Variance in TDEE numbers?

[nubchai]

There are many many TDEE calcs and sources etc out there and I am finding variance in their recommendations.

TDEEcalculator.net sets my cutting Cals to 1800, while nSuns adaptive TDEE spreadsheet from r/Fitness sets me at 2100 Cal, Carbon sets me at 2000 Cal. Physiquonomics says BW x 9-14, Etc.

Curious what everybody else is using to set their macro targets reliably.

(39m, 6’2”, 206lbs, want to get to 190lbs. Office job, heavy lifting 3-4x/wk. 1RM = OHP/Bench/Squat/DL = 137/236/279/354)

 

[neostarwcc]

@nubchai It's all an estimate, you'll have to monitor and adjust as necessary. Just pick one to start with and go from there.

 

[byrightpaths]

@nubchai To me, using nSun’s adaptive TDEE spreadsheet is more reliable than the calculators. Has a little lead time since you need to track your weight and calories for a bit so you have data to feed into it, but if you’re gonna be tracking anyway, that doesn’t seem like a big thing to me.

Since it reflects realtime trends it was easy for me to respond to, since I could keep in mind any changes in activity. Like if I’d felt like crap for a couple of days, or had life stuff come up that got in the way of being at the same level of activity or changed my eating patterns. The sheet showed it, and I could keep that in mind for the future.

It’s definitely a longer term commitment though, since you have to get enough data in there to correlate calories, weight changes, and activity levels, and then take your conclusions to guide behavior later.

 

[paulotarsus]

@nubchai I think trying to guess TDEE is a fool's errand. If I want to gain weight I eat a little more/if I want to lose weight I eat a little less, and see how it goes over 2 week increments.