New & Calorie Help?

grigglipuff

I've used this app on and off in the past but this is the first time I'm using the community feature.

Could anybody help me get my calorie count right? I calculated the BMR of the weight I want to be and added 200 or so calories for maintenance. It's over my current BMR too, I don't want to eat too little. Does anybody have other ideas for how I should get my calorie goal?

MissusMoon

Did you actually fill out your mfp profile and set it to lose weight?

diannethegeek

I had good results using the directions here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1 But the important thing is to pick a good method, stick with it consistently, and adjust based on your own real world results to make it work for you.

TavistockToad

MissusMoon wrote: »

Did you actually fill out your mfp profile and set it to lose weight?

This

grigglipuff

MissusMoon wrote: »

Did you actually fill out your mfp profile and set it to lose weight?

Yes I did but it always tells me to eat below my BMR which is dangerous. I don't need to starve myself to lose weight fast.

seska422

grigglipuff wrote: »

MissusMoon wrote: »

Did you actually fill out your mfp profile and set it to lose weight?

Yes I did but it always tells me to eat below my BMR which is dangerous. I don't need to starve myself to lose weight fast.

It's only dangerous if you have no excess fat. It doesn't really matter if you are eating above or below your BMR if you are trying to lose weight. You do need to eat at least 1200 if you are female and 1500 if you are male.

Your body will burn your excess fat in order to use that energy to run your body systems and get you up to your TDEE for the day. That's how you lose weight.

grigglipuff

seska422 wrote: »

grigglipuff wrote: »

MissusMoon wrote: »

Did you actually fill out your mfp profile and set it to lose weight?

Yes I did but it always tells me to eat below my BMR which is dangerous. I don't need to starve myself to lose weight fast.

It's only dangerous if you have no excess fat. It doesn't really matter if you are eating above or below your BMR if you are trying to lose weight. You do need to eat at least 1200 if you are female and 1500 if you are male.

Your body will burn your excess fat in order to use that energy to run your body systems and get you up to your TDEE for the day. That's how you lose weight.

Maybe until you get down to your ideal weight that can work but eating below your BMR can actually really mess with your system. You can go into starvation mode. When you get down to your weight and it's okay to add calories, your body will hold onto fat harder. Where did you find the information you just shared?

CaptainJoy

You might want to google "starvation mode myth." If you're anorexic, have no fat, or are on a vlcd (like the biggest losers), your metabolism might suffer. I've been eating below my bmr for 8 months and am currently taking a break. I am not packing on the pounds eating slightly above my bmr but I'm not currently losing. If I wanted to continue to lose I can either lower my calorie intake or exercise. I prefer to add exercise without eating back all the calories that I burn. That causes me to be in a deficit based on my activity. If you're really scared that you'll mess up your system, add exercise.

seska422

grigglipuff wrote: »

seska422 wrote: »

grigglipuff wrote: »

MissusMoon wrote: »

Did you actually fill out your mfp profile and set it to lose weight?

Yes I did but it always tells me to eat below my BMR which is dangerous. I don't need to starve myself to lose weight fast.

It's only dangerous if you have no excess fat. It doesn't really matter if you are eating above or below your BMR if you are trying to lose weight. You do need to eat at least 1200 if you are female and 1500 if you are male.

Your body will burn your excess fat in order to use that energy to run your body systems and get you up to your TDEE for the day. That's how you lose weight.

Maybe until you get down to your ideal weight that can work but eating below your BMR can actually really mess with your system. You can go into starvation mode. When you get down to your weight and it's okay to add calories, your body will hold onto fat harder. Where did you find the information you just shared?

If you get down to your ideal weight, then you have no excess fat. You shouldn't be eating below BMR at that point because you aren't in weight loss mode, you are in maintenance mode. As you get closer and closer to your ideal weight, your deficit should get smaller and that moves you from below your BMR (if that's your current calorie intake) to above your BMR by the time you reach your ideal weight.

BMR is a baseline number and only relevant in terms of using it to calculate your TDEE. If you eat below your TDEE, you'll lose weight. The closer you get to ideal weight, the smaller your deficit should be.

Google is a good place to search for further info about eating below BMR if you wish to research it yourself.

As for starvation mode, as stated by the poster above, there's no such thing. Google's also a good place to research the starvation mode myth.

grigglipuff

Thanks to everyone! Been researching the starvation mode myth this morning.