Online BMR calculators put my BMR at 1460. The TDEE calculation for me (marked lightly active working out 4-5 days per week with a sedentary job) is 2000 calories - based on height, weight, age, and body fat % taken from online estimates.
In truth: I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet with calories in and weight loss for 4 months and my actual calorie expenditure is 1720 calories working out 4-5 days per week with a sedentary desk job. My TDEE was off by 280.
And based on my actual body fat % (Online body fat calculators and calipers put my body fat at 21%. I got an actual Dexa scan that put my body fat at 26%. More muscle = higher BMR), my BMR estimate is closer to 1380. Lower by 80 calories than original estimate
I used to mark myself as moderately active because I worked out so frequently. But I got a heart rate monitor and wasn’t really breaking a sweat. It all started to make sense. I was burning 1380 just existing, ~160 with daily activities, ~200 in a daily HIIT workout.
Lastly, I wasn’t measuring my food on a food scale and I wasn’t measuring at all for a cheat meal. When I started measuring every little thing, I found I was regularly off by 100-200 calories.
Why am I telling you this/TLDR
I was shooting for a 500 per day deficit, and with all these little errors was eating and exercising at maintenance instead and it took me 4 months of spreadsheets, a heart rate monitor, a dexa scan, and a food scale to figure it out.
Moral of the story is don’t be like me, get the right tools and use your own data from day 1, and ignore the online calculators!
It drove me nuts and was really discouraging to be using the wrong data for 4 months and see no change. Now I’m actually losing fat - about 1/4 lb per week eating and exercising in a way that the online scales say should be 1 lb per week. It seems hard to believe how much work it actually is to get a true 100-150 cal deficit per day, and how hungry you can be at that tiny deficit (side note: tons of lean protein and fruits, and grazing rather than meals except dinner seems to be the best for appetite suppression for me) but so be it. At least it’s happening! There’s no magic bullet.
Also worth noting: I’m in the last 10 lb stretch of fat loss when you have to be religious about this stuff
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