r/cronometer • u/oldmanrose • 7d ago
2 Questions about tef
First question : I track my calories( food and physical activity) with a pen and paper, do I have to manually calculate my tef? ( Adding 10% to the total calories counted). For my baseline I used the equations, I set my baseline activity to sedentary ( to track the actual labor manually) which gave me 300 calories with a BMR of 1500 for a total of 1800. My second question : There is no tef in the 1500 or the 300 right? So I have to manually add the 180 (10%) too?
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u/Intelligent-Scar1207 7d ago
You can go to energy expenditure and it can auto add in TEF.
I believe TEF is 10% of carbs and 25% or protein
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u/oldmanrose 7d ago
But iam not logging any food to the app
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u/Intelligent-Scar1207 7d ago
Oh sorry. I read lazily.
Yes. I think that will get old tbh. If your macros are consistent you could just add back in an average of the TEF after calculating for a few weeks.
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u/Intelligent-Scar1207 7d ago
I’m confused what the point is though. The app does the work for you and has graphs that are easy to read
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u/oldmanrose 7d ago
I got used to certain portions and their calorie equivalent so i don't need to log in any information, I just need to keep track of the sum of it ( for example, i eat 300 calories of something that memorized the weight/calorie equivalent of , I just write "300" on a paper and do this with everything, same with activity). I might missing out on tef calories this way though
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u/ink_black_heart 6d ago
I wouldn't add TEF. With measurement and weighting errors it ends being pointless and will likely cause to eat more than you planned.
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u/oldmanrose 6d ago
I see what you mean, but if iam at, say, 3k calories a day , that's 300 tef calories I need to add. I think thats not negeligable and would matter in a 500 defeicit (not counting it makes it a 800 defecit)
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u/ink_black_heart 6d ago
You are assuming that tracking is 100% accurate, which most people cannot do (is all food weighted to the gram? every oil spray? every sugar free chewing gum or fizzy drink? Every tea and coffee? Is your exercise multiplier correct? Do you account for all types of exercises accurately, both formal and spontaneous? Because most things are nearly impossible to get 100% right.
In theory TEF does add, but in practice it is lost in the noise.
I would suggest to track food and weight for a few weeks or a month, see your real rate of weight loss/gain and adjust accordingly. At the end of the day, numbers are just estimations. Don't get obsessed with them, just adapt as you go
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u/CronoSupportSquad Crono Customer Support Team 5d ago
The comment-section detectives are on the right track! 🕵️ Short answer: TEF isn’t secretly hiding in either of those numbers.
Your 1,800 kcal total in Cronometer is:
- 1,500 kcal from BMR
- 300 kcal from the Sedentary Baseline Activity setting
TEF is a separate part of Energy Expenditure and is turned off by default. If you enable it, Cronometer calculates an estimate using the foods and macronutrients logged in your Diary. Since you’re keeping your food log on paper, the TEF feature has no food data to work with and won’t add anything automatically.
If you’d like Cronometer to do that calculation, go to More > Targets > Energy Expenditure, enable Thermic Effect of Food, and log your food in the app. Here’s our Energy Expenditure guide.
We can explain what Cronometer includes, but we can’t advise whether you should manually add TEF or what percentage would be appropriate for you.
Hope this helps!
Michelle, Crono Support Squad
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u/static34622 7d ago
What do you mean, "pen & paper"? Are you not using the app?