So I figured out my BMR...

Saaski

...but now I'm not so sure what to do with it. Different calculators gave me an average of 1400cal bmr. Setting MFP to lose .5lb a week put me at 1490cal. So 90cal above my BMR. Is this reasonable?

5'6", female, range of 140-145 lbs, trying to get to a range of 135-140 lbs.

jemhh

No. You don't have a full understanding of your caloric expenditure. Here's an explanation.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/metabolic-rate-overview.html/

PAV8888

jemhh wrote: »

No. You don't have a full understanding of your caloric expenditure. Here's an explanation.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/metabolic-rate-overview.html/

I agree with the above.
I agree with the no more than 0.5lbs a week setting.
I agree that a base target of ~100 Cal above BMR is good for rapid weight loss.

I caution you that your 1490 requires that you eat back all ACTUAL calories that you expend beyond the putative "sedentary" setting you chose. i.e. your 1490 assumes no more than 30-40 minutes of activity a day (something like 3000 steps taken.. THAT'S IT!) Anything beyond that you would eat back to keep to your 0.5lbs a week 250 Cal a day deficit.

Of course 250 cal a day is a very very small imperceptible deficit which will be very hard to evaluate.

You may also want to look at this: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/113609/relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner/p1

Also Check out www.trendweight.com/www.weightgrapher.com/libra for android/happy scale for iphone

Saaski

Okay, so. I read the whole article. I actively have no idea how to calculate TEF and TEA, (even the article itself states that trying to figure those out "can be a real hassle") and I wouldn't count NEAT because I have no real way of determining that and I'm not about to add in an overestimation, especially when I have such a small amount to lose.

I do add in back most of my exercise calories, though those tend to be hard to gauge, and I know MFP overestimates expenditure. And yeah, working with such a little range of calories makes this pretty tricky for me. If I go above 100 calories, that's "too much," under by 100 seems like it could be "too little."

I'll read the thread you linked, @PAV8888, thank you.

SusanMFindlay

Have you been maintaining your weight for a long time? If so, just start logging what you eat without making any changes. After a couple of weeks, that will tell you your TDEE, and you can cut 250 calories from that to give yourself a 0.5 pound/week diet. Of course, human nature being what it is, you might find the simple act of logging makes you more aware of what you're eating and gives you a slight deficit and that you don't actually wind up needing to cut. With such a small amount of weight to lose, it will likely be difficult to get exact numbers but numbers from your own experience are always more valuable than those from a calculator. That said, no, 100 calories either way will not be the end of the world; at worst, it would cut your rate of weightloss in half down to 0.25 pounds/week.

TimothyFish

Personally, I ignore BMR because I don't spend all day in bed in a fasted state. In theory, BMR can give you some idea of how many calories you burn per day, but people tend to get hung up on it. The number MFP gives you is based on how many calories you can expect to burn in a day through normal activity and then they subtract some number based on how quickly you are trying to lose. How close that number is to your BMR doesn't matter because the whole point is to eat fewer calories than you burn during a day. Some of those calories would be burned even if you stayed in bed all day (BMR), but what you want to do is balance your calories in such a way that your body must use body fat to supply the energy you need.

trigden1991

Unless you're in a coma; you didn't figure out your BMR, you calculated your TDEE.

Francl27

BMR is completely irrelevant, TDEE is what matters - and it doesn't take much effort to increase it.

SusanMFindlay

trigden1991 wrote: »

Unless you're in a coma; you didn't figure out your BMR, you calculated your TDEE.

No, it sounds like she plugged numbers into an online calculator that told her an (alleged) BMR. If she'd calculated her TDEE, MFP wouldn't have told her to eat more than that to lose weight.

Saaski

@SusanMFindlay that is correct. @trigden1991 I plugged in numbers to several online calculators and then went with the general average for BMR, because I wanted to figure out roughly what mine was.

With MFP, I put in all the numbers for the weight I am aiming for and the rate I want to lose to get there and set my activity level at sedentary. That's how I was given 1490 calories. I was asking about BMR in particular, since MFP recommends eating just barely over mine, which is supposedly around 1400 give or take, according to those calculators.

I know the general recommendation is to go off TDEE. But TDEE is incredibly hard for me to calculate, because it depends on the day. I work part-time as a swim instructor, where I'm on my feet in the water for hours, but I also work at home as a writer where I'm at my desk for hours. At my desk I'm usually pedaling (I have a mini elliptical) but that's more to get my feet moving than anything else as it is not strenuous at all. I also stretch and strengthen daily, from anywhere between 15 minutes to 45 minutes depending on how much time I have. Stretches are deep and held for long periods of time. Strength training is body-weight exercises I can do in my very small apartment; push-ups, pull-ups, planking (I'm also up to 2.5 minutes!), holding horsestance, etc. I also spend five minutes everyday working on handstands, since getting into and holding one without crashing to the floor is a personal goal.

I do plan to eat back some of my exercise calories, but I know that they are often grossly overestimated, so I worry about overeating. It's a fine line since I don't have a lot of weight to lose.

red99ryder

your way ahead of the game , its good that your doing something now and not 50 pounds from now . all the calculators give you ball park numbers to start with . Start tracking your food and looking at the scale , You will know what you need to do in a month or two with the direction the scale moves

good luck