BMI, BMR, Calorie Intake

brookej8688

So I have another question. What is the whole thing with the BMI and BMR, and how does MFP determine how many calories a day you should eat to lose weight

TavistockToad

You put your height, weight, activity level etc in MFP and it tells you how many calories you need to eat depending on if you want to lose, gain or maintain weight.

BMR is basically the number of cals you burn if you were in a coma.

brookej8688

So if you take your BMR and times it by 7 for 7 days and then minus 3500.. (3500 is one pound correct) and then divide that by 7 that should give you the amount of calories to eat and lose one pound a week correct?

TavistockToad

brookej8688 wrote: »

So if you take your BMR and times it by 7 for 7 days and then minus 3500.. (3500 is one pound correct) and then divide that by 7 that should give you the amount of calories to eat and lose one pound a week correct?

No. Your BMR doesn't take ANY movement into account. If you want to use the calculation you've mentioned you need to know your TDEE.

pichu318

If you want something that is a cool device that will give you a better idea of what you need to eat daily then you can click here. It was made by a fellow MFPer. I really like it because I can average all different kinds of BMR and BMI calculations if I want to....you also can put in your average amount of calories lost per day/week AND your lifestyle to figure out how much you want to eat daily.

You do have the correct calculation though

jfrye85

What if that calculation is under 1200 calories a day? I've heard people on here say 1200 is the minimum intake to keep weight loss healthy?

rankinsect

brookej8688 wrote: »

So if you take your BMR and times it by 7 for 7 days and then minus 3500.. (3500 is one pound correct) and then divide that by 7 that should give you the amount of calories to eat and lose one pound a week correct?

Not unless you planned to spend those 7 days motionless in a coma. Your actual energy usage is significantly higher than BMR because you stand up, walk around, etc. (NEAT) and you may also exercise.

TavistockToad

jfrye85 wrote: »

What if that calculation is under 1200 calories a day? I've heard people on here say 1200 is the minimum intake to keep weight loss healthy?

It's very unlikely that it would be, (when using correct TDEE calculation) unless you're very small, old and inactive.

brookej8688

Ok I found a good TDEE calculator, thanks everyone

veganbaum

brookej8688 wrote: »

Ok I found a good TDEE calculator, thanks everyone

Why don't you just start with using MFP's numbers and see how it goes?