TDEE explanation of weird phenomenon!?
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smelliefeet wrote: »MegaMooseEsq wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »
Just keep an eye on things and adjust as necessary. These calculators only provide reasonable estimates based on population statistics...they're only meant to be a good starting point.
There are any number of reasons why one's TDEE may be higher or lower than what one of these pretty simple calculators spits out. For example, I'm very fidgety and I have a higher TDEE than most calculators will give me for having a desk job.
You may also want to have your thyroid checked for hyperthyroid.
Yeah, I come out a bit high myself, and I just figure that there's always going to be some people on either end of the bell-curve. I've never had any sign of thyroid issue and have been losing very predictably for nine and a half months. I've played around with the numbers a lot, and figure that my TDEE is closer - although still lower- to the average male than female.
I totally agree here. I used to be a division I athlete in college, and then became obese due to being very sedentary but continuing with the athlete diet (eating everything all the time, lol), but I definitely still have quite a bit of muscle mass under there and I am VERY fidgety as well. I have a TON of energy on this diet. I actually thought I had HYPOthyroid months ago when I went to the doctor (in April) and so she tested it, because I was having trouble losing weight. My thyroid levels are totally normal. I can't see how they would have changed in the matter of 7 months...
I think I am going to accept the explanation that I'm simply on the higher end of the bell curve, and that's it's not particularly weird at all.
It is possible for your thyroid levels to change in that amount of time.
I am hypo and medicated for it, changing my eating/exercise can be enough to effect my TSH numbers. When I started increasing my calories after dieting I was actually hyper for a while (being hyper has never caused me to lose any significant amount of weight.. TDEE changes from hypo/hyper are usually pretty small - like 5% or so )
What changed since you went in thinking you might be hypo though? It does seem odd that you would be struggling to the point of thinking there's something wrong, to the weight just falling off this quickly.2 -
smelliefeet wrote: »MegaMooseEsq wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »
Just keep an eye on things and adjust as necessary. These calculators only provide reasonable estimates based on population statistics...they're only meant to be a good starting point.
There are any number of reasons why one's TDEE may be higher or lower than what one of these pretty simple calculators spits out. For example, I'm very fidgety and I have a higher TDEE than most calculators will give me for having a desk job.
You may also want to have your thyroid checked for hyperthyroid.
Yeah, I come out a bit high myself, and I just figure that there's always going to be some people on either end of the bell-curve. I've never had any sign of thyroid issue and have been losing very predictably for nine and a half months. I've played around with the numbers a lot, and figure that my TDEE is closer - although still lower- to the average male than female.
I totally agree here. I used to be a division I athlete in college, and then became obese due to being very sedentary but continuing with the athlete diet (eating everything all the time, lol), but I definitely still have quite a bit of muscle mass under there and I am VERY fidgety as well. I have a TON of energy on this diet. I actually thought I had HYPOthyroid months ago when I went to the doctor (in April) and so she tested it, because I was having trouble losing weight. My thyroid levels are totally normal. I can't see how they would have changed in the matter of 7 months...
I think I am going to accept the explanation that I'm simply on the higher end of the bell curve, and that's it's not particularly weird at all.
I maintained a healthy weight pretty effortlessly through my mid to late 20s, and then (1) started law school and subsequently struggled to find work, (2) met my husband, who had very different eating habits than I, and (3) became a bar-fly (see points one and two). 73 pounds later...
ETA: Thanks for linking that article, @AnnPT77. I'd guess that I probably don't fall into the 68% within 6-8% of the average metabolic rate, but certainly into the 96% within 10-16% of average. It really isn't that weird once you reduce it to the numbers like that.3 -
gebeziseva wrote: »BusyRaeNOTBusty wrote: »2500 and 160lbs sounds reasonable.
Doesn't sound to me with this amount of exercise. I'm 5'7 and at 160lbs my TDEE was 1700-1750 with 1h walking per day.
I would make a regular GP appointment just in case.
Hopefully you're just lucky.
And I am 5'3" and 115 pounds and I burn 1700 on a sick day. It is amazing how much individuals can differ!3 -
The only way to know for certain what your TDEE is would be to stop your weightloss effort and to eat 2800 cals/day for at least a month to see what happens.
If you gain weight, your actual TDEE is less than 2800. If you continue to lose wt, your TDEE is higher than 2800. If you do not gain or lose wt, you will be in maintenance and your TDEE is indeed 2800.
FWIW, when I switched to maintenace, I got estimates of 2200-2300 for my TDEE based on various calculators but discovered (by trial and error) that my TDEE was actually only 1900-2000, about 10% less than estimated.
The same variance may apply to you.3 -
I've been calculating my tdee based on calories consumed and weight change since 2 weeks after I began tracking again, which means I have about 3 months worth of data in any excel sheet. I average it all out and also get an amount higher than I expected, about 2850. But I weight much more than you do it's only 300 calories above what I saw in various tools.
I have noticed a downward trend, which I guess could be me getting smaller or maybe there's a spike in three in the beginning before the body gets used to the change. My early weeks often averaged 3200 tdee. Although I've also had weeks where i gained and my tdee was calculated absurdly low (i assume water weight threw it off), so that could be the cause.
Anyway, I think it would take a long time to get a true reading because there are huge fluctuations day to day and week to week. Sounds like you're doing great though!!!2 -
Keep doing what you're doing. I promise you it will slow down sooner or later. Raise your calories a little week by week as you get closer to your goal.1
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There's going to be a bunch (3-8 pounds maybe) of initial weight loss that's essentially water weight that will come back once you're on maintenance. So you'll want to take that off the total weight loss, which will shrink your TDEE "a bunch". If you go with the 8 pound number, you're looking at dropping TDEE by 3500 calories a week and end up at with a TDEE of 2300.
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if you're losing/getting them gains then don't sweat it. Im currently eating 2675 cal and losing.1
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I am 160lbs with a 2500 TDEE.1
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The only way to know for certain what your TDEE is would be to stop your weightloss effort and to eat 2800 cals/day for at least a month to see what happens.
If you gain weight, your actual TDEE is less than 2800. If you continue to lose wt, your TDEE is higher than 2800. If you do not gain or lose wt, you will be in maintenance and your TDEE is indeed 2800.
FWIW, when I switched to maintenace, I got estimates of 2200-2300 for my TDEE based on various calculators but discovered (by trial and error) that my TDEE was actually only 1900-2000, about 10% less than estimated.
The same variance may apply to you.
Hunh?
TDEE includes all of your calorie needs for what you actually do. Your TDEE when you exercise is just as "actual" as your TDEE when you don't exercise.
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Despite all the ideas others have posted ... just to put in my 2 cents ... I've never been able to back into what my TDEE is by doing the math of pounds x n for fat per pound. While it's true that 1 pound of pure is about 3500 kilojoules(sp?) of energy (calories) it doesn't work out math wise in a living human body.
I think that's because it's not just the total calories we eat, but also how our bodies respond to specific components of the food we eat. I'm not at all qualified to speak on this from a scientific, medical, nutritional professional basis ... but from close observation of how different eating patterns/habits affect my short term response to food. This includes how quickly my digestion responds, to how much access fluid I'm storing, to how fit-flab-turgid-soft my belly feels. All these short term effects on my weight can make it appear as if, when I try to back into what my TDEE was, that I am a scientific anomaly.3 -
Despite all the ideas others have posted ... just to put in my 2 cents ... I've never been able to back into what my TDEE is by doing the math of pounds x n for fat per pound. While it's true that 1 pound of pure is about 3500 kilojoules(sp?) of energy (calories) it doesn't work out math wise in a living human body.
I think that's because it's not just the total calories we eat, but also how our bodies respond to specific components of the food we eat. I'm not at all qualified to speak on this from a scientific, medical, nutritional professional basis ... but from close observation of how different eating patterns/habits affect my short term response to food. This includes how quickly my digestion responds, to how much access fluid I'm storing, to how fit-flab-turgid-soft my belly feels. All these short term effects on my weight can make it appear as if, when I try to back into what my TDEE was, that I am a scientific anomaly.
I suspect the 3500 is another one of those estimates that can vary quite a bit depending on diet and other factors. I’ve found it to be generally on the nose for me, but I assume it won’t work for everyone. I also have the advantage of fairly predictable water weight movements which helped clear up the numbers.1 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »Despite all the ideas others have posted ... just to put in my 2 cents ... I've never been able to back into what my TDEE is by doing the math of pounds x n for fat per pound. While it's true that 1 pound of pure is about 3500 kilojoules(sp?) of energy (calories) it doesn't work out math wise in a living human body.
I think that's because it's not just the total calories we eat, but also how our bodies respond to specific components of the food we eat. I'm not at all qualified to speak on this from a scientific, medical, nutritional professional basis ... but from close observation of how different eating patterns/habits affect my short term response to food. This includes how quickly my digestion responds, to how much access fluid I'm storing, to how fit-flab-turgid-soft my belly feels. All these short term effects on my weight can make it appear as if, when I try to back into what my TDEE was, that I am a scientific anomaly.
I suspect the 3500 is another one of those estimates that can vary quite a bit depending on diet and other factors. I’ve found it to be generally on the nose for me, but I assume it won’t work for everyone. I also have the advantage of fairly predictable water weight movements which helped clear up the numbers.
3500 is a rounded estimate of how much energy is in a pound of fat. When you lose weight, you lose both fat and lean mass (which includes everything other than fat.) Lyle Mcdonald has a good article that breaks this down. An excerpt:So consider the situation where someone is getting 10% of the energy deficit from LBM and the other 90% from stored fat. They have created a 3,500 calorie weekly deficit. 10% or 350 calories comes from LBM/protein which has 600 calories/pound. That’s just under one half of pound of weight lost. The remaining 3150 calories will come from fat (about 0.9 lbs of fat). So the total weekly weight loss will be about 1.4 lbs (0.5 lbs LBM plus 0.9 lbs of fat).
Full article: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/3500-calorie-rule.html/4 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »Despite all the ideas others have posted ... just to put in my 2 cents ... I've never been able to back into what my TDEE is by doing the math of pounds x n for fat per pound. While it's true that 1 pound of pure is about 3500 kilojoules(sp?) of energy (calories) it doesn't work out math wise in a living human body.
I think that's because it's not just the total calories we eat, but also how our bodies respond to specific components of the food we eat. I'm not at all qualified to speak on this from a scientific, medical, nutritional professional basis ... but from close observation of how different eating patterns/habits affect my short term response to food. This includes how quickly my digestion responds, to how much access fluid I'm storing, to how fit-flab-turgid-soft my belly feels. All these short term effects on my weight can make it appear as if, when I try to back into what my TDEE was, that I am a scientific anomaly.
I suspect the 3500 is another one of those estimates that can vary quite a bit depending on diet and other factors. I’ve found it to be generally on the nose for me, but I assume it won’t work for everyone. I also have the advantage of fairly predictable water weight movements which helped clear up the numbers.
3500 is a rounded estimate of how much energy is in a pound of fat. When you lose weight, you lose both fat and lean mass (which includes everything other than fat.) Lyle Mcdonald has a good article that breaks this down. An excerpt:So consider the situation where someone is getting 10% of the energy deficit from LBM and the other 90% from stored fat. They have created a 3,500 calorie weekly deficit. 10% or 350 calories comes from LBM/protein which has 600 calories/pound. That’s just under one half of pound of weight lost. The remaining 3150 calories will come from fat (about 0.9 lbs of fat). So the total weekly weight loss will be about 1.4 lbs (0.5 lbs LBM plus 0.9 lbs of fat).
Full article: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/3500-calorie-rule.html/
Science, woo! Thanks for the link.1
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