Calculating TDEE with Apple Watch

active and resting energy calories (from health kit) add up to TDEE. But yes, your idea should be accurate for an average, rather than real-time daily info. With health kit, you can run the data by day, month or YTD.

My resting calories average out to be pretty much within 40-50 calories each day. I've used a spreadsheet that calculates my resting and active calories in relation to my caloric intake. Even with some occasional lax food logging and accounting for my TOM water retention, it's been awfully accurate at the expected loss in comparison to my actual loss. (less than half a pound difference when I wasn't back to retaining some water during ovulation this week).

I was surprised at the overall accuracy honestly.

ITUSGirl51 wrote: »

I don’t think so.

The Apple Watch resting calories includes additional calories while you move around or exercise.

For example, my resting calories when my watch is not on me is about 59 calories an hour. If I wear my watch and exercise, my resting calories can go up to 89 calories for that hour PLUS the additional active calories I earned during that time. So my resting calories change day to day depending on the amount of intentional or unintentional exercise I get.

The watch can give you both activity and total calories. The activity calories don't include the resting calories...

I think that would work for your maintenance calories.
Are you trying to lose, gain, or maintain?

92019start wrote: »

I guess I should clarify: I’m referring to the active calories only here. So if I run 7 miles, and it says I’ve burned 350 active calories, and then I do a ton of walking, chasing kids, etc, I usually see my daily active calories end up around 600 calories on average according to health kit. Can I add that active calorie to my nasal rate from my measurement at the lab of 1,100 to get my approximate TDEE? The reason I want to know is so I can set an appropriate calorie goal on MFP.

What's the watch say is your average resting calories? Is that close to 1,100? I'm sure the lab basal rate was accurate enough, but the watch has a different algorithm for calculating resting and active calories. If resting calories is close to 1100, then you probably are fine to look at it the way you planned.

(BTW, are you just throwing out numbers for a 7 mile run? 350 seems awfully low for that.)

Again, your AW total can do all the work with this. My "total" # of around 1800/day puts me at the "lightly active" setting on MFP and I take my deficit from that. Checking the maths, the MFP "lightly active" plus my planned 250 deficit per day puts me right at my AW daily total most days, and some days the AW deficit shows as being larger than 250.

The resting calories are actually a sedentary factor -- not just the BMR, but BMR x 1.2 (or 1.25 -- I haven't quite worked that out).

So OP, you'd take the 1100 x 1.2, and *then* add your active calories on top of that.

snemberton wrote: »

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collectingblues wrote: »

The resting calories are actually a sedentary factor -- not just the BMR, but BMR x 1.2 (or 1.25 -- I haven't quite worked that out).

So OP, you'd take the 1100 x 1.2, and *then* add your active calories on top of that.

1.2 is a little lower than my average and 1.25 is a bit higher than my resting average, but it's pretty close either way.

Yeah, I figure it's in the ballpark. I know for me, my RMR (had it lab-tested) came back 20 percent higher than what the Watch predicted it should be (when I reverse calculated the RMR based on the resting calories), so I just add 20 percent on to the resting calorie figure and call it good.