TDEE

The reason I discovered TDEE was because when I started counting my calories and lose weight, I decided I wanted to lose weight faster. SO I decreased my calories to 1600 a day and not eating back any exercise calories. I did lose weight, but not as fast as I had hoped. In fact, I experienced my first weight loss plateau on this calorie restriction where I didn't lose any weight for 2 weeks.

And I was HUNGRY. I was hungry all the time. I would wake up ravenous and by the time it was bed time I couldn't wait to go to sleep so I didn't have to feel hungry anymore. Sometimes I would go to sleep early so I wouldn't be hungry. I knew this was not going to last and eventually I'd break and binge on a whole pan of brownies or a whole Pizza or something.

And I was TIRED. I didn't feel like I had enough energy to make it through my day, let alone enough for a good workout that I could really push myself. Sometimes I would crash in the middle of the day on the couch and my kids would have to wake me up.

I WAS MISERABLE. I knew this was not how I wanted to live and not the way I wanted to be "healthy". I knew I would not stick with my life change if I felt this way all the time. It was a recipe for disaster.

SO I google'd again and discovered TDEE.

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It is the amount of calories you can consume a day based on your activity level.

It takes into account your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) which is the amount of calories your body needs at complete rest to keep your organs, and body functioning. Any activity would increase this amount including walking to the bathroom, etc.

TDEE is your BMR + approximately how many calories you burn throughout the day based on your activity level. TDEE allows you to have so many calories a day based on how much activity you do. So more activity = more calories. :)  Sedentary, Light, Moderate, Strenuous exercise. The more calories you burn, the more you get to eat!

There are lots of calculators including:

Scooby Calculator
The Fit Girls
The Skinny Equation

The Scooby calculator is my favorite because it figures out your TDEE to maintain your weight or you can decreased it to TDEE -10% -15% -20% to lose weight. It is recommended not to go over -20% because that is when you start getting into metabolism wrecker mode (aka starvation mode). Not a good place to be in. The weight may not fly off, but it comes off in a healthy and easy way instead of losing 2 lb's a week by starving, and then sabotaging your weight loss with a binge because you are just so darn hungry. It took me 6.5 months to lose 20 lb's. But I was able to eat a good amount of calories while doing it.

Example: I am 155 lb's and I want to maintain my weight. I'm 5'9" and 32 years old and work out 5 days a week.  I get to eat 2293 calories to maintain my weight!!!  If I want to lose I go TDEE-15% I still get to eat 1972 calories and lose weight!

Wait What?!? I don't have to eat 1600 or even a scary 1200 to lose weight?!?! Nope. You can eat enough to fire up your metabolism by eating small meals all throughout the day so you never get to starving mode and overeat, and you have lots more energy to push yourself in your workouts. It also motivates you to workout, because if you work out you get to eat a little more than if you were sedentary. Plus it is easier to maintain when you get to your goal weight and want to maintain it hopefully for the rest of your life. A Healthy Metabolism is a Happy Metabolism!

I am just explaining this very basic. If you would like a good read, this post helped explain it to me the most and really made sense. She calls it "Reverse Dieting":

http://corinanielsen.com/livefit/?p=1802

So my plea to any readers considering a strict 1200 calorie a day restriction is to consider these healthy options where you get to eat food, work out hard, and enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Losing weight requires a lot of hard work and dedication. So you may as well not be miserable while doing it!