WHAT IS TDEE?

(Total daily energy expenditure) is the total amount of calories you burn in a given day. TDEE is affected by 4 different factors:

  1. BMR (basal metabolic rate)- calories burned by your body carrying out basic functions like breathing

  2. EAT (exercise activity thermogenesis)- calories burned during structured exercise

  3. NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)- calories burned outside of structured exercise like walking or gardening

  4. TEF (thermic effect of food)- calories burned digesting your food

WHAT IS BMR

  1. Your Basal Metabolic Rate  - the amount of calories you burn just by being alive.

  2. Our body needs fuel to function, even if we were not to leave bed for the day. This is going to be affected by your age, height and weight and state of health. Generally speaking, the less we weigh and the less muscle we have, the less energy we will need to stay alive (or the lower your BMR will be)

  3. Disclaimer: You never want to eat below this number!

WHAT IS NEAT

  1. (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): walking, talking, grocery shopping, cleaning and anything else that has your body moving excluding planned exercise. Your NEAT levels are generally going to be lower while in a calorie deficit (especially if it is extreme) as we will subconsciously move less due to lower energy.

  2. Importance of NEAT: Structured exercise is what we tend to focus on when it comes to weight loss, but we cannot ignore the importance of NEAT. Staying healthy and active isn’t just about a consistent workout routine. What you do before, after and between your workouts is just as important as the sessions themselves.  Your body is constantly using its internal energy supply to function normally and keep you feeling your best. In order to continue making strides toward your health goals and most importantly keeping that weight off, you will want to start focusing more on your NEAT.

  3. NEAT is everything you do outside of the gym. NEAT is important because it helps with your basal metabolic rate (BMR). If you sit all day regardless if you work out or not, your BMR will be lower than if you incorporate more activity in your day. The higher your BMR is the more calories you can consume without gaining weight. Exercise is great for additional calorie burn, but you do not want to be solely reliant on exercise for the rest of your life as it provides very minimal calorie burn. If you think about it, exercising for one hour is about 4% of your entire day. NEAT takes up about 63% (if you are sleeping 8 hours) of your day! NEAT has a much bigger impact on calories than exercise does.