BMR Calculators are confusing me (and potentially sabotaging weight loss)

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Mspiggy56
Mspiggy56 Posts: 7 Member
edited July 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
So I fell off of the wagon a couple weeks ago, luckily I didn't gain much weight back. Basically I was just eating whatever a for like 3 weeks because I was stressed. Anyways, on the 7th of July I decided to get back on my diet again. So I looked up my BMR online to get an idea on how much I should I eat now that I'm 140. First one I look up says I burn "2000" calories just doing nothing. I thought to myself that can't be right! So I use a different calculator says the same thing. So I decide that 1500 calories should be enough to lose weight. So for 2 two weeks I was eating 1500 but it didn't feel right, so I checked another calculator and it tells me I only burn 1300 calories :neutral: WHAT. So I've been eating too many calories? So now i'm freaking out checking different calculators now, most of them are saying 1300-400 calories. I'm so confused! luckily I was exercising these past few days but I feel like I should be at least 4 pounds down by now, but its hard to tell cause i'm on my period. Could it be that I've been eating too much? Now i'm trying to stick to 1200 calories a day which I hate, but i'm feeling that hunger I feel when i'm burning fat, but i'm also kinda lacking energy. I'm 5'4 about 140 pounds with quite a bit of muscle how many calories should I be consuming to lose 5 pounds a month?

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  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    How much does MFP tell you to eat to lose half pound to a pound a week? Eat that plus at least a portion of your exercise calories.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited July 2017
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    You don't create a deficit from the calories you burn sleeping all day long - because I'm betting that doesn't happen often.

    That's what BMR is. You don't eat less than that to lose weight - you eat less than you are burning in all activity all day long to lose fat weight.

    Why aren't you using MFP the way it's been designed?

    At this point with that much to lose - select 1 lb weekly - that's reasonable and body won't put up a fight hopefully with it.
    When you have 10-15 lbs left - switch to 1/2 lb weekly.

    Pick your non-exercise daily activity level.
    If you have kids - you are Lightly Active, even with a desk job.
    Shoot, most discover they are Lightly Active with desk job and NO kids.

    So then you are given calorie goal for when your day is exactly as you selected.

    If you do more - you eat more. So if you workout - you log it and you get to eat more.
    The deficit to cause weight loss is still there between what you burned and what you eat.

    If you don't like the daily variation - and have a pretty set schedule of workouts that usually gets done - then you might prefer the weekly average TDEE method - which is likely what some of those sites was giving you.

    TDEE - what you burn daily everything included. Including average exercise weekly.

    This is NOT how MFP operates. Some people have workouts that aren't always going to get done, so MFP works great.
    Some want to eat the same amount daily and plan on it - and have planned workouts too - so TDEE method works great.

    If you'd prefer the TDEE method - use this. Be honest.

    Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts.
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing

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