BMR and MFP

cingle87

So ive been at this for since the end of May and Id thought id just check what my BMR and TDEE is, according to the calculators my TDEE is around 3261 and my BMI is around 1950. I am 5 7" currently 217. When I put my details into MFP it puts my calorie goal at 1420 as I want to loose around 2lbs a week for a couple of months then slowly decrease as I get closer to my goal weight.

I know prolonged eating under BMI is bad for you body but 1950 seems like far too many Net calories. I just wondering someone who know abit more about this, Have I got my calculations massively wrong or are the numbers right and im eating way too few calories?

cingle87

Just a point I missed out I exercise minimum of 4 times a week, mainly lifting little to no cardio some weeks

Francl27

That's not enough, I mean a bigger gap is not a big deal when you have more to lose, but the 'lose 2lbs a week' setting and not eating back exercise calories is probably too much.

jwdieter

TDEE and BMR seem off significantly.

sweetpea03b

TDEE and BMR seem off significantly.

I agree. I would try a few different calculators just to be sure you have the most accurate # possible. My BMR and TDEE are within 500-700cals of each other.

cingle87

Just tried 2 other TDEE calculators and one has me at about 2700 and another 2900, so using the lowest number using the tdee - 20% I should be eating min 2160 nearly 800 calories above the MFP net calories, for me 2160 seems a far too high of a number evening when taking into consideration exercising.

jwdieter

Just tried 2 other TDEE calculators and one has me at about 2700 and another 2900, so using the lowest number using the tdee - 20% I should be eating min 2160 nearly 800 calories above the MFP net calories, for me 2160 seems a far too high of a number evening when taking into consideration exercising.

Well, MFP put your non-exercise daily calorie burn at 2420, if that helps. So using MFP, you track your exercise burn and eat those calories back.

Since you put in 2 lbs/week, MFP dropped your daily intake by 1000. This is clearly a lot more than 20%. It's also kinda rough.

Perhaps you should just put in 1/week and go with MFP for a while. Eat back your exercise. More sustainable approach.

cwolfman13

TDEE and BMR seem off significantly.

I agree. I would try a few different calculators just to be sure you have the most accurate # possible. My BMR and TDEE are within 500-700cals of each other.

It doesn't really seem that far off depending on the OPs level of activity.

OP...I used the scooby calculator which is what I use and put in your stats for TDEE. If I do 1-3 hours exercise per week you TDEE comes to 2,875; if I do 3-5 hours it comes out to 3,241. I don't know exactly what your activity level is, but for me, I'm about an average of the two (1-3 hrs and 3-5 hrs). 1950 BMR calories is definitely not too high to lose weight

Let's assume you're the higher though...3,214 - 1,000 (to lose 2 Lbs per week) = 2,214 gross calories. If you're doing it right, MFP and TDEE methods should be pretty similar...you just have to make sure you're doing apples to apples on activity level which can be difficult because MFP assumes no exercise. For you, this would indicate that you need to burn roughly 764 calories per day with exercise to net to your MFP goal (gross to your TDEE goal).

I lose about 1 Lb per week grossing around 2,150 calories. When I was doing MFP my net goal was 1850...then add exercise calories and I was grossing between 2100 & 2200 calories per day...virtually the same as I am now with the TDEE method.

MinnieInMaine

1) Your weekly weight loss goal should be 1.5 pounds per week. This will put you more in line with your BMR. source:

Here is a great guideline for setting weekly weight loss goals:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

2) You should be eating back some, if not all, of your exercise calories. This would bring your close to your TDEE-20%

cingle87

I eat back all if not most of my exercise calories, you can take a look at my diary if you want, the only problem because I lift weight its very hard to gauge how many calories i burn per session, might be time to invest in a heart rate monitor. I usually aim for 1hr-1 1/2 min 4 times a week depending on my shifts, and on my days off its could be 2hrs of heavy lifting currentyl doing the 5x5 method.

So it might be time to change my goal to 1.5/1lb loss per week then?