I need opinions/help

ladywishingstar

Im still a newbie to this all even though its been a month.
1. is 1300 a deficit?
2. Can I tighten my core on a deficit and will walking help?
3. If not, how many calories do I need to minimum eat to be able to gain/strengthen muscle

Thanks for any help, because google has not been helpful at all...

ladywishingstar

Also, I am confused on what BMR means compared to TDEE, do I add the two together? Or if i am exercising do I eat for TDEE?

nutmegoreo

Oh my, you are a bit confused. So TDEE is the total calories that your body uses (burns) in a day through living plush activity. This is the number that, if you eat that amount, you will stay the weight you are right now. Your BMR is the number of calories your body burns when at complete rest. It is the number of calories your body would need to survive if you were in a coma.

1300 for nearly every one would be a deficit. Many people can successfully lose weight while eating more than that (depending on activity level, height, weight, age, gender). With regards to your core, there are many different activities you can do that will help. Is there a specific reason you want to target that region? This information can help people provide suggestions which are more appropriate for your goals.

As for the gaining strength/muscle, if you are eating in a deficit, you are unlikely to be gaining muscle unless (from my understanding) you are new to a progressive weight lifting program, and there is something called noobie gains. Someone else will need to explain that a bit more to you. So, again, if you can share what your specific goals are, a more targeted approach can be suggested.

My suggestions for you with regard to your eating is to follow the set up MFP has given you for 6-8 weeks and then reevaluate if you are getting the results you want, then adjust your calorie target up or down based on results. If the program has told you to eat 1300/day (assuming that your goal is not too aggressive, which is in part determined by how much you have to lose) aim for that amount, log your intentional exercise activities, and eat 50-75% of those calories back as well. The reason for eating back these calories is to maintain enough nutritional intake to support your body and it's regular needs plus the extra demand placed by on it through exercise.

I would also suggest reading through some of the stickied posts at the top of the getting started and general weight loss boards titled Most Helpful Posts. Specifically looking at the ones on logging accurately. These will be important to ensure you are not accidentally eating more than you think.

Orphia

What is your height and weight?

How much do you want to lose?

Did you input these figures into MFP? It should give you the right number of calories to eat to lose weight.

If you are exercising, you eat back most of those calories. You don't eat back around 25% of exercise calories earned in order to allow for exaggerations by fitness machines/trackers.

BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate. "Basal Metabolic Rate is the amount of energy expressed in calories that a person needs to keep the body functioning at rest. Some of those processes are breathing, blood circulation, controlling body temperature, cell growth, brain and nerve function, and contraction of muscles. Basal metabolic rate (BMR) affects the rate that a person burns calories and ultimately whether you maintain, gain, or lose weight. Your basal metabolic rate accounts for about 60 to 75% of the calories you burn every day."

You need to eat more than your BMR, but less than your TDEE. MFP works this out for you.

malibu927

ladywishingstar wrote: »

Im still a newbie to this all even though its been a month.
1. is 1300 a deficit?
2. Can I tighten my core on a deficit and will walking help?
3. If not, how many calories do I need to minimum eat to be able to gain/strengthen muscle

Thanks for any help, because google has not been helpful at all...

1. As long as your maintenance calories are above 1301. MFP has already deducted 250-1000 calories depending on how much you selected to lose per week, so yes.
2. You can't spot reduce. The weight will come off from where it wants.
3. To gain muscle you need to be in a calorie surplus (eating more than you burn). To gain strength, a good progressive lifting program while in a deficit will work. Look into Stronglifts 5x5 or New Rules of Lifting for Women. It will also help focus more of your loss on fat rather than lean body mass.

As for BMR, that's the amount of calories your body burns just to provide its daily functions. It's used to calculate TDEE, but otherwise pretty irrelevant.

GsKiki

As far as BMR and TDEE, everyone above gave you an answer.
As far as gaining muscles goes...
You can still gain muscles even when on calories deficit diet. Best Way to do that is by eating more protein and doing core and muscle excercises. If you can't go to the gym, there is a lot of videos and tutorials on YouTube for home excersising.
Walking will help you lose weight and fat slowely, but it will not help you gain much muscles. If you want cardio that will also help you gain muscles I would suggest Running or swimming.
Feel free to Message me or add me if you need more help or questions and good luck!

ladywishingstar

Okay lets see if I can list the answers everyone needs from me
1. Height is 5ft 1 inches. Weight is 149-150 lbs
2. I am not as concerned with gaining muscle as I am strength, right now I can barely do a rep of 5 pound. Also, I wanted to target my core because it is rather, flabby, squishy, ect. I am not concerned really for spot reducing, since I know you cant do that.
3. Okay well apparently I set my goal too HIGH, with minimal exercise, because I was eating less than my BMR, which I move around during the day at least so im not sure why, so i brought it down today and my calories are now about in the middle of my TDEE and BMR. I was eating under my calories very often and noticed how close I was to starvation mode? according to MFP
4. I havent been exercising yet, I was but all of this has just been confusing, seems as though some people have controversy over whether or not you can lift on a deficit. So I stopped, and have been wanting to start again.

Also, you are all being very helpful! thank you for taking time out of your day to help me!
Ill check out pinned posts also

Yi5hedr3

Insufficient data. Specify height, weight, and age.

veganbaum

ladywishingstar wrote: »

Okay lets see if I can list the answers everyone needs from me
1. Height is 5ft 1 inches. Weight is 149-150 lbs
2. I am not as concerned with gaining muscle as I am strength, right now I can barely do a rep of 5 pound. Also, I wanted to target my core because it is rather, flabby, squishy, ect. I am not concerned really for spot reducing, since I know you cant do that.
3. Okay well apparently I set my goal too HIGH, with minimal exercise, because I was eating less than my BMR, which I move around during the day at least so im not sure why, so i brought it down today and my calories are now about in the middle of my TDEE and BMR. I was eating under my calories very often and noticed how close I was to starvation mode? according to MFP
4. I havent been exercising yet, I was but all of this has just been confusing, seems as though some people have controversy over whether or not you can lift on a deficit. So I stopped, and have been wanting to start again.

Also, you are all being very helpful! thank you for taking time out of your day to help me!
Ill check out pinned posts also

You can certainly lift while in a deficit. It's a good idea to do so as it helps to maintain more muscle while you lose than you are likely to maintain without lifting. I'm not sure what you were reading that would make this controversial. A person will generally not gain muscle while in a deficit (unless, as someone mentioned, there are some minimal gains as a new lifter), but a person will/can gain strength.

"Starvation mode" - well, that phrase will often get some rabid responses. It's a myth in terms of how the average person views it. However, it is important to eat at a moderate deficit and not be too aggressive with weight loss goals if you don't want to risk ending up a flabbier/smaller version of your current self (and to try and make this all more sustainable). Since you mention a squishy midsection, it seems that's something you'd like to avoid (as I'm sure we all would).

Don't worry about BMR and TDEE right now. Set your weekly loss goal at a moderate level (1 pound a week is generally a good starting place, down to 1/2 pound once you're around 15-20 pounds from goal). Eat to your goal, logging accurately. If you exercise, enter it into MFP and eat around 50-75% of those calories to account for inaccuracies. Then adjust as necessary after around 4-6 weeks.

lemurcat12

ladywishingstar wrote: »

Okay lets see if I can list the answers everyone needs from me
1. Height is 5ft 1 inches. Weight is 149-150 lbs

1300 could well make sense, depending on activity level. But remember that MFP's goal is before exercise (when it asks you to choose activity level it means during the day, on the job or from normal walking around, not intentional exercise). If you do exercise on top of that you add it back.

3. I am not as concerned with gaining muscle as I am strength, right now I can barely do a rep of 5 pound. Also, I wanted to target my core because it is rather, flabby, squishy, ect. I am not concerned really for spot reducing, since I know you cant do that.

You can definitely gain strength on a deficit and weight training will help retain muscle mass, which is good. When people say you can't (with limited exceptions) gain muscle on a deficit, they don't mean you shouldn't work with weights. Core exercises as we traditionally think of them can be helpful in general (I love pilates and think I've gotten a lot of benefits from it), but it's not what I'd focus on to gain strength in general -- I'd look into a progressive lifting program. Personally, I've gained lots of strength (as in increasing my lifts by a lot) while on a strict deficit, but I don't believe I gained any muscle mass while doing so, and that's not a concern for me. My middle is less squishy than it was, still squishier than I'd like, but that's generally all about body fat percentage and where your personal body fat likes to hang out (which sadly just is).

4. Okay well apparently I set my goal too HIGH, with minimal exercise, because I was eating less than my BMR, which I move around during the day at least so im not sure why, so i brought it down today and my calories are now about in the middle of my TDEE and BMR. I was eating under my calories very often and noticed how close I was to starvation mode? according to MFP

I'm all for moderate deficits rather than extreme, but eating less than BMR doesn't matter -- what matters is not having an overly aggressive deficit from your TDEE (at your weight I'd not do more than -20% or -500, whichever you prefer). But if you use the MFP plan, it's not based on TDEE, which is why you add exercise back in. If you set up MFP for -1 lb/week that should give you a decent deficit and it won't let you go below 1200.

If you mean the MFP message about not going below 1000, that's not really an issue of starvation mode, but there are lots of reasons not to eat too low, so I think the MFP approach of not setting goals below 1200 is a good one, for all but the very rare cases (very short+old+sedentary; under a doctor's weight loss plan; disabled seriously so they are in a chair or some such).

5. I havent been exercising yet, I was but all of this has just been confusing, seems as though some people have controversy over whether or not you can lift on a deficit. So I stopped, and have been wanting to start again.

Start, start!

Good luck, I am sure you can do this!

nutmegoreo

^^^ Agreed!

cafeaulait7

The strength gains on a deficit are about the nervous system apparently, and about using the muscle you have better with weight training (like a natural adaptation/muscle changes, not something conscious). So if your main goal is strength, definitely lift with a progressive plan!