I’ve noticed that some people talk about their TDEE like it’s a fixed number. Then one day I realized it’s really not. It might just be my lifestyle, but my daily energy expenditures can vary WILDLY from day to day. From being sedentary Monday through Friday to either really active Saturday and Sunday. I have been syncing it with my Apple Watch so I have a much better idea of how many calories I’m burning every day. I’m surprised nobody here seems to mention wearables as a vital part of this process. I use cronometer so I have my activity settings to none and it calculates the changes to my bmr and imports my activity from watch then calculates it as my burned shown in the photo or tdee. I posted a few days it show it changes daily. Does anybody else here use a device like this? Have you found it to be accurate?
by BrainzVsBeauty
5 Comments
Fitbits/apple watches/activity trackers are not popular on the weight loss subs for a reason. The reason is that they are horribly inaccurate. They wildly overestimate how many calories people burn from activity.
People who gauge their eating around what those apps tell them learn this the hard way.
To get my TDEE, I use the [TDEE Calculator](https://tdeecalculator.net/) and base it on sedentary. To estimate how much extra I’m burning from weekend exercise (which I don’t really need to know), I use the [Calories Burned Calculator](https://www.calculator.net/calories-burned-calculator.html) (which may not be accurate either, but it’s a much more conservative estimate than any of the apps).
But this is not information I need to keep on top of on a daily, or even monthly basis. My daily calorie budget is already as low as I’m going to take it (~1,300) and the TDEE calculator has told me this will keep me in a deficit way past reaching my GW. I know at this point that my weight loss rate is going to go from 3.5 pounds per month (current) down to about 2 pounds per month by the end of the year. Exercise will help me rack up a few extra pounds by the end of the year.
That’s really all of the information I need to know, and all that I think is healthy for me to think about.
I like to know, but I don’t eat my calories back. I know if I’ve massively under eaten because I can’t sleep at night if so. Dunno why, just happens. But I also like to be able to compare MFP and Fitbit to have a general idea of why I’m gaining/losing. I just don’t assume the data is accurate 100%
I will eventually stop wearing my Fitbit again though, I wore one for six years and felt like it was controlling my life. Got sick of everything being tracked. Just got one again recently and after six months already thinking about stopping again lol.
I’ve been using a smart watch and I get the allure of your idea but, so far, it seems like it wildly overestimates my activity level. The only function that I appreciate is that it can pickup when my heart rate stays elevated and for how long and submits it as a workout (very helpful since a lot of my workouts – Pilates, kettlebell swings, vigorous cleaning for my job – don’t have easily loggable pre-generated options in trackers like other workouts do.)
Since my current goal is weightloss, regardless of how accurate or inaccurate the projected additional calorie expenditures may be, I just take it as a big win but don’t seek to eat back those calories. When I’m eating for maintenance that may be a different story.
Not the popular perspective on this sub, but I eat back most of my exercise calories. I didn’t used to, but 1200-1300 just isn’t enough for an active person and I could feel my energy levels and athletic performance suffer.
I set MFP as “Not Very Active” and sync my Apple Health workouts to it, with negative calorie adjustments enabled. I personally have not found it to be wildly inaccurate like many people say, though I only add my workout calories and not all of my general “Move” calories. On a typical day, I’ll end up eating back 200-300 calories while my Move ring ends up at ~600.
I set my activity to sedentary on Lose It app and use my watch to calculate the rest but it’s so inaccurate for me that I stopped paying attention to it. I walk a lot for having a semi sedentary lifestyle (5,000+ a day usually) and it says I burn a ton of extra calories but I never eat even close to what they give me. I tried it once for like a week and gained. I just eat at my deficit and use the “extra” that they give me as peace of mind if I do happen to have a brownie or extra slice of pizza that day that I’m not going to mess up my progress. I have to trick myself currently. I have Lose It set to 1,293 but my real deficit is 1,500. accounts for under estimating and extras then if I have a cheat day the “burn” calories they give me for my TDEE covers the rest. Been losing consistently with this method.