Do you find TDEE to be accurate?

I've been maintaining for about a month. I increase my calories every two weeks and am currently averaging 1,500. TDEE calculator gives me 1,700 per day. I'd LOVE to be able to eat that amount. I am very consistent with my exercise and so thought about switching to TDEE. On my rest day using MFP I am allowed fewer calories but sometime that is the day I am hungriest. I think TDEE would be easier for me, and I'd like to hear if their calorie recommendations have been accurate for those using it.

Replies

unknown

I use a modified TDEE, which I calculated from logging my activity and calorie intake and weight loss. That way I know how much to eat on workout days and how much to eat on non-workout days. It helps me plan my meals, but also gives variation and matches my intake to my exercise. It just feels comfortable to me.

unknown

TDEE was pretty good for me for losing weight, but it is a bit more difficult with maintenance. I don't think any multiplier describes what I do in a day. My job is very sedentary, however, when I am not sitting in the chair at work or commuting, I am fairly busy on my feet running the household, hiking, or kayaking. I row 40-60km a week (average of 7.5km a day). Moderately active? Not sure. I'd have to try eating a weekly average of 2k a day for a month and see how that goes.

unknown

CrabNebula wrote: »

TDEE was pretty good for me for losing weight, but it is a bit more difficult with maintenance. I don't think any multiplier describes what I do in a day. My job is very sedentary, however, when I am not sitting in the chair at work or commuting, I am fairly busy on my feet running the household, hiking, or kayaking. I row 40-60km a week (average of 7.5km a day). Moderately active? Not sure. I'd have to try eating a weekly average of 2k a day for a month and see how that goes.

This is why I took my own history to figure my TDEE. The multipliers don't work for me either because my job is so active. They all want to know how often I work out and then they don't give me enough calories.

unknown

ExRelaySprinter wrote: »

Just posted this in another thread, but will post it here too.
I use this TDEE calculator http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
It uses 6 different methods (3, if you don't know your body fat %) then gives you the average number.

Hmm.. I can only estimate my bodyfat % using the calculator method mentioned on that site. But even then I only get around 1600kcal, which is clearly too low for me. But honestly, even if I adjust the bodyfat% from 21.6 (that's what I got out of the calculator) to an overly positive 20%, the numbers hardly go up for sedentary lifestyle. Though when I add light jogging 3-4 days a week I get much higher numbers - which still seem to be too low. I've upped my calories from 1600 to 1750 now as weight loss is still rather fast, and will continue eating exercise calories back on top of that. Provided I manage to eat so much.

unknown

SnuggleSmacks wrote: »

If you are consistent with your exercise, and input the correct info including activity level, then TDEE is great. If you are not consistent, then you're better off using a daily approach.

Either way will require a little trial and error, as any calculator, including MFP's, is just an estimate based on population averages.

^^ agree with this.

unknown

My TDEE on MFP is wrong - and that's set to sedentary with my fitbit and my HRM adding additional calories each day

Following @sijomial advice, I averaged out 30 days and my weight loss and found my TDEE was actually a couple of hundred calories higher which is why I couldn't find maintenance

unknown

Yea I've found my TDEE to be pretty spot on as well & I've been maintaining going on two yrs in a few.

unknown

The advice here is a little weird. TDEE is always correct. It can't be anything else. Your question is, are the calculators correct. For me, no. None of them seem to be. All of them massively overrate how much I can eat. I like fitness frog, which someone else mentioned and iifym.com. Both sites get pretty close to where I should be, but I have to take a couple hundred off that. Not sure why, that's just how it is. But, overall, TDEE is a better way to manage it all because it's very consistent. You learn where your balance point is, and if life takes over and you can't exercise, you just dial down your calories. You start to get a really good feel for where you should be. If you are always up and down, it makes it hard to know where you are with things and where the balance is.

unknown

I have just switched from NEAT to TDEE. I did not use a calculator, I used my real numbers recorded over the month of April. I made sure I was as accurate as humanly possible with my weighing, measuring, and logging. I added up all of the calories consumed, multiplied the weight I lost by 3500 per pound and added that in, then divided by 30. I came up with a TDEE of 2758 per day. Since I am still trying to lose, I subtracted 500 calories per day for my actual target number. I am beta testing it for May. I am actually eating 2000 calories per day and making sure I log accurately. At the end of the month, I will see how much I have lost and adjust accordingly to get to my 1-1.5 lb a week loss goal.

Calculating using your actual numbers seems to be the most accurate way for either loss or maintenance, but it helps if you do it over a decent period of time. Online calculators give me a TDEE anywhere from 2400 to 2900 so I don't trust them.

unknown

earlnabby wrote: »

I have just switched from NEAT to TDEE. I did not use a calculator, I used my real numbers recorded over the month of April. I made sure I was as accurate as humanly possible with my weighing, measuring, and logging. I added up all of the calories consumed, multiplied the weight I lost by 3500 per pound and added that in, then divided by 30. I came up with a TDEE of 2758 per day. Since I am still trying to lose, I subtracted 500 calories per day for my actual target number. I am beta testing it for May. I am actually eating 2000 calories per day and making sure I log accurately. At the end of the month, I will see how much I have lost and adjust accordingly to get to my 1-1.5 lb a week loss goal.

Calculating using your actual numbers seems to be the most accurate way for either loss or maintenance, but it helps if you do it over a decent period of time. Online calculators give me a TDEE anywhere from 2400 to 2900 so I don't trust them.

Done something fairly similar, except I have not been logging my regular exercise calories (meaning I ate back calories for the workouts that I know are not what I would do on a normal week, if that makes sense), and now after weiging in each day for a month and logging food as accurately as I possibly can, I looked at my monthly average intake (landed at 1542 calories/day in average this last month) and my weight loss over that time (exactly 2 kilos), and then just calculated that it means that I had a daily deficit of 551 calories, putting my TDEE at 2093.
My flunctuations are no joke though thanks to my cycle, so I'm planning on doing this for another month to see if it's actually accurate or not. However, I did look at my loss from this exact day from last cycle and I usually bloat during the same periods of my cycle.

I also believe that using your own numbers is for sure the best possible way of doing it. However, until you have enough data to actually do this, you obviously need some sort of starting point, and in these cases an online calculator will do!

unknown

Allelito wrote: »

I also believe that using your own numbers is for sure the best possible way of doing it. However, until you have enough data to actually do this, you obviously need some sort of starting point, and in these cases an online calculator will do!

Very true. I have been using MFP's NEAT numbers as my starting point (started 16 months ago) and eating back exercise calories so I have been losing all along. I am approaching my goal and wanted to switch to TDEE for the final push and transition into maintenance. I have been really good with my logging all along, but not as accurate as I should be to do the calculations, which is why I decided to be extra good for April and use those as my calculation numbers.