Intake/ cals burned help plz!

Maggie1moo

So i was set at 1200 by MFP, this was not working for me i was so hungry all the time so i checked out my bmr which is 1795 and thought id up my intake to 1650 (odd number but still bmr seemed bit scary to me) anyhow i havent lost not 1lb in actual fact i have probably gained, im yo-yoing around 3lbs give or take of my weight at start. Anyhow i have just been reading that i need to burn more cals out than i take in... Is this correct or not? I mean that seems almost impossible to me has i am so unfit (although have moved along a bit just lateley) been trying to exercise ect...

My stats are:

Female, 5ft1, 220lbs and i dont do a lot throughout the day other than clean house, daily chores look after my son ect
I will exercise more if need be.
Hope this makes sense, so if anyone can explain to me what i need to do here i would be very greatful!

yarwell

Redo your goals setting it for 1 lb/week loss rate at https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals with it set to sedentary. Tell us what it says. If you're logging what you eat open your diary to public.

I doubt your BMR is that high to be honest, but let's use it for illustration :-

1795 BMR
*1.2 for sedentary = 2154 cals used daily = TDEE

take off 500 cals/day for 1 lb/week weight loss gives 1654

so if your BMR is OK then you should lose at 1650 of food - how long have you been stuck ?

IF you can't eat less than that (discuss) then you'll have to add an hour a day of walking at a decent pace or similar, to create a modest calorie deficit.

NadineSabbagh

It sounds to me like you've misunderstood the 'burning more calories than you take it' thing. If you eat 1650cals, you don't then have to burn all that off with exercise in order to lose weight (is that what you think? Sorry if I've misunderstood your question, that's just what I thought you meant! :P ). Your body requires energy just to stay alive, and in doing so, burns calories. Even if you're just sitting around all day you'll be burning calories. So if your BMR is 1795 and you're eating 1650 then your body will be burning off the 1650cals anyway, even if you do not exercise that day.

I tried working out your TDEE, but I didn't know your age, so I just put in 28. This gives you 2103, based on being sedentary most of the day. So your body will burn this in a day, even if you are fairly inactive. So if you're eating 1650cals a day then you are at a calorie deficit of 453cals, meaning you will lost just under 1lb a week (3171cals) (obviously this won't be completely accurate as I don't know your age, or what kind of level of activity you do daily).

How long have you not been losing weight for? Perhaps you just need to give it a bit longer to notice a difference on the scales. Do you weigh out all your food? From reading the forums it seems that little or no weight loss can a lot of the time be attributed to people incorrectly recording how much food they're actually eating, because they don't have food scales. As you are eating at a deficit, you should definitely be losing weight (it is a fairly small deficit, so you won't see huge weight losses on the scale every time) - so that makes me wonder if you're perhaps unintentionally eating more than you realise?

Also how often do you weigh yourself? Your weight will fluctuate daily, so if you're weighing yourself quite frequently then you may think you're not losing weight, but what you're seeing is actually just a normal fluctuation - could be water weight, for example.

stt43

When your body doesn't take in enough calories for energy it burns fat as energy instead. Therefore, you need to be burning more than you consume. If your BMR is about 1800 calories, if you take in this number of calories you will stay about the same weight, take in more than this and you will put on weight, take in less and you will lose weight. To lose a pound a week you have to have taken in about 3500 calories less than you needed for that week, which works out at 500 calories less than you need a day. With a BMR of about 1800 calories a day that'd be about 1300 calories.

1300 calories is very little, and so it is hard to take in that amount and not feel hungry and unsatisfied, especially if you are just starting. As a man I make sure I don't drop below 1800 calories a day when I am trying to lose weight, and if I were female I probably wouldn't drop below 1500. Taking in more than 1300 calories a day does mean that you won't lose weight as fast however.

The solution is exercise. Doing 200 calories worth of exercise means that you can eat another 200 calories that day, for example. I am trying to lose 2 pounds a week, and as my BMR is around 2000-2200. That means, like you, I am only supposed to eat around 1200 calories a day. I cannot do that and function properly, or get all the nutrients I need. Therefore I do 600 calories worth of exercise 6 days a week, allowing me to eat up to 1800 calories a day. If I want to eat more I exercise more. Then once a week I get a day off from exercise and don't worry as much about calories, knowing that with my BMR I can eat about 2200 calories that day and not put on weight.

Other important factors: take in plenty of protein - this will make you feel fuller for longer. Get a lot of your carb calories from green vegetables - they are low in calories so you can eat a lot more of them, making you feel fuller. Avoid salt - it will make you retain water, adding to your weight. Fat is high in calories, but your body needs it to function properly, so make sure you get most of your fat from healthy fat sources - these can make you feel more satisfied and help with the weight loss. Drink plenty of water - it will make you feel less hungry and make sure your body is functioning correctly. If you don't think you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you need from food consider supplements - don't rely on them, but making sure your body gets everything it needs will help it perform and help you feel better in body and mind. And as Nadine says, make sure you measure and record every calorie that enters your mouth.

I hope some of this helps

Maggie1moo

Thank you everyone! Thanks to this post its made it clear for me

When your body doesn't take in enough calories for energy it burns fat as energy instead. Therefore, you need to be burning more than you consume. If your BMR is about 1800 calories, if you take in this number of calories you will stay about the same weight, take in more than this and you will put on weight, take in less and you will lose weight. To lose a pound a week you have to have taken in about 3500 calories less than you needed for that week, which works out at 500 calories less than you need a day. With a BMR of about 1800 calories a day that'd be about 1300 calories.

1300 calories is very little, and so it is hard to take in that amount and not feel hungry and unsatisfied, especially if you are just starting. As a man I make sure I don't drop below 1800 calories a day when I am trying to lose weight, and if I were female I probably wouldn't drop below 1500. Taking in more than 1300 calories a day does mean that you won't lose weight as fast however.

The solution is exercise. Doing 200 calories worth of exercise means that you can eat another 200 calories that day, for example. I am trying to lose 2 pounds a week, and as my BMR is around 2000-2200. That means, like you, I am only supposed to eat around 1200 calories a day. I cannot do that and function properly, or get all the nutrients I need. Therefore I do 600 calories worth of exercise 6 days a week, allowing me to eat up to 1800 calories a day. If I want to eat more I exercise more. Then once a week I get a day off from exercise and don't worry as much about calories, knowing that with my BMR I can eat about 2200 calories that day and not put on weight.

Other important factors: take in plenty of protein - this will make you feel fuller for longer. Get a lot of your carb calories from green vegetables - they are low in calories so you can eat a lot more of them, making you feel fuller. Avoid salt - it will make you retain water, adding to your weight. Fat is high in calories, but your body needs it to function properly, so make sure you get most of your fat from healthy fat sources - these can make you feel more satisfied and help with the weight loss. Drink plenty of water - it will make you feel less hungry and make sure your body is functioning correctly. If you don't think you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you need from food consider supplements - don't rely on them, but making sure your body gets everything it needs will help it perform and help you feel better in body and mind. And as Nadine says, make sure you measure and record every calorie that enters your mouth.

I hope some of this helps