What’s Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure and Why Should You Care?
When you understand your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), you are ideally positioned to make the most of your fitness regime. Find out how to calculate it and use it to improve.
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Calculating Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)
Keeping track of your weight can be a difficult task. You need to know how many calories you consume each day and how many calories you burn each day. One excellent tool to help you figure out how many calories you burn is Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Knowing your TDEE will give you valuable information that will help you lower or maintain your current weight.
What is TDEE?
Your TDEE is a combination of your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) plus the number of calories you burn above that number. Your BMR is the minimum calories you need to sustain life. These calories go toward making sure your heart, liver, kidneys and brain are able to function. Your total daily energy expenditure adds on an activity level.
You need to understand your TDEE
There are five different levels of activity that determine your TDEE. These activity levels range from sedentary to extremely active. Another qualifier is whether the person is male or female. Men generally have higher caloric requirements than women.
TDEE is also dependent upon other factors such as age and weight. A young person will have a higher BMR and thus a higher TDEE. Someone who is overweight will have a higher caloric requirement than a slimmer person. You need to bear this variation in mind when calculating TDEE.
Total daily energy expenditure is further broken down into two categories. The first is called the thermic effect of activity and it denotes the amount of calories burned during exercise. The second is called the thermic effect of feeding. This is concerned with the number of calories burned during the digestion process.
Calculating Your TDEE
Once you have figured out what your BMR is, you can easily calculate your TDEE by multiplying it by one of five numbers. These numbers correspond to your activity level and are slightly higher the more active you are.
If you are sedentary and get little to no exercise, your BMR gets multiplied by 1.2. Someone with a slightly active lifestyle (engage in light activity or play sports from one to three times a week) will multiply their BMR by 1.375.
Someone who exercises from three to five times a week has a multiplier of 1.55. People who engage in physical activity or sports up to seven days a week need even more calories and they will need to multiply their BMR by 1.725. Lastly, a person who engages in physical activity up to seven times a week and has a physically active job will need to multiply their BMR by 1.9.
The Importance of TDEE
Knowing your TDEE is important to be able to accurately control your weight. This number gives you the amount of calories that you need every day to stay at a certain weight.
Instead of relying on fad diets or guessing, you can control your weight by assuring you get only the amount of calories you need to sustain your weight. On the flipside, if you are underweight and want to gain weight, or you are overweight and want to lose weight, knowing your TDEE will help you out as well.
You can adjust the number of calories to gain weight or lose weight. For example, if you have done all the calculations and your TDEE says you need to consume 2000 calories per day, you can add another 500 calories to that number to gain weight.
Using the same scenario, you should consume 2000 but want to lose weight, you can subtract 250 to 500 calories from that number and you will gradually lose weight.
Another good reason to know your total daily energy expenditure, especially if you are a bodybuilder is that the number will help you determine your nutrient macros accurately. Bodybuilders divide their daily calories into three different categories.
These categories are protein, fat and carbohydrates. The TDEE gives them the precise number of calories to consume per day for any one of three phases that a bodybuilder may be on.
Depending on the phase, more calories will be allotted to either protein, carbohydrates or fats. It will still be necessary to do some calculations, but most of the work is done after knowing the TDEE.
TDEE for Life
If you want a way to really be able to control your weight and not rely on fad diets, knowing how to find your TDEE is the way to go. The calculations are really easy to do and once you find that magic number, you are set. Take control of your weight and your life by knowing your TDEE.
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