A little help in determining Daily Energy Expenditure

CoachCrimson

New member
Hello everyone, need a little help figuring out where to start this time around. Ive always had a real hard time believing the numbers that the various BMR equations put out for me, so im looking for some advice to validate a good starting point. Just for shits and giggles, the Schofield put me at 3712, Harris-Benedict at 3611, Mifflin at 3077, and Mifflin's Fat free mass equation, which was supposed to be the most accurate, is at 2383. The two Mifflin equations are the most recently derived ones (created in the 1990's if i remember correctly), and i only just discovered those a few days ago. in fact, although i estimated my bodyfat percentage, the fat free mass equation seems much more reasonable to me (originally i entered in pounds for the weight part, it did not designate whether it was kilograms or pounds, but the other mifflins used kilos. using pounds put me up near 5k calories a day, lol). all of these are just BMR, no activity modifier incorporated.

On days when i am active, which is most, some of these equations are going to call for me to eat over 5000 calories a day. i cannot imagine eating 5000 clean calories a day... or that that many could really be neccesary for maintenance. even accounting for the deficit (aiming for about 750 calories a day deficit), its still well over 4k in most cases.

I would just go with the fat free mass equation, except i had to estimate my bodyfat, and i tried to estimate high. I really dont have an accurate method of measuring bodyfat at my disposal either.

Any suggestions on where to start? going for low numbers would pretty much guarentee weight loss, but might provoke a quicker stall if the numbers are in fact too low, as well as more muscle loss. going for higher numbers might cause some gain initially, and might take some time to fine tune and tweak to the right amount. maybe there is something i am overlooking while playing with all this math? or perhaps someone else has a better equation/estimation?

last time i lost some weight, i went from 385 to 330 (was in pretty good shape too, throwing some of the farthest i have). However, what i did there doesnt really carry over to this trial. trust me on that, or PM me if you think you really need to know why, lol

leave your thoughts, im starting as soon as i get the next paycheck and can contribute to the shopping budget for my own health's sake. have a couple of days to determine what route i should start down. thanks in advance!
 
Here's how I do it.
 
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Haha, i lost this thread for a few days, couldnt remember where i posted it...

thanks for replying tomO. the post you referenced mentioned the harris-benedict method, did you find you needed to make adjustments to that right off the bat? or just as you lost weight?

there is some good stats work in that post, and im going to use some of it myself, thanks again for responding
 
Haha, i lost this thread for a few days, couldnt remember where i posted it...

thanks for replying tomO. the post you referenced mentioned the harris-benedict method, did you find you needed to make adjustments to that right off the bat? or just as you lost weight?

there is some good stats work in that post, and im going to use some of it myself, thanks again for responding

Adjustments are almost always necessary. These are just formulas, based on the general population. I found, for example, that my resting metabolic rate is probably 200 or 300 calories below the norm for my age and weight. I adjusted the figure downward based on actual experience over 2 or 3 months.
 
So, basically speaking, where you start doesn't matter quite so much under the following conditions: a) you use some reference points to get at least a general idea and stay away from the extremes. for instance, i know from those formulas that under 1500 is probably way too low, and over 5000 is probably way too high; and b) you understand that you will need to monitor and make fine tune adjustments throughout the journey.

both things i am already familiar with doing, except looking at it from this perspective i see that i dont have to get overly worried about my initial estimation being spot on. in fact, i am thinking that i could probably estimate a little bit low initially, get some weight to start coming off, and gradually increase calories until i am losing weight at an appropriate pace. how about that for an interesting approach to a diet, going to actually eat more as time goes on in the beginning, lol.
 
That's how I've done it. It's slow and steady, and somewhat frustrating at times, but it gives you the time needed to build new habits and a new way of living.
 
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