How active are you? Can you answer this honestly, without padding it with extras you assume will constitute a higher activity level than you actually achieve?
You might think that being a parent of an energetic pre-schooler would keep you active, but the sad truth is that it doesn't. What about all the washing, cleaning, cooking, laundry, and playtime? It doesn't account for much besides the average daily movement. You need to ACTIVELY increase your activity levels for it to make any difference to your estimated calorie intake. Doing active things that are part of your daily routine is normal. Otherwise, we could quantify every trip to the kitchen to make a drink or walk to the bathroom as part of our regular exercise. This is not the case.
TDEE vs BMR
The calorie calculator that I use on my weight loss journey is from the 5:2 Fast diet website. It's one of the better ones for accuracy and tweaking for activity, and weight down to 0.1kg. When I input my stats (sex, age, weight, height, activity level), it gives me two "ESTIMATED" calories counts. I've highlighted estimated because we are all very different and we all fluctuate in the ways that our bodies work.
So the two calorie intake estimates:
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) - This is the estimated metabolic rate at which your body burns calories for survival. This calorie estimate doesn't change unless your body weight changes. If you were to sleep your entire day away, this is the number of calories your body would consume for maintenance. Obviously, this is the lowest calorie estimate.
TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) - This is the estimated calorie intake that reflects your activity levels. If you are a sedentary worker and don't do any exercise, you will get the lowest calorie intake. This number is the estimated TOTAL number of calories you can consume per day to MAINTAIN your weight. Consequently, to lose weight, you need to consume less than this amount per day.
The critical thing to remember that while BMR is what your body needs for maintenance, TDEE depends on your activity levels.
Example - Me!
This week I'm at 105.8kg
So my calorie calculator will look like this:
Sex - Female
Age - 37
Height - 166cm
Weight - 105.8
Activity level - Sedentary, (Light/Moderate/High/Extreme Activity)
And my results come out like this:
BMR = 1750 cals/day
TDEE (sedentary) = 2099 cals/day (2406, 2712, 3018, 3324 for the higher activity levels)
So if my body will use 1750 calories just to maintain itself, where do the other 349 calories come from, even when I'm sedentary?
That extra calorie intake is the difference between sleeping or laying down all day and being awake and doing all those little 'awake' things that everyone does.
It includes all those things you don't even think about:
Eating - Digesting food requires energy
Walking about - The five-minute walk from car to office or the walk from chair to toilet, it all uses energy, just not as much as you think. "Pootling" is what I call it. So pootling includes the daily chores, such as laundry, vacuuming, stacking the dishwasher, etc. I could go on, but you get the gist.
Assuming that you are lightly active when you're just doing day-to-day stuff is a trap that you mustn't fall into.
It is best to assume that until you can genuinely say that you make an increased activity a priority for 30 minutes every other day, you are in the sedentary category.
Starting Slowly (don't over-do it into quitting)
Seeing as I'm starting over, I'm going slowly. We'll be fair; I am a sedentary person. I'm a content writer by day, and I also have sedentary hobbies (writing, sewing, crochet, gaming, etc.). I know myself. In the past, I have started off thinking "I will be active", and I have gone at it with vigour - right up to where I hurt myself and ended up quitting. This time I'm going SLOWLY.
What does that mean?
What that means that instead of trying to do couch to 5K, I'm walking more. And that's not ambling - I mean brisk walking. I have an app called "active 10" on my phone that records my activity (as long as I take it with me) and it will tell me how much walking I have done, it will also tell me how much of that was brisk, active walking.
I'm not classing this as actively increased activity. I do it every time I get up from my desk to make a brew (while the kettle boils and tea brews), go to the loo, or just need to stretch out the kinks in my back. I still class myself as sedentary, just not quite so lazy. Essentially, I'm still pootling, but I'm pootling more.
Defining Activity
Sedentary = desk job, no dedicated exercise, restricted mobility, drives, takes the lift
Lightly Active = Light exercise 1-3 times per week OR regular daily walking, but no defined exercise regime.
Moderately Active = Active job, on feet all day AND continuous exercise of AT LEAST 30 minutes 3-5 times a week
Very Active = Hard continuous training 6-7 days per week for AT LEAST 60 minutes each day. Serious athletes fall into this category
Extremely active = Hard continuous activity or sports more than once every day AT LEAST an hour at a time AND a physically demanding job. The only people I can imagine fit into this category are professional fitness instructors with a packed schedule.
I define myself as being sedentary because I don't always make an effort to go for an actual walk (Okay, right now, it's not an option with lockdown measures and all that). I actively UNDERESTIMATE my activity levels. This way, if I lose more than I expect, then it's a bonus. In a while, I might class myself as lightly active, but that isn't soon.
What would happen if I overestimated my activity levels?
Not a lot. If I overestimate how active I am, I will only slow my weight loss journey. Telling myself white lies is something I have to stop doing. Lying about how I look in the mirror, lying about why those jeans don't fit, lying about how much I have eaten, lying about how much activity I'm doing, none of it will help me.
Slowly increasing my activity while eating between my BMR and TDEE every day is a slow and gradual approach to what should be my standard eating patterns. No shocking my body into automatic starvation mode, no eating less than my body needs for repair and maintenance. I am simply making sure that I eat less than I need for my daily activity.
It takes a long time for the weight to creep upwards; it only makes sense that sustainably losing it will have to be a steady decrease.
My activity levels are creeping upward. Not only do I walk in ten-minute bursts, but I'll also do the warm-up from my low impact body blast or 1-3 videos from Body Groove or Figure 8 Express. However, until I can carve out the time (and endurance) to complete a full 30-minute workout 2-3 times per week, I won't be increasing my activity level on my calorie counter.
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