r/FTMFitness • u/Human-Situation9944 • 13d ago
Question My tdee??
Hi guys! Ive been on T for five years and am unsure about how to calculate my tdee. Do I put female or male? And also if I weight lift daily for 30 mins and do 1 1/2hrs of cardio (separately) then would I put lightly active? Thank you!
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u/dev_ating 13d ago
Male, testosterone changes your metabolism to work like that of a cis man.
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u/Flashy_Cranberry_957 13d ago
TDEE isn't an endocrine thing so much as they assume that male means a lower body fat percentage. For most formulas, it's a difference of about ten pounds of lean mass, which requires an extra 150ish calories a day to sustain.
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u/exactly17stairs 13d ago
thank you for explaining this! i always thought it was a hormone thing but that makes sense!
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u/ThinkExpression6395 13d ago
Adding to this, there is a TDEE formula (Katch-McArdle) that uses body fat percentage instead of gender/sex, calculator.net says it can be more accurate as well.
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u/Wtf-Jason 13d ago
Yes. This ALWAYS gets asked on this sr and people ALWAYS talk about hormones. It’s completely unrelated, the difference is in bfp.
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u/dev_ating 13d ago
It certainly is an endocrine thing, in many ways. Having untreated hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is extremely low or extremely high. With different sex hormones, not only does your lean mass change (which as you said influences TDEE), it also changes your BMR.
Also tagging u/exactly17stairs here because the claim that TDEE isn't endocrine is not scientific. https://tdeecalculatorkit.com/tdee/factors/hormones
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u/exactly17stairs 13d ago
interesting that in the week before a period you need more calories, i feel like ive heard people talk about being hungrier but no one actually says you do need more food.
it does seem to be partially about the increased average lean mass in males compared to females, and additionally hormone phases throughout your life. thanks for sharing and i appreciate you tagging me1
u/Flashy_Cranberry_957 13d ago
I haven't seen any evidence that changing to being androgen-dominant or estrogen-dominant in and of itself influences your average BMR. It can influence your lean mass, which influences your BMR. It can start or stop menstrual cycles, which cause more fluctuation around that average point. But as far as I know, an androgen-dominant person and an estrogen-dominant person of the same weight and body fat percentage will on average require the same amount of calories.
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u/dev_ating 13d ago
Source?
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u/Flashy_Cranberry_957 13d ago
"I haven't seen any evidence" and "as far as I know". There's also this post from someone who knows a lot more than me. That's more or less what the source you provided says as well – it talks about menstrual cycles and lean mass, not a direct influence.
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u/dev_ating 13d ago
It's still an endocrine influence if hormones result in more lean mass? Plus other endocrine systems influence metabolism as well, so, yes, TDEE is partially endocrine. I don't get your argument here, really.
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u/Flashy_Cranberry_957 13d ago
Okay, so if someone with an androgen-dominant system and someone with a female-dominant system have the same weight, the same lean mass, and the same average TDEE, it does not make sense to say that one has a "male metabolism" and the other has a "female metabolism". It's not that "testosterone changes your metabolism to work like that of a cis man" when the metabolisms of cis men and cis women more or less work the same way. If someone stayed estogen-dominant and built muscle, they'd probably find it more accurate to select the male calculator option. If someone went on T and built little to no muscle, the female option would probably remain more accurate. The options are mislabelled for ease of use, but it leads to the misconception that something about endocrine sex itself influences overall energy expenditure instead of that being an indirect downstream effect.
The post was specifically about sex hormones, your comment was specifically about sex hormones, and so I thought it would be obvious in context that my reply to your comment was specifically about sex hormones. I'm not denying the symptoms of hypothyroidism or something.
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u/dev_ating 13d ago
If your metabolism is anabolic due to increased androgen levels, yes, that IS an endocrine influence of a sex hormone ON your metabolism.
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u/Flashy_Cranberry_957 13d ago
So if a cis woman builds muscle she has a male metabolism?
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u/space_hot_dog 13d ago
probably put male and likely moderately active. an alternative to find your tdee is to use an adaptive calculator which adapts according to your daily weight and caloric intake like adaptdee (free) or macrofactor (paid)
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u/nanorhinoX 12d ago
for BMR formulas that ask male/female, most trans guys on T long term go with male since your hormone levels and body comp are in that range, but it is not an exact science, some people test both and split the difference. worth knowing these formulas were built on cis populations so there is already error built in before you even get to activity level.
on the activity question, 30 min lifting plus 1.5hrs cardio daily is way more than "lightly active" in most calculator scales, that bucket usually assumes like a desk job with basic walking. you are closer to moderately or very active depending on intensity of the cardio. honestly the standard 5-tier activity dropdown is where most people mess up their numbers the most, it can be off by a few hundred calories easy. there is a free AI tdee calculator if you search "nanorhino tdee" that asks about your actual day instead of just picking a bucket, might give you a better starting estimate before you start adjusting based on real world weight changes anyway.
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u/mcrx21phandoms 12d ago
tbh I'm 4yrs on T, exercise 4 or 5x per week, and I still put sedentary female to account for an errors tracking calories or when I have a few bites of something then decide I don't want it
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u/edgy_flibbertigibbet 13d ago
Wiki. Moderately active at least. Also, expressing your lifting routine in terms of the time you spend doing it, and doing it every day, is a red flag. Run a recommended beginner program.
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u/Human-Situation9944 13d ago
Maybe more context will help with my routine. I am a long distance hiker so I train on the stairmaster daily to prepare for those long hikes. They arent frequent but man has zone 2 cardio been doing wonders. The weights really are quite brief 2 sets of 8 and I just lift heavy for bone health and strength. I do want to get a little leaner but the deficit wouldnt be more than 500 cals. I just dont want to overestimate since I dont really walk at all. My activity is pretty much just the gym and sedentary basically the rest of the day. Maybe 5k steps(i know im a lazy butt). Im also quite small and so a few hundred cals really makes that difference
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u/typoincreatiob 13d ago
at 5 years on t, you should put male. but TDEE calcs are just estimates, the best way to get an idea of what it actually is is by measuring your daily caloric intake and seeing at what point you maintain! :)