So I used to track steps and hit 12k a day and then i knew that I was burning around the same amount of cals a day so i knew how many cals to eat a day to maintain my weight, but thinking of doing strain instead and hit the same strain goals for the day thus will that equate to my tdee?
Hi @kellyzach586 . This is a great question.
WHOOP’s Strain is different from counting steps or estimating calories burned from step targets. Steps mostly measure movement, while Strain represents your cardiovascular load: how hard your heart is working throughout the day, not just how much you move.
Because of that, hitting the same Strain every day won’t directly equal your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Here’s why:
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Two days with the same Strain score can still have different calorie burns. Strain reflects intensity and cardiovascular stress, but calories depend on total movement, duration, body size, heart rate patterns, and your own physiology.
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WHOOP calculates calories using your heart rate, HRV, and personal baseline data, which is more accurate than steps but intentionally not tied to Strain targets.
What you can use WHOOP for:
Look at your Daily Calories in the app. Over a week or two, you’ll see a trend. That average is the best estimate of your maintenance calories (your TDEE). From there, you can set nutrition goals more accurately than you could with a step target alone.
What Strain is helpful for:
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Understanding how much stress you’re placing on your body relative to recovery
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Planning training loads
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Identifying high-output vs low-output days
But it’s not necessarily meant to be used as a calorie or TDEE target.