Using Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) to Track Diet Progress
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ericGold15
Posts: 318 Member
Hi Fitters,
There are lots of ways to track progress, but after a week using the program I settled on a method that works well for me and perhaps for others so I thought to share:
Background:
BMR is the amount of calories a body needs in 24 hours to sleep and hang out in front of the TV. The BMR varies by sex, age, height and weight. Here is a nice calculator.
I set my daily calorie goal to my BMR. Then through the day the Fitness program takes into account food and exercise and shows the NET calories as 'calories remaining' in big blue numbers on the home page, or as 'net calories' on the summary page.
Presto! Instant insight into how the diet is going:
A pound is 4000 Calories; a Kg is 9000. The week summary is really helpful here. E.g., if I am 6000 Calories negative for the week I have burned 1.5 pounds of fat assuming my muscle is stable.
Note that I have not tried to account for the non-exercise activity. For me it is pretty low -- around 100 to 150 Calories a day. I prefer to ignore that amount and collect it on the scale
There are lots of ways to track progress, but after a week using the program I settled on a method that works well for me and perhaps for others so I thought to share:
Background:
BMR is the amount of calories a body needs in 24 hours to sleep and hang out in front of the TV. The BMR varies by sex, age, height and weight. Here is a nice calculator.
I set my daily calorie goal to my BMR. Then through the day the Fitness program takes into account food and exercise and shows the NET calories as 'calories remaining' in big blue numbers on the home page, or as 'net calories' on the summary page.
Presto! Instant insight into how the diet is going:
- 0 Calories remaining at the end of the day: nothing gained, nothing lost
- Calories remaining: Weight is going down
- Calories in excess: Weight is going up
A pound is 4000 Calories; a Kg is 9000. The week summary is really helpful here. E.g., if I am 6000 Calories negative for the week I have burned 1.5 pounds of fat assuming my muscle is stable.
Note that I have not tried to account for the non-exercise activity. For me it is pretty low -- around 100 to 150 Calories a day. I prefer to ignore that amount and collect it on the scale
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Replies
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Your estimate of a 4000 Calorie per week deficit to lose one pound of weight is not the generally accepted value of 3500 Calories per week (or 500 Calories per day), which is what MFP uses. Also, the calculator you linked in your post uses an estimate of a 3500 Calorie per week deficit to lose one pound of weight in its calculations.
Reference:
myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1599931-nutrition-101-calories0 -
<<shrug>>
Use whatever number you please; after a while the scale will tell the tale.
Fwiw, packaged fat in the human body *is* 9 Cal/gram.0 -
Oops, I ended the post too soon.
There are 2.2 US pounds in one Kg, so
9000/2.2 = 4090 Cal/pound. I round off for easy arithmetic in my head.0 -
I'd be really interested in seeing how closely your change in weight/week tracks with your calculated deficit. Would you be willing to share your results so far?0
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Hi Lemmie,I'd be really interested in seeing how closely your change in weight/week tracks with your calculated deficit. Would you be willing to share your results so far?
There is nothing special in my log but I can certainly open it to anybody interested.
The weight correlation for now is poor. In part this is due to starting the diet a few weeks before starting to use MFT; in part because I guessed at my starting weight; in part because I spend time between two homes and use two scales; and finally, (I suspect) because my body muscle and body water are not stable.
I actually just bought a new scale that measures fat percentage. With all the caveats that go along with that measurement not being accurate, etc, I'm hoping that the trend will be precise enough to show a tight correlation with calorie deficit.
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Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, you misunderstand the relationship between BMR and weight loss. Simply stated, there is no relationship. You lose or gain weight based on whether you are under or over your TDEE. BMR is a factor in calculating TDEE, but otherwise it is irrelevant to weight loss.0
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Here is a bit of the science behind the numbers: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376744/Your estimate of a 4000 Calorie per week deficit to lose one pound of weight is not the generally accepted value of 3500 Calories per week]
As I said, pick a number
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Cybertone,
I gave some more thought to your comment and realize that we are mostly having a semantic misunderstanding, although my wording has not been accurate.
My interest is in losing stored fat -- triglycerides. It takes 9000 Cal energy deficit per Kg
Adipose tissue, on the other hand, has upwards of 10% water bound to the triglycerides. So 9000 Cal deficit will lead to ~ 1.1 Kg weight loss of adipose tissue presuming no muscle mass was lost.
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Dude, you are making this about 19 steps to complicated for no particular reason at allericGold15 wrote: »Oops, I ended the post too soon.
There are 2.2 US pounds in one Kg, so
9000/2.2 = 4090 Cal/pound. I round off for easy arithmetic in my head.0 -
Dude, you are making this about 19 steps to complicated for no particular reason at allericGold15 wrote: »Oops, I ended the post too soon.
There are 2.2 US pounds in one Kg, so
9000/2.2 = 4090 Cal/pound. I round off for easy arithmetic in my head.
Yup.
But he seems the scientific type, so whatever works.0 -
I'll guess that TDEE is shorthand for 'total daily energy expenditure' ?sheldonklein wrote: »You lose or gain weight based on whether you are under or over your TDEE.
If so, do you agree that a good approximation of that number is equal to
Exercise + BMR ?
And that your NET energy lost or gain for the day is Exercise + BMR - food ?
We report food and exercise; the missing variable is BMR.
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I guess I'm missing the point here. Why guesstimate a weight loss when you can just get on a scale?
Also TDEE=BMR+activity level+exercise. You missed activity level since BMR is the amount you would need to maintain weight supine in bed all day.
Edited for content.
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ericGold15 wrote: »
I'll guess that TDEE is shorthand for 'total daily energy expenditure' ?sheldonklein wrote: »You lose or gain weight based on whether you are under or over your TDEE.
If so, do you agree that a good approximation of that number is equal to
Exercise + BMR ?
And that your NET energy lost or gain for the day is Exercise + BMR - food ?
We report food and exercise; the missing variable is BMR.
Waaaa????0 -
To estimate *fat* lossI guess I'm missing the point here. Why guesstimate a weight loss when you can just get on a scale?
Also TDEE=BMR+activity level+exercise-food.
Understood about TDEE. In the OP I mentioned that I personally ignore activity level since it is pretty sedentary. YMMV
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ericGold15 wrote: »
To estimate *fat* lossI guess I'm missing the point here. Why guesstimate a weight loss when you can just get on a scale?
Also TDEE=BMR+activity level+exercise-food.
Understood about TDEE. In the OP I mentioned that I personally ignore activity level since it is pretty sedentary. YMMV
Still doesn't change the base definition of TDEE, though. You can use whatever you'd like, but can't claim the definition changes because you don't count it that way.0 -
sheldonklein wrote: »Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, you misunderstand the relationship between BMR and weight loss. Simply stated, there is no relationship. You lose or gain weight based on whether you are under or over your TDEE. BMR is a factor in calculating TDEE, but otherwise it is irrelevant to weight loss.
This ^^0 -
ericGold15 wrote: »
I'll guess that TDEE is shorthand for 'total daily energy expenditure' ?sheldonklein wrote: »You lose or gain weight based on whether you are under or over your TDEE.
If so, do you agree that a good approximation of that number is equal to
Exercise + BMR ?
And that your NET energy lost or gain for the day is Exercise + BMR - food ?
We report food and exercise; the missing variable is BMR.
You're giving advice and you're "guessing" what TDEE means? ...wow...just...wow!
BMR+activity level= NEAT
NEAT+purposeful exercise =TDEE
TDEE-calories =weight loss
Weight loss=water weight loss+fat loss+LBM loss
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OP, I understand where you are going with this as I did it myself. However, I used the BMR at my goal weight. That way I didnt have to keep changing it. Once i hit my goal weight, I just upped my calories to maintain weight as my activity is all over the place.0
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I set my BMR as my calorie goal. Is that what you meant ?20yearsyounger wrote: »OP, I understand where you are going with this as I did it myself. However, I used the BMR at my goal weight.
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ericGold15 wrote: »
I set my BMR as my calorie goal. Is that what you meant ?20yearsyounger wrote: »OP, I understand where you are going with this as I did it myself. However, I used the BMR at my goal weight.
As an example. I started at 180 and wanted to get to 165. So I put 165 in your calculator and that was what I used as my calorie goal.0
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