Calories and Energy

Every calorie target starts with an estimate of what you burn, and every estimate carries an error bar that calculator sites rarely print. Mifflin–St Jeor, the equation behind most TDEE tools including this one, lands within 10% of measured metabolic rate for roughly four adults in five. On a 1,780 calorie result that is a 178 calorie spread before you have chosen an activity multiplier.These guides explain the difference between BMR and TDEE and which one to eat to, how to pick an activity multiplier without flattering yourself, and how big a calorie deficit should be once you account for the fact that the 3,500 calorie rule overpredicts long-term loss.Eating above maintenance has its own numbers. How large a surplus should be depends on how long you have trained, and the point where extra protein stops adding muscle sits at 1.62 g/kg across 49 trials, well under what most labels imply.Every number you feed a calorie target carries error. Food labels are allowed a 20% margin, wrist trackers miss energy burn by at least 27%, and dieters underreport what they eat by close to half. Those errors stack instead of cancelling, which is usually the real reason weight loss stalls on a deficit that used to work.Treat any calculated figure as a starting hypothesis. Two weeks of consistent eating and honest weigh-ins will tell you more than any equation can.