ok, am i getting this right... tdee and bmr...

What sort of exercise do you do - if you are burning a lot of calories then your net calories per day mat be dipping below 1200?

What level of exercise did you select on fitnessfrog to calculate your tdee? If your tdee is 1620 and your bmr is 1350, then 1620/1350=1.2 which is sedentary. It sounds like you're doing a lot more exercise than sedentary!! I also do about an hour of exercise a day 5-6 days a week... so that is considered moderate, or even more. I also do Jillian and treadmill

My bmr is 1408 (not much more than you!) and with moderate exercise it gives me a tdee of 2172. Add a 15% cut to that is 1846 calories to eat a day! Or for a half pound weight loss per week (more do-able) 2172-250=1922 calories to eat a day! The tdee already has exercise calories built in.

Your last sentence says you have your cals set to 1294. Is that 1294 NET? I have my NET & GOAL set to 1680, so when I add in food it brings my FOOD number to 1922-2000 (per calculation above).

Maybe you need to eat even more? I know it's hard to grasp!! I finally lost a pound this past week after being stalled for monnnnths. I think I was overexercising and undereating. Maybe your metabolism is shot like mine is?!? GOOD LUCK.

bump

Here's an idea (not an original - I saw it on another thread). Wear your HRM for a 24 hours (non-exercise day) - that should give you a pretty good idea what your real TDEE is.

I'm not sure a heart rate monitor would give an accurate estimate of that. Maybe if you invested in a fitbit or a similar type of device, you could get a better idea. I don't have one myself, at least not yet, but I have been hearing a lot of good things about the fitbit lately. Also, they're cheaper on amazon than on the fitbit site.

What level of exercise did you select on fitnessfrog to calculate your tdee? If your tdee is 1620 and your bmr is 1350, then 1620/1350=1.2 which is sedentary. It sounds like you're doing a lot more exercise than sedentary!! I also do about an hour of exercise a day 5-6 days a week... so that is considered moderate, or even more. I also do Jillian and treadmill

My bmr is 1408 (not much more than you!) and with moderate exercise it gives me a tdee of 2172. Add a 15% cut to that is 1846 calories to eat a day! Or for a half pound weight loss per week (more do-able) 2172-250=1922 calories to eat a day! The tdee already has exercise calories built in.

Your last sentence says you have your cals set to 1294. Is that 1294 NET? I have my NET & GOAL set to 1680, so when I add in food it brings my FOOD number to 1922-2000 (per calculation above).

Maybe you need to eat even more? I know it's hard to grasp!! I finally lost a pound this past week after being stalled for monnnnths. I think I was overexercising and undereating. Maybe your metabolism is shot like mine is?!? GOOD LUCK.

as for fitness level i did choose sedentary as i am not doing much these days besides my exercise. I was told by so many on mfp not to include your " planned exercise" into your tdee and just your "normal" daily exercise... which for me right now is pretty nill... isn't that how i was supposed to do it? My Planned exercise changes daily, some days i get in a 30 min dvd and then the next i will get 2 levels in, etc some days i will get no planned exercise in... So min cals burnt some days is only 168 then ifi do 2 levels of the dvd i will be 300-400. that is the max i ever burn.

so someone please let me know if i was supposed to calculate my planned exercise into that calculator or just my regular daily exercise amount.....

yes i had it set at NET 1294, i always eat back my exercise calories....

i went on another site http://calorieline.com/tools/tdee and it gave me a number of 1535 for my tdee, so - 15% and it brought me to 1304... so i think it seem consistent that i need to net around 1300 a day... so i changed my cal goal on mfp to 1310 and we will see where that takes me for the next month...

I think you and I are on the same path, as I've been seeing your posts this morning on the same topic. The only difference for me is I calculated in my exercise so my calories will be consistent throughout the week, I don't like the yo-yo effect of cals up and down. I think I can plan my meals and activity better if it's not moving around all the time. If I have more activity beyond my planned activity, I'll log that. Otherwise, I'll have to stop logging exercise here since MFP doesn't give you an option to log exercise without it hitting the calorie count.

I run 4 days a week, and that is very consistent. So, I'll log anything above and beyond that that is active and I'll stop logging house cleaning and gardening and just stick to bigger more strenuous activities like biking, surfing, volleyball, and that kind of thing. I'm thinking of getting back into weight training, but might wait a couple more weeks (shoulder injury). I would probably just log 200 cals on those days or maybe smooth it out too, if it became consistent, like my running.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this works. It like a little science project. :-)

Our stats are almost identical. I'm 5 ft 3, 124 lbs. BMR 1350ish, TDEE 1600ish (using http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/)

From what I understand of the theory: so long as you're getting a deficit from your TDEE you will lose weight (albeit slowly) but eating below BMR will slow down your metabolism (again, slowly). After upping cals your body takes a few weeks to realise you're getting enough (this may be what's happening to you now - give it a few weeks to get back into balance). So you should aim for somewhere in the middle. And those last few pounds are the hardest to lose, 0.5 lbs a week is the top end you should be aiming for.

I go with a daily calorie allowance of 1400. I worry that I over/underestimate both food and exercise as there's not a massive range between BMR and TDEE for us little sedentary folk, but that number seems to be working. And of course I always eat back my exercise cals I'm only set to lose about 0.3 lbs a week, but apparently slow and sure means healthy and lasting - fingers crossed ;o)

I took the average of the sedentary and slightly active number and use that for my net. On a normal day I'm fairly active at my job and in my home life. I do wear a HRM for jogging and Jillian DVDs and eat back those calories. I do not eat back calories burned from cleaning, walking the dog etc.
I'll let you know in a few weeks if it works.