Your Metabolic Code: BMR, TDEE, and Calories
Whether it’s for weight loss, weight gain, or weight maintenance, it all comes down to how many calories you’re burning as well as the calories you’re consuming.
If you’re looking at losing weight, you need to be in a deficit, meaning what you’re consuming should be less than what you’re burning. Now, if you want to put on new muscle tissue, or even just weight, you need to be in a surplus.
In order to do that, you also have to understand how efficiently and at what rate your body is burning energy and calories. And that’s going to be the basis for that deficit, surplus, or equilibrium.
Know Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) refers to the rate of energy (calories) we utilize just for daily function. We’re strictly talking about the body’s physiological functions such as the heart beating, circulation, and digestion. It also includes the body’s ability to generate new cells and synthesize protein. These are voluntary and involuntary body functions unrelated to any kind of external activity.
Your basal metabolic rate is pretty much stationary in many ways. It’s based on height, weight, age, gender, and body composition. And the only thing you can change out of those is your body composition.
Your BMR doesn’t define how much you should be eating. Once you have that BMR, then you have to assume and account for your activity level before you final
Know Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)
In TDEE, you’re looking at the calories you burn through your exercise, eating, and digestion, and the thermic effect of food. It also refers to your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which is the energy expended for all activities you do when you’re not sleeping or exercising. This includes walking to the parking lot or doing your house chores.
Your TDEE can change day to day depending on which of those numbers you are going to use as your baseline. You could also impact your overall BMR by focusing on your body composition.
How Body Comp Plays a Huge Role
TDEE only accounts for 10% to 30% of the total calories you burn in a day. Whereas BMR accounts for 60% to 80% of that.
Therefore, focus more on changing your body composition by making adjustments to your diet, rather than focusing on exercise. Then you will have a much greater chance of lowering your body fat percentage, and you’re going to impact your TDEE at a greater level than just adjusting your exercise.
If you want to learn more about your metabolic code, check out https://workwithdrtiff.com/episode-004.
