BMR and calories question

napilibay

My BMR is 1513, and MFP says I need to eat 1200 calories per day to lose 2#/week. But I also typically burn 250-400 cals per day. On those days would I need to eat more than 1400 calories? I'm 167, 5'5".

3dogsrunning

2 lbs a week is too high of a calorie goal for what you have to lose. 1lb a week would be more reasonable.

You are supposed to log those extra 250-400 calories and eat those too.

juggernaut1974

So a couple things:

1. A goal of 2 lbs per week is probably too aggressive for someone with as little to lose as you. I'd suggest re-evaluating that.
2. Yes, you'd need to add your calories from exercise burns to whatever goal MFP gives you. MFP assumes you do no exercise in calculating its goal.

lynn_glenmont

To be fair, 1200 calories may not actually be a 2 lb per week setting for the OP, but rather the minimum setting that MFP gave her because her daily calorie burn before exercise (BMR plus energy for normal daily activity) wasn't high enough to allow a 1000 calorie a day deficit and still be at 1200 or above. So, OP, if you do reevaluate with a 1 lb per week weight loss, don't expect to necessarily be given an extra 500 calories a day to eat.

Of course, many of the same people that ask for an inappropriate 2 lb a week goal also tell MFP they're sedentary when they aren't, so MFP starts from an inaccurately low assumption of how many calories they're burning. That might be something else for OP to reevaluate.

And yes, log your exercise calories and eat them, or at least some of them.

3dogsrunning

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

To be fair, 1200 calories may not actually be a 2 lb per week setting for the OP, but rather the minimum setting that MFP gave her because her daily calorie burn before exercise (BMR plus energy for normal daily activity) wasn't high enough to allow a 1000 calorie a day deficit and still be at 1200 or above. So, OP, if you do reevaluate with a 1 lb per week weight loss, don't expect to necessarily be given an extra 500 calories a day to eat.

Of course, many of the same people that ask for an inappropriate 2 lb a week goal also tell MFP they're sedentary when they aren't, so MFP starts from an inaccurately low assumption of how many calories they're burning. That might be something else for OP to reevaluate.

And yes, log your exercise calories and eat them, or at least some of them.

OP is the same height as me so I am familiar with the calorie goals given around the same weight. It won't give her 1700 calories but it will be higher than 1200.

cbihatt

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

To be fair, 1200 calories may not actually be a 2 lb per week setting for the OP, but rather the minimum setting that MFP gave her because her daily calorie burn before exercise (BMR plus energy for normal daily activity) wasn't high enough to allow a 1000 calorie a day deficit and still be at 1200 or above. So, OP, if you do reevaluate with a 1 lb per week weight loss, don't expect to necessarily be given an extra 500 calories a day to eat.

This is true. When I started, with a goal of 2 lbs per week, MFP gave me 1200 calories. After 4 weeks, I changed my goal to 1 lb per week. I now get 1380 calories...not such a big difference. I am 5'3".