TDEE

[mcdee]

Are the calories burnt (and showing on dashboard )  our TDEE???  

If I show 1700 calories burnt - what does this mean - my TDEE for that day?? 

Thanks

[wmchapman]

On a computer log into your dashboard.

Activity cals tile estimates how many calories you have consumed today beyond your basic metabolic rate 😉  

[emili]

@mcdee hey there- and yes. If you look at your calories first thing in the morning it will show something in the low hundreds. The more activity you do, the higher and faster your calorie burn will go up. If you have a sedentary day, your burn will be closer to your BMI.. 

you can do your own comparison to see.. pick a day where you had the fewest steps and the day you had the highest steps in the same week. Do a calorie comparison.. it will be higher on the more active day, because it will add in your total effort. 

[mcdee]

Isnt the Calories burnt number on dashboard  of Fitbit ( FLEX) one that is TDEE and includes  BMR ? 

so … if by end of day it says 1750 calories burnt ..how do I know what was from exercise and what is just BMR???   Confused!!!  I what to know my TDEE so I can adjust calories and lose weight....

[Dominique]

Fitbit doesn’t explicitly report BMR anywhere in its interface, so if you are interested in knowing your underlying BMR, you’ll have to calculate it yourself (for that, you can use an online calculator such as this one). What added value would you get from seeing your BMR displayed in the Fitbit interface?

[SunsetRunner]

You sound a bit generally confused.

BMR - Basalt Metabolic Rate (How much energy your body burns just being alive, ie if you were lying in bed all day and doing nothing at all)

NEAT - Non Exercise Activity Thermogenisis (Your BMR + energy burnt going about your daily activities but not including purposeful exercise)

TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure (NEAT + Energy Burnt in Exercise) - also the number that the Fitbit Dashboard shows as your total energy used by your body for the day.

If you are straight out counting calories for weight loss (and I am not talking about nutrition at all here or interested in debates about whether that is the right or wrong way to do it) and want to calculate how many calories to consume there are two main ways you can go about it. Both have the same outcome, just depends what you prefer.

1. Use your NEAT minus however many calories you want your deficit to be (Rule of thumb -500 calories  a day is about 0.45 kg or 1 pound a week weight loss a week).  If/when you exercise, you estimate how many calories you burnt and eat those back to maintain the selected deficit. this option is helpful if you don't exercise regularly or have a life where it is difficult to predict when you are going to exercise.  Some people find it counter-intuitive to eat back exercise cals so don't like this method. Others like it because you can be reasonable confident you are maintaining your deficit on days you don't exercise.

2. Use your TDEE minus however many calories you want your deficit to be. Advantage is you are always eating a fixed amount so no need to estimate cals burnt by exercise each day.  It is a good method if you have a very regular life and exercise routine.  Disadvantage is that if you don't exercise then your calorie deficit won't be what you think it is for that day and if that happens regularly your weight loss might not meet your expectations. 

I use the NEAT method because I don't exercise everyday and I don't do the same kind of exercise every time I exercise.  If I am feeling hungry from the exercise I can eat some extra calories and if I am not feeling hungry I just have a bigger deficit on that day.

As your Fitbit estimates your TDEE for you everyday, you don't really need to know your BMR (unless it is for interest sake) just look at what you average burn is per day and use that as your TDEE. You can use online calclulators to work out all these numbers also but they will be varied as they are all estimates.  I would pick one and stick with that for a month and see what happens.

[mcdee]

thank you!!  my confusion comes from being told several different answers to my question of : What is the "calories burnt" that shows on fitbit dashboard.... some say it IS the TDEE others say it is not!!
Thanks for your response!! 🙂