Right way to calculate calories loss while dieting and exercising

Question

I am 48, male, 5 foot 9 inches tall, and weigh around 99 kg (so yes, obese).

I am a little confused by the way to determine what weight I should be losing in a week or a month.

Based on my age, weight, and height I have a BMR of around 1900 (while lying in bed) and I walk around 50-60 miles a week at around 3.5 MPH ...

My diet is around 2100 calories a day including everything...

Now if I multiply the 1975 * 1.55 I get around 3100, so I should be down by about 1000 calories a day, or 7000 calories a week, which means I am losing 2 lb a week just i my diet...

But do I also factor in the basic 100-120 calories burnt per mile walking, which would be around 7000 a week?

If that's the case I should be losing around 3-4 pounds a week.

Is that right, or do I need to be more flexible, and not worry so much about the numbers, just keep at it for 13 weeks and see where I am?

Answer 1

The estimated TDEE is just that, estimated. There are many other factors which can affect your BMR that those calculators don't take into account.

Use a 2 week cycle to set a TDEE, eat at it and then measure the difference on the scale and in your energy levels/mood. IF you don't lose weight and feel good then reduce the calorie intake further and try for another 2 weeks. If you lose slightly over what you expect or feel awful then up your calorie intake a little.

Your BMR is highly personal and cannot be "prescribed" using a calculator. At best it gives you a starting point. Go out and do some science.

Answer 2

To estimate your BMR use this formula 66 + (6.25 x weight in lbs) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years) = BMR. 66 + 1362.5=1428.50 + 876.3 = 2304.8 - 326.4 = 1978.4 BMR. times that by the amount of physical activity (charts available online) i would say walking 50 to 60 miles a week at 3.5 mph would moderate(only because of the speed) so, 1978.4 x 1.375 = 2,720.3 calories a day to maintain your weight. If you want to lose 2 lbs per week yes you would have to decrease calories by 1000. Although it is very possible that 1,720 calories will not be enough to give you the energy needed to exercise even at a moderate rate. What I would suggest is to eat around 2500 calories per day and add muscle building exercises to your workout to help increase your metabolism. Also it is good to know what your body composition is or how many lbs of fat you are carrying. There are several ways to determine this the most popular way is the Pinch Test using calipers. you may weigh 218 lbs but knowing how much is fat is very critical because you don't want to lose muscle. If you have 35 lbs of fat then subtracting that from 218 lbs would mean that you have 183 lbs of fat free mass(muscle, bones, blood,organs etc.) now 35 lbs of fat means your bf % is 23. A man 40 - 49 who has BFP is over 28% is considered to be obese. In the case of the example this man is perfectly fine and shouldn't need to lose weight. Gosh I hope this helps and I hope I wrote it so you could understand. Good luck on your journey.