BMR for Target Goal Weight or Actual Weight??

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one9reasons
one9reasons Posts: 5
in Health and Weight Loss
Thanks in advance guys ...

60-days ago I weighed in at 241lbs. I've been on a calorie deficit for almost 60-days.
However, the BMR that I calculated was for my target goal weight (180lbs) and not the weight I was when I started (241lbs).

The results from 58-days of clean eating and lifting weights 5-days a week is a 15-pound weight (mostly fat) loss, and I am tipping the scales at around 225-226lbs.

My question is, am I correct for being on a calorie deficit from my target goal weight?

Replies

  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    To create a calorie deficit you calculate your current maintenance needs. your BMR is not your maintenance needs, your TDEE is. Once the latter number is calculated you subtract 20% from that, readjust as you lose more weight.

    If you are eating your goal weight's maintenance TDEE, then that's fine. It will just possibly be a slower weight loss. If you are eating your BMR then that's unnecessarily low. If you are eating even below that, then you are not eating enough.
  • one9reasons
    one9reasons Posts: 5
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    Thanks for the reply. However, just a tad bit confused still ...

    Conventional wisdom tells me that if I calculate my TDEE based off of my target-goal weight, it would be the same as calculating my TDEE off my present weight and reducing the total number of calories (deficit) by a "big" percentage??

  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    Here, I will calculate my estimated TDEE for starting, current, and goal weight based on current exercise (you can calculate net maintenance needs without including exercise, this is what MFP does - then you'd log and eat back exercise calories, effectively coming up with similar gross calorie totals)

    SW: 188
    Maintenance calories: 2629

    CW: 163
    Maintenance: 2346

    GW: 145
    Maintenance: 2131

    Although I might be able to eat more than that to maintain, as I do plan on reverse dieting (there is a youtube video on the topic, and at least a few people here have done it that I'm aware of and have successfully been able to increase maintenance calories without increasing activity level)

    So if I had started out eating 2131 calories back in June then I would have been losing around 4lbs/month anyways. If I were to eat 2131 now then I'd lose my last 20ish lbs much slower.

    However, if I had started off at say... 250lbs, then I'd have been eating at a VERY large deficit to eat 2131 calories. So the size of the deficit depends on how much weight you have to lose if you choose to eat your goal weight maintenance calories to lose weight.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Calculating your TDEE from your current weight makes it easier to control the rate at which you lose weight. However, it would be reach you goal weight by eating at the TDEE for your goal weight. The problem with that approach is that you would lose weight very quickly at first and then it would be very slow as you near your goal weight. (Some people on this forum encourage that approach anyway.)
  • one9reasons
    one9reasons Posts: 5
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    Thank you TimothyFish ...

    I agree with you because in 59-days, I have shed about 15lbs - IMO, mostly body fat. I also think that I was able to preserve (for lack of a better word) LBM because of two tell-tale signs: 1.) my shirts are getting tighter in the upper torso area incl arms, and 2.) my pant waist is getting very loose.

    I'm sitting here wondering how much more "weight" I would have shed had I chose to do more "cardio" type of exercise instead of lifting weights? I know there are some people that want to just lose weight, and there are some that want to lose fat.

    Anyone else please feel free to chime in !!

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