Stepping away from the area that you are likely familiar with, let us look at the remaining components of TDEE, starting with TEF. The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), which is the amount of energy required to process and store the energy containing substrates we consume, referred to as the macronutrients: protein, carbohydrate and fat. The TEF for each macronutrient is different, being estimated at around 20-35% for protein, 5-15% for carbohydrate and 5-15% for fat, though fat is generally considered to land at the lower end of that range and carbohydrate towards the higher end. As a side note, ethanol, which is the alcohol we drink also provides calories and its TEF is around 20%.
TEF is represented as a percentage of total calorie intake, generally rounded to around 10% of the amount of calories you eat, and it typically makes up a very small amount of your total intake.
It’s worth noting however, that those who are in a calorie deficit, who are insulin resistant or who have unfortunate genetic predispositions, may have a lower TEF than those who for whatever reason, tend to have a higher TEF per calorie they eat. This could potentially explain a small amount of the difference in calorie intakes needed between individuals, but it is impossible to measure in the real world, and as such we won’t talk too much about it during this course beyond making you aware of the fact that it’s included in later calculations.