**READ THIS** Figuring out your calorie goals

This has always confused me. My BMR is 1552 so I should have this as my daily goal and work out to decrease this? So if I went for a bike ride somedays I would knock 800 off that easy. Do I have to eat the extra 800 cals...else I am going to get ill from eating way over my norm..x

Yes eat them, as you should not net below BMR. doing what you suggest would be like eating 752 (1552-800) and not exercising, which is missing the point of eating at least BMR.

If you regularly burn 800 cals say 5 days/week your average daily TDEE would be 1552*1.2 + 571 (800*5/7) = 2433. the calc is a little different but I am showing how regular acivity *1.2 and exercise would fit in.

So do lose weight you should eat between 10 and 20% below TDEE which would be 1946 (2433*.8) to 2190, but would not eat back exercise cals. So if you eat 1950 and burn 800, you would net below your BMR that day, but the average for the week you would be at your above BMR as on days you don't workout you would be eating above BMR by 400 to 540 but on workout days eating under BMR by . 250-400 cals.

Essentially your TDEE includes exercise cals and if you are active the multiplier would be 1.55 on your BMR to give you 2405, close to the 2433 I calculated above using sedentary and exercise cals.

@erickirb - I get the math and how you are calculating it. What is tripping me up is my exercise is very varied and I'm not sure how I would account for it. As of now I go to CrossFit twice a week and am training for a sprint tri with longer bike rides on the weekend. Any advice would be helpful!

From my calculations:
KM BMR - 1530
TDEE Sedentary - (1530*1.2)=1836
TDEE Active - (1530*1.55)=2372

Here is where I get confused, I am very active but varies throughout the week from a light swim (200cal or so) to 3hrs on a bike (1200+calories). Would it be better for me to use the Sedentary TDEE to make my NET calorie goal the make sure I eat enough to compensate for the activity?

I think the whole eating back the calories is completely counter-intuitive and it has been tripping me up as to how I should set my NET calorie goal without eating below my BMR.

Thanks in advance for the help.