BMR

Akilah_green

On the my fitness pal website my calculated BMR is 1489, so why us my fitness pal putting me at 1200 calories each day if this is what I should be eating?

lemurcat12

BMR is used to calculate your NEAT, not your calorie goal. MFP calculates NEAT (basically what you burn without exercise based on how active you told it you are) and then subtracts the amount necessary to lose the amount you said you wanted to per week (1000 if you said you wanted 2 lbs, 750 if you said you wanted 1.5, etc.). THEN, it expects you to add back exercise.

Someone who says sedentary, 2 lbs, will ALWAYS get a goal lower than BMR. If you exercise and eat back some calories it will end up above BMR.

2 lbs isn't an appropriate goal for everyone and most people aren't really sedentary, also. But BMR doesn't really matter--so long as your goal isn't too aggressive given stats and activity level, there's nothing magical about being above or below BMR.

malibu927

Your BMR is the number of calories your body burns a day just by living. It's used to calculate TDEE or NEAT, but isn't really relevant when it comes to weight loss. MFP gave you 1200 calories because despite what you chose as a loss per week goal, you've reached the minimum amount of calories you should be consuming, and would probably be better with a smaller deficit.

Akilah_green

So should I up my calories or stick with the 1200? I'm 5'4, 166 pounds and trying to get down to about 130. I set a goal of 2 pounds per week

malibu927

1 pound a week will be better for you. The less you have to lose, the closer you want to eat to maintenance to preserve muscle mass.

shadow2soul

To calculate goals:

BMR x 1.25 = Sedentary Calorie Burn estimate WITHOUT exercise - deficit selected = NET calorie goal (minimum it will give is 1200 for women/1500 men)
BMR X 1.4 = Lightly Active Calorie Burn estimate WITHOUT exercise - deficit selected = NET calorie goal
BMR x 1.6 = Active Calorie Burn estimate WITHOUT exercise - deficit selected = NET calorie goal
BMR x 1.8 = Very Active Calorie Burn estimate WITHOUT exercise - deficit selected = NET calorie goal

A lot of people will get 1200 when they select a deficit that is too large for their activity level and the amount they have to lose. Not saying that's true for everyone, but that's the most common reason.

Example:
(using numbers from my MFP profile)
Sedentary 1605 calorie burn estimate (1284 BMR x 1.25)
The largest deficit MFP will allow is 405 with these settings.

Lightly Active 1800 calorie burn estimate
The largest deficit MFP will allow is 600 with these settings.


MFP gives you a NET goal. This means that your calories consumed minus exercise burned should come out to around your calorie goal. When doing this you will eat more on days you workout and less on rest days, but the average of your total calories will probably be around or slightly higher than your BMR.

(Hopefully I'm not confusing you further OP and also hope I'm not completely misunderstanding what your asking)

Akilah_green

Ok. Well I switched to 1 pound a week and got 1360. I just often feel like 1200 is not enough at times. I can't even get snacks in if each meal is 400 calories

lemurcat12

Going with 1 lb is great. You can also eat back some of your exercise calories.

ElJefePerron

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Going with 1 lb is great. You can also eat back some of your exercise calories.

1pound is great. Key is eating only SOME of those calories back.

yarwell

lemurcat12 wrote: »

BMR is used to calculate your NEAT.

Nope, BMR is BMR, there is no Activity in BMR.

Let's use the terms correctly please

TDEE = BMR + TEF + NEAT + EAT

not TDEE = NEAT + EAT