The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

So, I wondered how much variation in my estimated TDEE there would be with the different online calculators that are available. I used the following:
Female, age 53, weight 87.5 kg, height 165cm (5ft5), sedentary

IIFYM
using Harris-Benedict: 2083
using Mifflin-St Jeor: 1976
using Katch-McCardle (Body fat 48%): 1623
The fit girlsand Scooby's workshopand Fitness frog and Mathews calorie counter
1851
The skinny equation and Calorie line
1780
Do you even
2104 (based on 480 mins sleeping, 840 mins sitting, 120 mins light exercise)
Health-calc
2362 (based on same activities as above)

This is just the first page of TDEE calorie counters thrown up by a google search. As you can see the difference between the lowest and highest calculation is really big, (with the highest estimation being half as big again as the lowest) and so not really helpful at all unless one knows which of these calculators is nearest to the truth!
For me, I think the last but one (2104cal) is possibly the nearest to reality judging by my calorie consumption against weight lost.

I would be interested to know which of these other users think is correct for them!

Female, age 53, weight 87.5 kg, height 165cm (5ft5), sedentary

We could be sisters!!

Using the same age and height, but a slightly heavier weight, I get:
2285 (IIFYM)
2214 (Fitness frog)
2304 (Freedieting - maintenance)

[carorees]

Oh, how come yours come out much more similar than mine? What do you get on the "Do you even" or "Health-calc sites?"

doyoueven = 2230
health-calc = 1969


I can see myself going round the bend with these sites!

[carorees]

That's interesting...the site that have me the highest figure did not also give your highest estimate. Which do you feel is right?

Based on female aged 63, 5ft2in, 168lbs I got:
Fitness frog/Fitgirls 1651
Skinny Equation 1530
IIFYM Mifflin-St Jeor 1725
Harris Benedict 1773
Katch McCardle 1493

Fair variation and all based on sedentary activity.

I just lost 400 calories/day by being female! Was doing both my husband and my own and forgot to change gender box. Discrimination is everywhere

I have:
fitness-tips 1632
fitness frog 1632
the fit girls 1632
skinny equation 1526
do you even 1793
free dieting 1269
iifym 1435
exrx.net 1530

The average of the above is 1556.

I try to stay under 1269 (the lowest one).

Last week, when I maintained, my weekly average was 1229 and my non-fasting days average was 1523. I'm not sure how to use this but from precious experience I think that Free Dieting is the most accurate. Or at least close to accurate.

Back when I first checked my TDEE, there was one website that gave me 1959 as a result. That is waayyyyy too much for a woman my size (5ft3).

[carorees]

Sorry Kencc, can you clarify..is it TML13 (the last poster) you're referring to here or me as the OP?

Yes, I was wondering the same thing, Caroline.
I must say that I do spend most of the day sitting down in front of a computer. I do a bit of housework and cooking and I walk around 20 minutes 3-4 times a week but my job is to sit in front of a computer and type, type, type...

This huge range in TDEEs thing has been bugging me too Caro. I put my details into several calculators over the last few weeks too and the differnce between them was someting like 600 calories, so something is definitely not right there!
I took an average and just went with that. It's hard to be exact about calorie intake too, especially when cooking from scratch I find so I take a close approximation there too.

Ditto, I'm 151cm tall (5ft or thereabouts), 74kgs, 30, lightly active, mostly sedentary:


HealthCalc: 2,358 (wtf?!)
DoYouEven: 1996
Skinny Equation: 1890
Thefitgirl: 2057
IIFYM: 1847

I eat normally around 1650 calories on average on my feed days and 450 on fast days - I don't like feeling overly full anyway. I know that up until dinner time my calorie intake is roughly 1000 calories and I feel fine - could be because I have a desk job.

I keep track of what I eat, so this week looked like this:
M: 1570
T: 1540
W: 450
T: 1880 (fish and chip night)
F (today): Around 1800 as I'm seeing the girls tonight and we always have a glass or two of red

Caroline - d'you think we could set up our own TDEE calculator for this site? I'm sure it would be far more superior and meaningful than the others I've seen . What strikes me is that they never seem to give you a max/ min range, it's always one magic number. I think the calculation based on body fat is likely to be the most accurate but if you haven't got that data, then it's purely a guesstimate - but the sites don't really tell you that. For example, not every 53yr old female with the same criteria as you specified is going to have precisely the same TDEE because there will be variability in muscle mass/ fat percentage and also amount of activity (albeit sedentary).

We could use one of the BMI -> fat converters.

I foresee user resistance to the lean mass based TDEE calculators - in general they don't allow fat people more food.

I just did 12 (phew!) calculators and my average was 2420 which seems really high, but I am very heavy at the moment and I also go to the gym around 4x per week, so I suspect both of those influenced the results. I think part of the problem is some calculators let you call "moderate" activity going to the gym 4 days a week and some calculate per day - but I don't go to the gym every single day.....

So my highest was a whopping 3180 from Health Calculator (based on daily though, so based it on a gym day with those) to 1827 on Calorie Line....

I'm going to count calories for a few weeks because I suspect my "normal" is a bit broken at the moment. Will probably shoot for the average that this little experiment has come up with and just see what happens. On non-gym days I'll shoot for less.