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If you have weight loss/weight gain goals which you're serious about achieving, then you have to know your daily energy expenditure (Thanks HotChildInTheCity for introducing this term to me!). Total Daily Energy Expenditure (or TDEE) is the total number of calories you burn in an average day, including all the activities you do.

If you remember, during Day 2 we talked about your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). BMR stands for the minimum caloric requirement to sustain life in an individual, and doesn't account for the exercises/activities you do. TDEE, on the other hand, takes into account our activity level, and is a closer measure to the calories we burn on an average day. Basically

TDEE = BMR (Calories burned at rest) + Calories burned from activities (This is a calorie expenditure that occurs on top of your BMR)

Consuming lesser calories than TDEE will lead to a weight loss. On the other hand, consuming more calories will lead to a weight gain. Consuming the same calories will lead to maintenance of your current weight.

To figure out how many calories you should eat a day to achieve your weight goals, we need to first know your TDEE. Hence, today's task is on calculating your TDEE!

Step 1: Calculate Your TDEE

There are many methods to calculate TDEE, including ready online calculators. However, I found that many of those methods actually overcalculates your TDEE, which in turn thwarts your healthy living efforts. I highly recommend the following method to calculate your energy expenditure.

1) Calculate your BMR. You can calculate your BMR via the BMR counter. This represents your caloric requirements purely to sustain your body.
2) Multiply #1 by 1.2. This will give you your caloric expenditure on a day with minimal activity.
3) Add your calorie output via exercise. Use this activity counter to know how many calories you're burning with your exercises. Sum up your calorie output with the answer from #2 and you'll get your TDEE for the day.

For example, if your BMR is 1400 and you went jogging today and burned 300 calories, your total energy expenditure will be 1400x1.2 + 300=1680 + 300 = 1980 calories for the day.


Step 2: Calculate your calories intake per day to achieve your weight goal

To lose/gain weight, you've to consume lesser/more calories than your energy expended every day (or if you prefer to exercise, you need to burn x more calories that day). It's generally recommended not to set a calories difference bigger than 500. So if your daily energy expenditure is 1700, you should have a calories intake of less than 1700, between 1200 to <1700 calories.

By setting your ideal weight and the date you want to achieve this ideal weight, you can then work backwards and calculate your calories intake a day.

1. Calculate the difference between your ideal weight and current weight. If your ideal weight is 60kg and your current weight is 63kg, the difference is 3kg or 6.6lbs (1kg = 2.2lbs).
2. Multiply answer #1 by 3500. This is to calculate total calories you need to lose. To lose 1 lb, you need to have a calorie deficit of 3500 lbs. Example: If you have a 6.6lbs difference, that will be 23100 calories.
3. Divide answer #2 by # of days to achieve ideal weight. When do you want to achieve your ideal weight? If you want to achieve your ideal weight by end of Feb (it's Jan 10 now), that's 50 days left. Then, divide answer #2 by the number of days left. Example: 23100 / 50 = 462 calories per day.
   
   What this means is you need to eat 462 less calories or burn 462 more calories (vs. your TDEE) to achieve your ideal weight of 60kg by end Feb.
   

Step 3: Design your ideal healthy living plans to fit your daily caloric target

Now that you know your daily caloric target, what is your ideal healthy living plan (incorporating ideal meal plan (Day 3) and exercise) that will help you achieve this target, while meeting your nutritional needs? Design a few healthy living plans (one for each week, so you have variety) and then start following these plans from today onwards!

Day 10 of Your 21-Day Action Plan

What are your 21DHL tasks listed for today? Do them with excellence and report them in your 21DHL Journal! Also, read your group mates' 21DHL journals and cheer them along! Pick a few members' journals and make it a point to post meaningful replies there.

Remember, if you feel a particular member is doing a great job in helping others/you, give him/her a reputation point! Click to his/her profile page, look under reputation, and click "Rate". Then, select +1 and type the reason you're giving this rating to him/her.

Share Your Progress on Day 10!

What is your total daily expenditure? How many calories do you need to consume every day and what exercises do you plan to do to meet your weight loss/weight gain goals?

In the meanwhile, stay tuned for Day 11's task!

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Hi Celes! I'm very honored about this

And because Glenn asked about how the calculations are done, this is the formula most calculators are using, it's called Harris-Benedict formula:


And just to show how bad under-eating is for you, I found this interesting:



Finally, because this is our workout week, I want to share with everybody, something very motivational I stumbled upon...

It says here that this is exact replica of how 5lbs of muscle looks vs 5lbs of fat. And here are some videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSre-Q7-L...re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozt-V0PPJaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozt-V0PPJaw
Each is approximately 1.5 minutes long, look at it and you'll be amazed.
This really made me wanting to trim the waist and tone up....

Thanks HotChild for sharing!! I came across the Harris-Benedict formula a few times just now while researching on TDEE but I'm skeptical about its accuracy. (It seems to overcalculate my BMR; perhaps it's more accurate for Caucasian body types? I'm not too sure). My BMR via the formula is close to 1600, whereas I had my BMR measured via a digital scale last year and it was about 1390+. That's a difference of 200 calories! There hasn't been any changes to my weight since I last measured it too. I've always used 1400 as my base BMR in the past and it would accurately reflect my weight fluctuations based on how much I was over/under eating vs. 1400. (I factor in exercise/activity rate as a separate variable).

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Hi Celes - I'm just about to go to bed here in UK its still day 9 but I noticed what I think is a typo above

Quote:2.To lose 1 lb, you need to have a calorie deficit of 3500 lbs. Multiply the difference between your ideal and current weight in lbs by 3500. Example: If you have a 11lbs difference, that will be 23100 calories.

I think the figures aren't right since if you multiply 11 by 3500 you dont get 23100 - just thought I'd let you know so you can change it so people dont get confused.

Also I'm not sure this bit is right:

Quote:if your BMR is 1400 and you went jogging today and burned 300 calories, your total energy expenditure will be 1400+300=1700 calories for the day

This assumes that apart from jogging you did absolutely nothing else all day ie just lay in bed or sat watching TV whereas most of us (hopefully ) would do a little more than that. The TDEE for someone who does little or no exercise is about 250 - 300 calories higher than the BMR which takes into account that they probably walk around a little, perhaps climb a few stairs, have a shower, get dressed, wash dishes, talk etc all of which add a little calorie expenditure so if this fairly inactive person then jogged for 300 calories the figures might be something like this:

BMR 1400
base TDEE (litle or no exercise) = BMR x 1.2 = 1680
Actual TDEE on the day they went jogging = 1680 + 300 = 1980

Jade Wrote:I think the figures aren't right since if you multiply 11 by 3500 you dont get 23100 - just thought I'd let you know so you can change it so people dont get confused.

You're right - it's a typo. It should be 6.6 x 3500 - I've corrected it above. Thanks for letting me know!

Jade Wrote:This assumes that apart from jogging you did absolutely nothing else all day ie just lay in bed or sat watching TV whereas most of us (hopefully ) would do a little more than that. The TDEE for someone who does little or no exercise is about 250 - 300 calories higher than the BMR which takes into account that they probably walk around a little, perhaps climb a few stairs, have a shower, get dressed, wash dishes, talk etc all of which add a little calorie expenditure so if this fairly inactive person then jogged for 300 calories the figures might be something like this:

BMR 1400
base TDEE (litle or no exercise) = BMR x 1.2 = 1680
Actual TDEE on the day they went jogging = 1680 + 300 = 1980

You're right - the assumption for the 1400+300 is that the person has no activity for the day except for the exercise. Multiplying it by 1.2 first will give a more holistic measurement of the TDEE. The other thing to note is that if one has already accounted for the exercises he/she does a week when using the TDEE calculator, then you shouldn't add on the 300 calories from the exercise as it'll be double counting.

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

All this information anbout BMR, TDEE, Calories, etc are awesome and in some way they are fun (if you really like maths :mrgreen

But don´t get lost in the details, and the end of the day you just know what you have to do, I tell you ´cause I spent the entire saturday making calculations about it... is a great experience and knowledge, but after all the analysis you just know what you have to do.

Follow your instinct and trust your self.

I recommend reading this book called "Blink" from Malcom Gladwell, he talks about that.

Good luck on the week and let´s swet that´s calories off

Trust your gut - you can't go wrong with that! (no pun intended!)

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

In my case, I don't like any kind of temporary diet. I like just establishing a pattern for life. So my strategy is to determine what my dietary needs would be at my "ideal weight", taking into consideration that weight is a relative term and overall fitness and the fit of one's clothes is a more useful number. Especially since muscle is denser (and, therefore, heavier) than fat.

Anyway, once my I set my dietary habits, the resulting loss of weight is made up with vigorous exercise.

Once my target weight is reached, I can reduce the exercise length/ intensity a bit into the way I'm going to live for the rest of my life.

On the other hand, I have such a miserable cold that I need to just rest and drink lots of fluids.

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~The Summer Day, Mary Oliver

Celes and HotChildInTheCity, thanks a LOT for the info!
I get a new perspective altogether about how to calculate the calorie intake for my diet.

HotChildInTheCity Wrote:It says here that this is exact replica of how 5lbs of muscle looks vs 5lbs of fat.

Wooow..
this really motivates me to cut down those body fat of mine! I know that fat are bad, but seeing the visualizations is really eye opening. Thanks again!

Francisco Wrote:I spent the entire saturday making calculations about it... is a great experience and knowledge, but after all the analysis you just know what you have to do.

Yeah, I agree with Francisco. It's great to do the calorie and TDEE calculation, so that you get the basic knowledge about the calorie intakes in your everyday food and how many that is needed for your body to function well. Because some of my friends never have any idea about this and they do their diet by extremely reducing their food intake (I will link this post to them for sure.. ). And from my experience keeping a food log and calculating the calorie intake, overtime you'll develop an idea of what food is good for you and you don't have to do the detail exercise that often. Just be committed to eating what's good for your body and your health.

Yuwana Stiani's Blog - Life is a Joyful Ride!
Be Grateful. Stay Positive. Make a Change.

Cool exercise. I think everybody should really follow the second method for calculating TDEE rather than the first. According to the first method my TDEE is 2954. That seemed pretty high to me. When I calculated my TDEE the second way I came up with 2233 when I exercise 30 minutes a day and 2497 when I exercise 60 minutes. That's a difference of 457 to 721 calories! That is a huge difference. it's an entire extra meal a day.

For the past few weeks I have been trying to keep my calories each day below 1600 accounting for the exercise I do each day. I am usually reasonably satisfied by what I eat and I am able to lose 2 lbs each week. I'm happy with this strategy and I will continue with it.

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Celes, I don't know if anybody else is having this problem but I am not able to subscribe to forums. When I try I am redirected to a blank white page and the forum is not added to my subscribed list. I tried doing this with the official tasks forum, the L-M group, and the introductions forums. I was not able to subscribe to any of them.

Matt Wrote:Cool exercise. I think everybody should really follow the second method for calculating TDEE rather than the first. According to the first method my TDEE is 2954. That seemed pretty high to me. When I calculated my TDEE the second way I came up with 2233 when I exercise 30 minutes a day and 2497 when I exercise 60 minutes. That's a difference of 457 to 721 calories! That is a huge difference. it's an entire extra meal a day.

Hey Matt, my preference is towards the 2nd method too. I think it's more precise, and you can really see how working extra hard in a workout will help you to burn more calories. The 1st method is more like a lump sum average.

Matt Wrote:For the past few weeks I have been trying to keep my calories each day below 1600 accounting for the exercise I do each day. I am usually reasonably satisfied by what I eat and I am able to lose 2 lbs each week. I'm happy with this strategy and I will continue with it.

That's terrific Matt! You're really a living proof of how proper eating and workout can lead anyone to their fitness goals. We should do a case study of you and your weight loss journey

Matt Wrote:Celes, I don't know if anybody else is having this problem but I am not able to subscribe to forums. When I try I am redirected to a blank white page and the forum is not added to my subscribed list. I tried doing this with the official tasks forum, the L-M group, and the introductions forums. I was not able to subscribe to any of them.

Thanks for letting me know! I've fixed the problem. By the way it seems that you're the only one utilizing the forums' higher functions? Lol No one else seems to be noticing these bugs. Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions by the way

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Aw thanks Celes.

Just curious, if it takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound then does that mean if I consume 3500 over my TDEE does that mean I gain a pound?

Matt Wrote:Just curious, if it takes a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound then does that mean if I consume 3500 over my TDEE does that mean I gain a pound?

Yes you're right! It's really easy to overeat and gain an extra pound. For example, the jelly donuts are typically 300 calories each, so just 10 donuts is almost 1 pound. Oh yeah

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life