Confused on bmr

fa8le

I think I get the concept of bmr, what confuses me is, when people say their bmr is 1700 they eat say 1200-1300 kcal a day. Is this not wrong. I was under the impression that bmr was the minimum the body needed each day. So if I wanted a deficit of 500 I would eat more and exercise you achieve it making sure I'm consuming more than 1700. I eat healthy and eating 2500 a day now and the weight is dropping off nicely, making sure I never drop below the bmr

Protranser

You're correct, people really shouldn't be aiming to eat below bmr. I think it's confusing for people just beginning to deal with calorie counting, but forum visitors tend to gain a little more knowledge after posting or reading forums.

usmcmp

If you were sedentary and did no exercise you could eat below your BMR. Most people are active enough that their BMR is well below their total burn for the day. For a very active person who works out hard daily, eating below their BMR could do more harm than good.

Many of us suggest eating at a percentage below your total daily energy expenditure, rather than worrying about BMR. A deficit of 20% is good for most people.

CoffeeNCardio

Plenty of people are completely capable of eating below BMR. That's because your body is going to burn what it's going to burn. People with calorie counts lower than their BMR, like me at 1200, have MASSIVE amounts of calories stored in the form of fat all over my body. It's not the right thing for everyone. It's dangerous for some, and it's perfectly acceptable for others. Typically, the closer you get to your healthy BMI weight, the less of these fat stores you have, and the more above/at your BMR you need to be.

Example: My BMR is 1405 calories per day. My body is GONNA burn that much. It has to. That's just what it does. The same way your car wouldn't run if it had no gas, it's gonna burn calories like fuel. If I eat 1200, which is 205 below that, my body will turn to it's secondary gas tank, fat stores, and burn that to make up the difference. Thus, my BMR is taken care of (clearly, since I'm still alive) in spite of eating below it.

CoffeeNCardio

Also, the vast majority of people who say that mean they are eating below their TDEE, which is Total Daily Energy Expenditure. That's the number you need to eat below to lose weight.

Protranser

CoffeeNCardio wrote: »

Plenty of people are completely capable of eating below BMR. That's because your body is going to burn what it's going to burn. People with calorie counts lower than their BMR, like me at 1200, have MASSIVE amounts of calories stored in the form of fat all over my body. It's not the right thing for everyone. It's dangerous for some, and it's perfectly acceptable for others. Typically, the closer you get to your healthy BMI weight, the less of these fat stores you have, and the more above/at your BMR you need to be.

Example: My BMR is 1405 calories per day. My body is GONNA burn that much. It has to. That's just what it does. The same way your car wouldn't run if it had no gas, it's gonna burn calories like fuel. If I eat 1200, which is 205 below that, my body will turn to it's secondary gas tank, fat stores, and burn that to make up the difference. Thus, my BMR is taken care of (clearly, since I'm still alive) in spite of eating below it.

Wow! I'm shocked that below bmr is an acceptable eating goal for an active person. I learned something new today!

usmcmp

Protranser wrote: »

CoffeeNCardio wrote: »

Plenty of people are completely capable of eating below BMR. That's because your body is going to burn what it's going to burn. People with calorie counts lower than their BMR, like me at 1200, have MASSIVE amounts of calories stored in the form of fat all over my body. It's not the right thing for everyone. It's dangerous for some, and it's perfectly acceptable for others. Typically, the closer you get to your healthy BMI weight, the less of these fat stores you have, and the more above/at your BMR you need to be.

Example: My BMR is 1405 calories per day. My body is GONNA burn that much. It has to. That's just what it does. The same way your car wouldn't run if it had no gas, it's gonna burn calories like fuel. If I eat 1200, which is 205 below that, my body will turn to it's secondary gas tank, fat stores, and burn that to make up the difference. Thus, my BMR is taken care of (clearly, since I'm still alive) in spite of eating below it.

Wow! I'm shocked that below bmr is an acceptable eating goal for an active person. I learned something new today!

MFP sets goals based purely on a formula. If you want to lose 2 pounds per week they'll subtract 1,000 calories from your goal. If that happens to be below their lowest goals, they'll set you at their lowest goal (females it's 1200 calories).

Eating below your BMR isn't automatically detrimental. There are a variety of factors to consider, such as how much of a deficit it is, if you are doing resistance training, if you are getting adequate protein and what your body fat percentage is. A morbidly obese person could eat very low calories with little damage, but a relatively lean person couldn't. Someone eating higher protein while lifting weights could eat lower calories than someone with low protein doing all cardio. BMR is not the absolute lowest someone should eat.

CoffeeNCardio

Protranser wrote: »

CoffeeNCardio wrote: »

Plenty of people are completely capable of eating below BMR. That's because your body is going to burn what it's going to burn. People with calorie counts lower than their BMR, like me at 1200, have MASSIVE amounts of calories stored in the form of fat all over my body. It's not the right thing for everyone. It's dangerous for some, and it's perfectly acceptable for others. Typically, the closer you get to your healthy BMI weight, the less of these fat stores you have, and the more above/at your BMR you need to be.

Example: My BMR is 1405 calories per day. My body is GONNA burn that much. It has to. That's just what it does. The same way your car wouldn't run if it had no gas, it's gonna burn calories like fuel. If I eat 1200, which is 205 below that, my body will turn to it's secondary gas tank, fat stores, and burn that to make up the difference. Thus, my BMR is taken care of (clearly, since I'm still alive) in spite of eating below it.

Wow! I'm shocked that below bmr is an acceptable eating goal for an active person. I learned something new today!

I'm not active. I'm sedentary. As @usmcmp was talking about

Well, I'm lightly active perhaps, but the low end of lightly active. And in any case, I'll be upping my caloric intake 3 lbs from now for health and safety.

ETA: and as I said "It's not the right thing for everyone. It's dangerous for some, and it's perfectly acceptable for others."

Protranser

Thanks i love our forum gurus

AnvilHead

fa8le wrote: »

I think I get the concept of bmr, what confuses me is, when people say their bmr is 1700 they eat say 1200-1300 kcal a day. Is this not wrong. I was under the impression that bmr was the minimum the body needed each day. So if I wanted a deficit of 500 I would eat more and exercise you achieve it making sure I'm consuming more than 1700. I eat healthy and eating 2500 a day now and the weight is dropping off nicely, making sure I never drop below the bmr

That's because some people confuse BMR with TDEE. Classic example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. Your cut should be relative to TDEE, not BMR.

Yi5hedr3

You are correct - they are lost!

StaciMarie1974

Bro science has come up with the notion that eating below one's BMR is bad.

Its generally recommended that women should not go below 1200 - and that men not go below 1500 - in order to be able to meet daily nutritional needs. Scientifically there is nothing about BMR and deficit setting. The BMR is just a mathematical starting point to assess how an average someone of your height/weight/gender/age should burn in a day for basic living/bodily functions. Its also uses to estimate normal daily activity burn, for moving your body thru your day. And it factors into what you can expect to burn during cardio.

In reality, there are exceptions to every rule. I say make an effort to educate yourself, to understand how your body functions and what it needs. Even tools like MFP need to be customized from time to time.