BMR or TDEE

clarehodgson1477
clarehodgson1477 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
*****Advice needed****

I'm ward admin in the NHS. This year I have worked across 3 wards at once completing paper work for for over 60 patients at a time. I have worked on a covid ward twice. I have seen my parents, daughter or granddaughter since June, and not met the new grandson yet. I want to enjoy the few days I have off over Christmas and I'm thinking of going to maintenance calories. The idea being I keep logging food and remain in the habit and its not hard to back to after Christmas. What is best to use BMR or TDEE?

Replies

  • MaltedTea
    MaltedTea Posts: 6,286 Member
    Not either or. These are two different things. Use the info from both, in light of your goals, to figure out the right caloric intake for you right now.

    Also, thank you for keeping vulnerable people safe during this time. You keep safe yourself!
  • clarehodgson1477
    clarehodgson1477 Posts: 11 Member
    MaltedTea wrote: »
    Not either or. These are two different things. Use the info from both, in light of your goals, to figure out the right caloric intake for you right now.

    Also, thank you for keeping vulnerable people safe during this time. You keep safe yourself!

    Thank you
  • clarehodgson1477
    clarehodgson1477 Posts: 11 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    clarehodgson1477 wrote: »
    *****Advice needed****

    I'm ward admin in the NHS. This year I have worked across 3 wards at once completing paper work for for over 60 patients at a time. I have worked on a covid ward twice. I have seen my parents, daughter or granddaughter since June, and not met the new grandson yet. I want to enjoy the few days I have off over Christmas and I'm thinking of going to maintenance calories. The idea being I keep logging food and remain in the habit and its not hard to back to after Christmas. What is best to use BMR or TDEE?

    If you're wanting to eat maintenance, that would be TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)...BMR is the calories you burn merely existing, so would be nowhere close to maintenance. My BMR is around 1800-1900 calories...I lose about 1 Lb per week eating around 2300 calories per day as my TDEE (maintenance) is around 2800 calories...a full 1,000 calories more than BMR...eating my BMR would be a pretty steep deficit and nowhere close to maintenance.

    Thats was the conclusion I came too. But I hadn't heard of TDEE until about 2 weeks I wanted to make sure. Thank You
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Using my personal numbers:

    Estimated BMR (which would be at total rest and also fasted) - 1,562cals.
    But I'm not at rest and I am eating.

    MyFitnessPal estimated maintenance cals for a day with no purposeful exercise - 2,500cals.
    But I did exercise today.

    600cals burned cycling so today's maintenance (TDEE) - 3,100cals.

    If you prefer to average out your exercise then a TDEE calculator like this one will give you a same every day calorie goal. https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
  • clarehodgson1477
    clarehodgson1477 Posts: 11 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Using my personal numbers:

    Estimated BMR (which would be at total rest and also fasted) - 1,562cals.
    But I'm not at rest and I am eating.

    MyFitnessPal estimated maintenance cals for a day with no purposeful exercise - 2,500cals.
    But I did exercise today.

    600cals burned cycling so today's maintenance (TDEE) - 3,100cals.

    If you prefer to average out your exercise then a TDEE calculator like this one will give you a same every day calorie goal. https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

    Thank you
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,287 Member
    Better yet: If you've been calorie counting, use your own data to estimate maintenance calories.

    Add up the total number of calories you've eaten over the past 2-4 weeks (use a full menstrual cycle if you still have those). Add up the total change in weight over the same weeks.

    With apologies, I'm going to explain in pounds (which I'm betting is not your bodyweight measure, given the NHS reference), because these are the numbers I know.

    Multiply the weight loss in pounds by 3500 (roughly the number of calories in a pound of fat). Add that result to the total number of calories eaten. Divide that sum by the number of days in your time period. That's the approximate number of calories that will maintain your weight, a customized and personalized estimate.

    In formula format, given a defined time period: (Total number of calories eaten + (Total number of pounds lost X 3500)) / Number of days = Approximate maintenance calories
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 921 Member
    If you want to be in 'maintenance' use TDEE. BMR is the amount of calories your body would need if you simply laid in bed all day and didn't move.

  • AmunahSki
    AmunahSki Posts: 210 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    In formula format, given a defined time period: (Total number of calories eaten + (Total number of pounds lost X 3500)) / Number of days = Approximate maintenance calories

    This is really useful - I had real problems trying to guesstimate maintenance calories last time I got to my goal weight (using trial and error), but this makes so much more sense! Really useful if I decide to ‘eat at maintenance’ for a 2 day break to stimulate metabolism again.

    I am experiencing ‘noob loss’ and water/food weight at the moment (15 days in, 7.7lb loss out of 27lb goal and MPF is set to 1lb a week - even though I would have expected a little water retention due to increased exercise as rowing 20m SS 18/20/22 most days too), so won’t do anything about it now and can wait until it settles down.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,287 Member
    AmunahSki wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    In formula format, given a defined time period: (Total number of calories eaten + (Total number of pounds lost X 3500)) / Number of days = Approximate maintenance calories

    This is really useful - I had real problems trying to guesstimate maintenance calories last time I got to my goal weight (using trial and error), but this makes so much more sense! Really useful if I decide to ‘eat at maintenance’ for a 2 day break to stimulate metabolism again.

    I am experiencing ‘noob loss’ and water/food weight at the moment (15 days in, 7.7lb loss out of 27lb goal and MPF is set to 1lb a week - even though I would have expected a little water retention due to increased exercise as rowing 20m SS 18/20/22 most days too), so won’t do anything about it now and can wait until it settles down.

    I'm glad it's helpful.

    Be aware that the formula I offered, and that you quoted, is still to a certain extent an estimate. It's just a very personalized one, adjusted to your personal logging practices in a way, so likely to be closer in practice for more people, compared to the calculators. You'll still need to watch the scale for a while, but it'll take time (as in many weeks, maybe months) for minor discrepancies to show up, since they play peek-a-boo on the scales with random daily water weight fluctuations that tend to be of higher magnitude.

    Some individuals will also experience an increase in maintenance calorie needs during/after a few weeks at steady maintenance. This seems to vary by individual. When it happens, it's metaphorically the body saying "Oh, we're not starving anymore? I guess I don't need to be miserly about energy: It's OK to start spending more calories daily on being perky and energetic!"

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