What is your TDEE?

[Kerivkennedy]

I know it's going to vary for everyone and it's s our BMR plus exercise, what I want to understand is if I have a realistic TDEE.
Please note I am struggling with overcoming obesity and a sedentary life. I want to make sure I'm in a good target range.
My TDEE is usually around 2300 (my Fitbit total) BMR is around 1500. My goal in Fitbit is set at 2100 because that is what I like to see by the time I settle down at night (I go to bed early and get up early) . I've done some of those online calculators and they give me numbers similar to what Fitbit gives me.

It's 2100 - 2300 good? Is that a minimum "fit" level? To me it feels like the heavy exercise folks would hit closer to 3,000. Am I just psycho?

Yes I'm trying to loose pounds, but I also need to be healthy.

Based on what I read I do a good job at moderate exertion when I exercise.

[punchxcore]

My TDEE is 2368-2439 depending on which formula you use, and my BMR is 1528-1574. I'm 5'6" 175 lbs. I consider myself to be active and I generally get around 18-20k steps a day. My goal in Fit Bit is set at 2434 which is the number it gave me when I first joined. Of course as I lose weight that'll be adjusted, but for now I'll just stick with the number that Fit Bit gives me. Of course it's hard to compare TDEE with others that are a different weight, activity level, etc. 

It would be more helpful to know your stats, how many calories you're taking in and what your rate of loss is. 

[emili]

Hello Keri, I don't think I follow the question. Are you asking if that number is accurate or are you asking if you should eat to that number..If you eat under TDEE you will lose weight, if you eat to you will stay the same, if you eat over, you will gain. I don't have enough information to plug your stats into a calculator- but you said you did and you are 2300. 200 calories below TDEE as a deficit, to me does not sound like enough to have weight loss. Or are you asking if burning 2300 calories per day too much? I am 45, 5'7 and I weigh 134 pounds. I burn approx between 400-650 calories per day through exercise so my daily burn ends up between 1980-2200- slightly higher if its a high walking day. For me that is normal. The one question I can answer for sure is, no you are not psycho.

[Dominique]

TDEE is BMR + activity, so someone very active will have a higher TDEE than someone sedentary. BMR is influenced by your sex, your age, your height and your weight. All things being equal (same age, height and weight), a male will have a higher BMR than a female (and willl also burn more calories when performing the same activity). Life is not fair! All things being equal (same sex, age and weight), someone taller will have a higher BMR than a shorter person. And so on.

So there is no "right" TDEE, it all depends on the above mentioned factors. You can have an impact on some of them (how active you are, how heavy you are), but the rest are pretty much given.

You can play with an online calculator such as this one in order to see how the various factors affect BMR and TDEE.

One thing few people know is that if you have two persons of same sex, same age, same height and same weight, but one has maintained that weight for years, whereas the other reached it after losing weight from a much higher level, the person that has maintained the same weight for a longer period will have a higher BMR. The lower BMR after weight loss can remain for several years.

[Kerivkennedy]

I'm just trying to get an idea of what kind of TDEE other people have, especially those who consider themselves active.

I'm 5'2" as of today I am 180 lbs (down from 225 in December) . I'll be 40 in September.
Put weight loss aside in your mind. I'm talking about a good tdee to aim for for maintaining fitness.
Is 2300 reasonable?
I know that even after I finish a workout my body continues to burn calories at a higher rate for a while.

So the question is still what is YOUR TDEE (you the reader) .
Those that have answered it seems mine is right there in par. Which is what I was curious about.

Unless you've spent years being lazy and sedentary you can't understand how I don't know what is reasonable or realistic. In my mind fit people spend several hours a day doing hard exercise.

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

You can easily check this for people who have made it public information on their Fitbit profile. This is my case, so you can go to my profile page and see this:

So for me, it would be around 2900 calories. I’m a guy and taller than you, which increases my BMR and my TDEE compared to you; OTOH, I’m older and ligher than you, which tilts things the other way. Since there are really five parameters at hand (sex, age, height, weight and activity level), it’s difficult to make comparisons.

If you subscribe to the Premium plan (there’s a one week free trial), you can benchmark yourself against people like you: same sex, same age, same corpulence. This would give you more meaningful information than when comparing yourself to people who have little in common with you. 

[Kerivkennedy]

Thank you Dominique.  
That benchmark thing in Premium is EXACTLY What I was looking for!  

Even the free trial is perfect!  

Thank you!  

I see based on which demographics I pick for my total calories I'm around 70-74%, which puts me pretty perfect as far as I'm concerned.  
My other activies are even higher!  
Woohoo!!! 

Somewhere in my mind I felt like i was only doing a small fraction of what I should be doing (Okay - I admit there might be a bit of mental health issues going on with that, which is why I needed to see what reality should be). 

[emili]

Awesome that you got what you needed. Dominique is a fantastic source 🙂