories !!!! Which one do I use and why?
Any help would truly be appreciated.
I am committed to doing this the right way - CICO with no crazy fad diets. So, step one, figure out my calorie goals. MFP has me set at 1200. When I eat that I'm at the point where the 5 week calculator has me losing less than 1 pound per week. I know this is an acceptable loss, but this seems to imply that my actual calorie goal must be much lower than 1200 as I set it to lose 2 lbs per week. So, MFP clearly thinks I should be eating much less but won't go below its rule of 1200.
I wanted to be more precise so I tried calculating TDEE. I ended up with a BMR of 1494 and a TDEE of 1793. This the advised me to eat 1434 calories. Yet MFP disagrees. Fitbit has me eating around 600 calories !!!! Which one do I use and why?
Any help would truly be appreciated.
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Replies
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ive been trying to do all my research and go through past boards on this but am just so confused that I'm putting it out there for support!
I am committed to doing this the right way - CICO with no crazy fad diets. So, step one, figure out my calorie goals. MFP has me set at 1200. When I eat that I'm at the point where the 5 week calculator has me losing less than 1 pound per week. I know this is an acceptable loss, but this seems to imply that my actual calorie goal must be much lower than 1200 as I set it to lose 2 lbs per week. So, MFP clearly thinks I should be eating much less but won't go below its rule of 1200.
I wanted to be more precise so I tried calculating TDEE. I ended up with a BMR of 1494 and a TDEE of 1793. This the advised me to eat 1434 calories. Yet MFP disagrees. Fitbit has me eating around 600 calories !!!! Which one do I use and why?
Any help would truly be appreciated.
What are your stats? Gender, height, weight?0 -
Female 5'2 161 lbs0
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410
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If your BMR is 1400+, moving more via walking and other daily activities can help raise your TDEE. At truly sedentary (under 5000 steps per day) you burn 1700-ish calories. Every time you stand, walk to the mailbox, play with your kids, etc., can add to your TDEE. Be more active. Eating 1200 calories isn't the only way to create a deficit.0
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Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the calories necessary to maintain your current weight. If you follow these instructions, you'll be eating TDEE minus an appropriate deficit for your size.
Connect your accounts at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit
Set your goal to .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided
Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
In the MFP app, go to More > Steps and choose Fitbit.
Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments. No need to log any step-based activity—your Fitbit is tracking it for you. Log non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) either in Fitbit or in MFP—never both. Exercise logged in MFP overwrites your Fitbit burn during that time.
You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users0 -
I calculate your basic TDEE (as if you worked a desk job and your only exercise was walking slowly 30 minutes per day) to be 1350 calories. This means, basically that you'd have to cut calories from that to lose weight - that you'd be eating at maintenance at 1350. So to lose weight you need to build yourself a deficit. You'll need to exercise to do that. You say you have a Fitbit - so you need to do an activity that gives you a calorie burn of 500 calories per day, and eat 1350 calories, and you should lose weight at a rate of 1 pound per week.
Once you hit your goal weight, if you keep your exercise regimen, your maintenance calories will be 1850, if you like!0 -
I calculate your basic TDEE (as if you worked a desk job and your only exercise was walking slowly 30 minutes per day) to be 1350 calories. This means, basically that you'd have to cut calories from that to lose weight - that you'd be eating at maintenance at 1350. So to lose weight you need to build yourself a deficit. You'll need to exercise to do that. You say you have a Fitbit - so you need to do an activity that gives you a calorie burn of 500 calories per day, and eat 1350 calories, and you should lose weight at a rate of 1 pound per week.
Once you hit your goal weight, if you keep your exercise regimen, your maintenance calories will be 1850, if you like!
How did you get that? Using this calculator, given 8 hours of sleep and no other activity, I get 1976 for TDEE and 1470 for BMR.
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
If you were to use the TDEE method, OP, you'd subtract 15-20% from the TDEE, not the BMR. That would mean that to lose weight, you'd consume 1580 total (with a 20% deficit) if you were totally sedentary. You'd ignore your FitBit. Note that that number doesn't include any walking or shopping or housework at all, you'd have to add that into the dial.
If you exercise consistently (say 4-6 days a week), you'd input that amount of exercise into the dial (along with your regular home and work activity), again get your TDEE, and subtract the % you want and NOT LOG your exercise and ignore your FitBit.
Again, for the TDEE approach, you wouldn't log anything into MFP and you'd ignore your FItBIt. The assumptions about burns from exercise would be built in, and you'd eat the same amount every day. It would mean you'd have to be consistent with your level of activity to maintain that burn.0 -
I calculate your basic TDEE (as if you worked a desk job and your only exercise was walking slowly 30 minutes per day) to be 1350 calories. This means, basically that you'd have to cut calories from that to lose weight - that you'd be eating at maintenance at 1350. So to lose weight you need to build yourself a deficit. You'll need to exercise to do that. You say you have a Fitbit - so you need to do an activity that gives you a calorie burn of 500 calories per day, and eat 1350 calories, and you should lose weight at a rate of 1 pound per week.
Once you hit your goal weight, if you keep your exercise regimen, your maintenance calories will be 1850, if you like!
How did you get that? Using this calculator, given 8 hours of sleep and no other activity, I get 1976 for TDEE and 1470 for BMR.
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
If you were to use the TDEE method, OP, you'd subtract 15-20% from the TDEE, not the BMR. That would mean that to lose weight, you'd consume 1580 total (with a 20% deficit) if you were totally sedentary. You'd ignore your FitBit. Note that that number doesn't include any walking or shopping or housework at all, you'd have to add that into the dial.
If you exercise consistently (say 4-6 days a week), you'd input that amount of exercise into the dial (along with your regular home and work activity), again get your TDEE, and subtract the % you want and NOT LOG your exercise and ignore your FitBit.
Again, for the TDEE approach, you wouldn't log anything into MFP and you'd ignore your FItBIt. The assumptions about burns from exercise would be built in, and you'd eat the same amount every day. It would mean you'd have to exercise consistently to maintain that burn.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calories-burned/#results
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I calculate your basic TDEE (as if you worked a desk job and your only exercise was walking slowly 30 minutes per day) to be 1350 calories. This means, basically that you'd have to cut calories from that to lose weight - that you'd be eating at maintenance at 1350. So to lose weight you need to build yourself a deficit. You'll need to exercise to do that. You say you have a Fitbit - so you need to do an activity that gives you a calorie burn of 500 calories per day, and eat 1350 calories, and you should lose weight at a rate of 1 pound per week.
Once you hit your goal weight, if you keep your exercise regimen, your maintenance calories will be 1850, if you like!
How did you get that? Using this calculator, given 8 hours of sleep and no other activity, I get 1976 for TDEE and 1470 for BMR.
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
If you were to use the TDEE method, OP, you'd subtract 15-20% from the TDEE, not the BMR. That would mean that to lose weight, you'd consume 1580 total (with a 20% deficit) if you were totally sedentary. You'd ignore your FitBit. Note that that number doesn't include any walking or shopping or housework at all, you'd have to add that into the dial.
If you exercise consistently (say 4-6 days a week), you'd input that amount of exercise into the dial (along with your regular home and work activity), again get your TDEE, and subtract the % you want and NOT LOG your exercise and ignore your FitBit.
Again, for the TDEE approach, you wouldn't log anything into MFP and you'd ignore your FItBIt. The assumptions about burns from exercise would be built in, and you'd eat the same amount every day. It would mean you'd have to exercise consistently to maintain that burn.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calories-burned/#results
Right, ok - that calculator gives you the RMR, not the TDEE. Scooby suggests adding additional calories to the RMR for each activity, to account for NEAT and exercise calories, and then subtracting from that total.
"Lets calculate Homer’s caloric target correctly, you can do it one of two ways:
Calculate calories burned during the day by starting with your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and then add the calories burned *by* each activity you participate in during your waking hours
Calculate your calories burned during the day by ignoring your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and then add the calories burned *during* each activity you participate in during the day, including sleeping. If you use this method, its important that your activities total to 24 hours."
"There are two ways you can count calories, you have to use one or the other but you cannot use both! One is easier and one is harder but more accurate.
Method 1: The easiest way is to use my caloric calculator or my accurate calorie calculator. In these calculators you simply estimate the total number of hours cardio you do in a week, strenuous cardio – lifting weights does not count. These calculators actually do a great job at getting pretty darn close to estimating your caloric targets and they are easy to use.
Method 2: This method is more work but more accurate. In this method, you tally your energy expended in every single activity. You start with your base metabolic rate which is how many calories you use while doing nothing and then calculate the calories used in every single activity (this calculator). A lot of people really like doing this because it lets them do tradeoffs, for example, “I can eat two slices of pizza if I run for an hour”.0 -
I calculate your basic TDEE (as if you worked a desk job and your only exercise was walking slowly 30 minutes per day) to be 1350 calories. This means, basically that you'd have to cut calories from that to lose weight - that you'd be eating at maintenance at 1350. So to lose weight you need to build yourself a deficit. You'll need to exercise to do that. You say you have a Fitbit - so you need to do an activity that gives you a calorie burn of 500 calories per day, and eat 1350 calories, and you should lose weight at a rate of 1 pound per week.
Once you hit your goal weight, if you keep your exercise regimen, your maintenance calories will be 1850, if you like!
How did you get that? Using this calculator, given 8 hours of sleep and no other activity, I get 1976 for TDEE and 1470 for BMR.
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
If you were to use the TDEE method, OP, you'd subtract 15-20% from the TDEE, not the BMR. That would mean that to lose weight, you'd consume 1580 total (with a 20% deficit) if you were totally sedentary. You'd ignore your FitBit. Note that that number doesn't include any walking or shopping or housework at all, you'd have to add that into the dial.
If you exercise consistently (say 4-6 days a week), you'd input that amount of exercise into the dial (along with your regular home and work activity), again get your TDEE, and subtract the % you want and NOT LOG your exercise and ignore your FitBit.
Again, for the TDEE approach, you wouldn't log anything into MFP and you'd ignore your FItBIt. The assumptions about burns from exercise would be built in, and you'd eat the same amount every day. It would mean you'd have to exercise consistently to maintain that burn.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calories-burned/#results
Right, ok - that calculator gives you the RMR, not the TDEE. Scooby suggests adding additional calories to the RMR for each activity, to account for NEAT and exercise calories, and then subtracting from that total.
"Lets calculate Homer’s caloric target correctly, you can do it one of two ways:
Calculate calories burned during the day by starting with your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and then add the calories burned *by* each activity you participate in during your waking hours
Calculate your calories burned during the day by ignoring your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and then add the calories burned *during* each activity you participate in during the day, including sleeping. If you use this method, its important that your activities total to 24 hours."
"There are two ways you can count calories, you have to use one or the other but you cannot use both! One is easier and one is harder but more accurate.
Method 1: The easiest way is to use my caloric calculator or my accurate calorie calculator. In these calculators you simply estimate the total number of hours cardio you do in a week, strenuous cardio – lifting weights does not count. These calculators actually do a great job at getting pretty darn close to estimating your caloric targets and they are easy to use.
Method 2: This method is more work but more accurate. In this method, you tally your energy expended in every single activity. You start with your base metabolic rate which is how many calories you use while doing nothing and then calculate the calories used in every single activity (this calculator). A lot of people really like doing this because it lets them do tradeoffs, for example, “I can eat two slices of pizza if I run for an hour”.
Yes, I told her in my post, I calculated it as if she had a sedentary desk job, walked slowly for 30 minutes per day. If she wanted to build a deficit above the RMR, she'd need to have a calorie burn of 500 calories per day involving strenuous exercise. It's all in my previous post.1 -
I calculate your basic TDEE (as if you worked a desk job and your only exercise was walking slowly 30 minutes per day) to be 1350 calories. This means, basically that you'd have to cut calories from that to lose weight - that you'd be eating at maintenance at 1350. So to lose weight you need to build yourself a deficit. You'll need to exercise to do that. You say you have a Fitbit - so you need to do an activity that gives you a calorie burn of 500 calories per day, and eat 1350 calories, and you should lose weight at a rate of 1 pound per week.
Once you hit your goal weight, if you keep your exercise regimen, your maintenance calories will be 1850, if you like!
How did you get that? Using this calculator, given 8 hours of sleep and no other activity, I get 1976 for TDEE and 1470 for BMR.
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
If you were to use the TDEE method, OP, you'd subtract 15-20% from the TDEE, not the BMR. That would mean that to lose weight, you'd consume 1580 total (with a 20% deficit) if you were totally sedentary. You'd ignore your FitBit. Note that that number doesn't include any walking or shopping or housework at all, you'd have to add that into the dial.
If you exercise consistently (say 4-6 days a week), you'd input that amount of exercise into the dial (along with your regular home and work activity), again get your TDEE, and subtract the % you want and NOT LOG your exercise and ignore your FitBit.
Again, for the TDEE approach, you wouldn't log anything into MFP and you'd ignore your FItBIt. The assumptions about burns from exercise would be built in, and you'd eat the same amount every day. It would mean you'd have to exercise consistently to maintain that burn.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calories-burned/#results
Right, ok - that calculator gives you the RMR, not the TDEE. Scooby suggests adding additional calories to the RMR for each activity, to account for NEAT and exercise calories, and then subtracting from that total.
"Lets calculate Homer’s caloric target correctly, you can do it one of two ways:
Calculate calories burned during the day by starting with your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and then add the calories burned *by* each activity you participate in during your waking hours
Calculate your calories burned during the day by ignoring your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and then add the calories burned *during* each activity you participate in during the day, including sleeping. If you use this method, its important that your activities total to 24 hours."
"There are two ways you can count calories, you have to use one or the other but you cannot use both! One is easier and one is harder but more accurate.
Method 1: The easiest way is to use my caloric calculator or my accurate calorie calculator. In these calculators you simply estimate the total number of hours cardio you do in a week, strenuous cardio – lifting weights does not count. These calculators actually do a great job at getting pretty darn close to estimating your caloric targets and they are easy to use.
Method 2: This method is more work but more accurate. In this method, you tally your energy expended in every single activity. You start with your base metabolic rate which is how many calories you use while doing nothing and then calculate the calories used in every single activity (this calculator). A lot of people really like doing this because it lets them do tradeoffs, for example, “I can eat two slices of pizza if I run for an hour”.
Yes, I told her in my post, I calculated it as if she had a sedentary desk job, walked slowly for 30 minutes per day. If she wanted to build a deficit above the RMR, she'd need to have a calorie burn of 500 calories per day involving strenuous exercise. It's all in my previous post.
Scooby's other page ( http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ ) gives her these numbers:
Desk job + little (no deliberate) exercise = TDEE of 1738, and a target of 1390 for a 20% deficit, and 1477 for a 15% deficit.
Desk job + 1-3 hours of light exercise a week = TDEE of 1991, and a target of 1593 with a 20% deficit, 1692 with a 15% deficit.
With 3-5 hours a week of moderate exercise:
TDEE = 2245
20% deficit = 1796
15% deficit = 1908
i don't think anyone should eat 1300-1400 if they don't have to...
OP try the numbers that relate to your activity level and only adjust downward if you're not losing in a month.
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