Does your TDEE go down with age?
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Jackibrazil
Posts: 124 Member
I know that today at 29 I find that I have to eat far less than I did at 25 and at 25 I had to eat way less than at 20 in order to maintain or lose.
Edit: Okay maybe not WAY less, but at 20 I could eat whatever the hell I wanted all day long and not gain weight. And my tastes were far less healthy than today hahaha
Edit: Okay maybe not WAY less, but at 20 I could eat whatever the hell I wanted all day long and not gain weight. And my tastes were far less healthy than today hahaha
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BMR goes down, but not by much...generally, it is a matter of less movement and then loss of muscle mass later.
I'm 43 and my TDEE is higher now than it was in my 30s because I'm more active (2800-3000 calories per day). I can't really match my 20s because in my 20s I was in the military and then university and didn't own a car and walked or road my bike everywhere and worked landscape construction in the summer and waited tables and retail in the winter...not to mention I just had more time for recreation and whatnot.
Now I sit at a desk most of the day, so getting out and doing deliberate exercise is pretty important. I didn't really do any for most of my 30s.3 -
Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.7 -
Jackibrazil wrote: »I know that today at 29 I find that I have to eat far less than I did at 25 and at 25 I had to eat way less than at 20 in order to maintain or lose.
Edit: Okay maybe not WAY less, but at 20 I could eat whatever the hell I wanted all day long and not gain weight. And my tastes were far less healthy than today hahaha
Me too...I was active AF. I didn't really do much in the way of deliberate exercise, but I was always on the go...and at 20, you're still developing to some extent and energy goes into that.
Hell, I could eat pretty much anything I wanted until I turned 30 which is when I graduated and took a desk job, bought a car, started traveling for work, working 12 hour days behind that desk, etc...3 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.
Oh thanks for that distinction. I know for sure my TDEE has gone down (duh, desk job, car instead of bike, etc) but I guess I more meant BMR.
Bold: I've been trying to do that ever since I switched to driving! I used to walk a minimum of 5 miles a day just to get to and from work. Plus being a waitress and bartender! I feel like my workouts now can't even come close to the burn I got then.1 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »BMR goes down, but not by much...generally, it is a matter of less movement and then loss of muscle mass later.
I'm 43 and my TDEE is higher now than it was in my 30s because I'm more active (2800-3000 calories per day). I can't really match my 20s because in my 20s I was in the military and then university and didn't own a car and walked or road my bike everywhere and worked landscape construction in the summer and waited tables and retail in the winter...not to mention I just had more time for recreation and whatnot.
Now I sit at a desk most of the day, so getting out and doing deliberate exercise is pretty important. I didn't really do any for most of my 30s.
This is exactly me. Except military. But yeah, I biked, walked, took busses (which was a lot of walking too), waited tables, etc. Then I got a car and a desk job at 25 and my body congratulated me with a 25lb present.0 -
Jackibrazil wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.
Oh thanks for that distinction. I know for sure my TDEE has gone down (duh, desk job, car instead of bike, etc) but I guess I more meant BMR.
Bold: I've been trying to do that ever since I switched to driving! I used to walk a minimum of 5 miles a day just to get to and from work. Plus being a waitress and bartender! I feel like my workouts now can't even come close to the burn I got then.
BMR decreases slightly with age...this can be more pronounced in middle age when people start losing more muscle mass...T levels drop in males, etc. Can be mitigated to a large extent with continued resistance training.
I've checked a couple different calculators and at 23 my BMR is 1950...at 43, 20 years later it is estimated at 1814...so 136 calories over 20 years.
That is much less significant than a drop in activity which can result in a drop of 100s of calories or even 1000s in some cases...5 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.
Oh thanks for that distinction. I know for sure my TDEE has gone down (duh, desk job, car instead of bike, etc) but I guess I more meant BMR.
Bold: I've been trying to do that ever since I switched to driving! I used to walk a minimum of 5 miles a day just to get to and from work. Plus being a waitress and bartender! I feel like my workouts now can't even come close to the burn I got then.
BMR decreases slightly with age...this can be more pronounced in middle age when people start losing more muscle mass...T levels drop in males, etc. Can be mitigated to a large extent with continued resistance training.
I've checked a couple different calculators and at 23 my BMR is 1950...at 43, 20 years later it is estimated at 1814...so 136 calories over 20 years.
That is much less significant than a drop in activity which can result in a drop of 100s of calories or even 1000s in some cases...
I'm having trouble finding non woo articles about this, but what I am seeing is that BMR starts to decrease in early adulthood andywhere from 2-5% a year? And that in middle age it accelerates even more...1 -
Jackibrazil wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.
Oh thanks for that distinction. I know for sure my TDEE has gone down (duh, desk job, car instead of bike, etc) but I guess I more meant BMR.
Bold: I've been trying to do that ever since I switched to driving! I used to walk a minimum of 5 miles a day just to get to and from work. Plus being a waitress and bartender! I feel like my workouts now can't even come close to the burn I got then.
BMR decreases slightly with age...this can be more pronounced in middle age when people start losing more muscle mass...T levels drop in males, etc. Can be mitigated to a large extent with continued resistance training.
I've checked a couple different calculators and at 23 my BMR is 1950...at 43, 20 years later it is estimated at 1814...so 136 calories over 20 years.
That is much less significant than a drop in activity which can result in a drop of 100s of calories or even 1000s in some cases...
I'm having trouble finding non woo articles about this, but what I am seeing is that BMR starts to decrease in early adulthood andywhere from 2-5% a year? And that in middle age it accelerates even more...
Here you go -- with charts and pictures: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4535334/
In short, yes, there is some decline, but not what you're describing.2 -
Jackibrazil wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.
Oh thanks for that distinction. I know for sure my TDEE has gone down (duh, desk job, car instead of bike, etc) but I guess I more meant BMR.
Bold: I've been trying to do that ever since I switched to driving! I used to walk a minimum of 5 miles a day just to get to and from work. Plus being a waitress and bartender! I feel like my workouts now can't even come close to the burn I got then.
BMR decreases slightly with age...this can be more pronounced in middle age when people start losing more muscle mass...T levels drop in males, etc. Can be mitigated to a large extent with continued resistance training.
I've checked a couple different calculators and at 23 my BMR is 1950...at 43, 20 years later it is estimated at 1814...so 136 calories over 20 years.
That is much less significant than a drop in activity which can result in a drop of 100s of calories or even 1000s in some cases...
I'm having trouble finding non woo articles about this, but what I am seeing is that BMR starts to decrease in early adulthood andywhere from 2-5% a year? And that in middle age it accelerates even more...
Don't know about the %s...but in middle age it accelerates because that's when people start dropping muscle at a much quicker rate if they aren't mitigating that with resistance training. Your muscle mass has a fair amount to do with your BMR. Also, things just slow down...stop growing hair, stuff like that...all of that requires energy.
But really, worrying about BMR isn't particularly productive...increasing your activity in order to increase your TDEE is what you can control and what you should focus on. You're focusing on something that is in large part out of your control.2 -
Yes, people's TDEE tends to decline with age, for many reasons. People generally become less active, lose muscle tissue, and another thing is as we age technology makes life more convenient and requires us to move less. (Remote controls vs walking across the room, database server vs walking across the building, Uber vs walking.)
But the good news is that this overall trend doesn't have to apply to you. Your TDEE is under your control, move more to burn more. Knowing that people's energy requirement tends to go down, you can go out and exercise to drive it back up.2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.
Oh thanks for that distinction. I know for sure my TDEE has gone down (duh, desk job, car instead of bike, etc) but I guess I more meant BMR.
Bold: I've been trying to do that ever since I switched to driving! I used to walk a minimum of 5 miles a day just to get to and from work. Plus being a waitress and bartender! I feel like my workouts now can't even come close to the burn I got then.
BMR decreases slightly with age...this can be more pronounced in middle age when people start losing more muscle mass...T levels drop in males, etc. Can be mitigated to a large extent with continued resistance training.
I've checked a couple different calculators and at 23 my BMR is 1950...at 43, 20 years later it is estimated at 1814...so 136 calories over 20 years.
That is much less significant than a drop in activity which can result in a drop of 100s of calories or even 1000s in some cases...
I'm having trouble finding non woo articles about this, but what I am seeing is that BMR starts to decrease in early adulthood andywhere from 2-5% a year? And that in middle age it accelerates even more...
Don't know about the %s...but in middle age it accelerates because that's when people start dropping muscle at a much quicker rate if they aren't mitigating that with resistance training. Your muscle mass has a fair amount to do with your BMR. Also, things just slow down...stop growing hair, stuff like that...all of that requires energy.
But really, worrying about BMR isn't particularly productive...increasing your activity in order to increase your TDEE is what you can control and what you should focus on. You're focusing on something that is in large part out of your control.
Oh yeah. I'm definitely not looking to blame difficulty on that or anything. I was more curious than anything.0 -
collectingblues wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.
Oh thanks for that distinction. I know for sure my TDEE has gone down (duh, desk job, car instead of bike, etc) but I guess I more meant BMR.
Bold: I've been trying to do that ever since I switched to driving! I used to walk a minimum of 5 miles a day just to get to and from work. Plus being a waitress and bartender! I feel like my workouts now can't even come close to the burn I got then.
BMR decreases slightly with age...this can be more pronounced in middle age when people start losing more muscle mass...T levels drop in males, etc. Can be mitigated to a large extent with continued resistance training.
I've checked a couple different calculators and at 23 my BMR is 1950...at 43, 20 years later it is estimated at 1814...so 136 calories over 20 years.
That is much less significant than a drop in activity which can result in a drop of 100s of calories or even 1000s in some cases...
I'm having trouble finding non woo articles about this, but what I am seeing is that BMR starts to decrease in early adulthood andywhere from 2-5% a year? And that in middle age it accelerates even more...
Here you go -- with charts and pictures: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4535334/
In short, yes, there is some decline, but not what you're describing.
I've been having trouble getting good search results as well - I don't suppose you know if it's true that men tend to see a more steep drop than women, or is that hooey as well? Or just something we don't know? I know a couple of men who went through the skinny in their teens and early 20s followed by steady and substantial weight-loss starting mid-20s thing" and I guess I assumed there was a metabolism factor, but now I'm wondering if going from a college lifestyle to a desk job might not be the primary culprit.
ETA: I read the link and it looks like the answer to my question is no, unless I'm misreading something.0 -
MegaMooseEsq wrote: »collectingblues wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Jackibrazil wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Don't confuse your TDEE with your BMR.
Your BMR might go down slightly with age depending on whether you exercise or not. Most people move less as they age, and this affects muscle mass, which in turn impacts BMR.
However, you have control over your TDEE. You can increase the amount of purposeful exercise you get and you can increase the amount of non-exercise activity in your day by consciously adding movement to your life. Don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk. Become inefficient in your daily tasks. Take the stairs. Park at the back of parking lots. Things like that. Make games for yourself of thinking of more ways to move more throughout the day.
Oh thanks for that distinction. I know for sure my TDEE has gone down (duh, desk job, car instead of bike, etc) but I guess I more meant BMR.
Bold: I've been trying to do that ever since I switched to driving! I used to walk a minimum of 5 miles a day just to get to and from work. Plus being a waitress and bartender! I feel like my workouts now can't even come close to the burn I got then.
BMR decreases slightly with age...this can be more pronounced in middle age when people start losing more muscle mass...T levels drop in males, etc. Can be mitigated to a large extent with continued resistance training.
I've checked a couple different calculators and at 23 my BMR is 1950...at 43, 20 years later it is estimated at 1814...so 136 calories over 20 years.
That is much less significant than a drop in activity which can result in a drop of 100s of calories or even 1000s in some cases...
I'm having trouble finding non woo articles about this, but what I am seeing is that BMR starts to decrease in early adulthood andywhere from 2-5% a year? And that in middle age it accelerates even more...
Here you go -- with charts and pictures: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4535334/
In short, yes, there is some decline, but not what you're describing.
I've been having trouble getting good search results as well - I don't suppose you know if it's true that men tend to see a more steep drop than women, or is that hooey as well? Or just something we don't know? I know a couple of men who went through the skinny in their teens and early 20s followed by steady and substantial weight-loss starting mid-20s thing" and I guess I assumed there was a metabolism factor, but now I'm wondering if going from a college lifestyle to a desk job might not be the primary culprit.
ETA: I read the link and it looks like the answer to my question is no, unless I'm misreading something.
I'm not sure -- it might be one of the muscle-related issues, which would make sense, considering men have (generally) higher muscle amounts, so I could see why men would have a bigger drop, if RMR/BMR are tied to musculature.
I can usually get good results by adding PubMed to the search terms. PubMed will give you all peer-reviewed results, and while it can be hard to pick out exactly what you need, at least you start from the point of a good lit review. The abstracts are always available, and sometimes they have full-text as well.4 -
Don't confuse averages from a population with predestined individual results.
(Yes, this is using different words to +1 the points about our influence over our muscle mass, exercise, non-exercise activity levels, etc.)
I'm 62. My TDEE is around 2300-2500 area (5'5", 120s), NEAT is low 2000s as best I can tell.
If it were NEAT that allegedly shrank by 2% per year, 20-year-old me would've had a NEAT around 4800. If that were true, I don't think I would've gotten fat in the first place. (I'd do the math on BMR if I had the faintest idea what my actual BMR is - I'm skeptical of the calculators.)
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MY NEAT dropped by 50 calories on my 62nd birthday!1
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I'm 42 and my TDEE is higher than it has ever been.2
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As long as you have your health your destiny is for the greatest part in your owns hands.
At 57 I guess my BMR should be declining but I'm (at least) retaining my muscle mass so maybe not.
My NEAT shot up when I retired from a desk job.
My TDEE is really high because I exercise a lot, 295 hours of cycling so far this year is a record for me.
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My TDEE keeps going up the older I get. I am active plus I find ways to include activity into my sedentary workday.
I use my mini-stair stepper while talking on the phone. I do squats while doing the dishes and calf raises while putting clean dishes into the cabinet. Walking lunges down the hallway in my home. I walk up a flight of stairs instead of taking the escalator etc.
It really adds up.3 -
At 29 its not your TDEE thats going down but possibly that you are moving less than you previously did..
I'm 48 and my TDEE is 2000 cals on average - I'm 5ft 2, lightly active - so its not that I have to be mega active to have a decent (imo) TDEE.0
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