Using BMR/TDEE
BootyEvolve
Posts: 45 Member
I am 5'1 at 159 pounds.
Iifym.com says my bmr is 1425.
I have a sedentary lifestyle as I am sitting most days and I walk 3 days for 4 hours on the weekends because I work retail.
I am going to exercise 3 to 5 days a week for 50 minutes.
Will eating at my BMR (1425) help me loose weight. It seems like a high number because I am small. I am not going to eat back exercise calories. I want to safely maximize weightloss.
I also don't want to focus on macros too much.
Iifym.com says my bmr is 1425.
I have a sedentary lifestyle as I am sitting most days and I walk 3 days for 4 hours on the weekends because I work retail.
I am going to exercise 3 to 5 days a week for 50 minutes.
Will eating at my BMR (1425) help me loose weight. It seems like a high number because I am small. I am not going to eat back exercise calories. I want to safely maximize weightloss.
I also don't want to focus on macros too much.
1
Replies
-
You should be fine with that as a starting goal. Keep in mind that BMR is if you were comatose in a bed doing nothing. So the difference between that and your actual TDEE will be your weight loss. You might want to eat at least a portion of your exercise calories back or you will eventually start feeling sluggish, tired and unable to perform the exercise at the same level. Thats lack of nourishment.
No matter what you do, pay attention to your average weight loss over the course of a month and make adjustments based on what you see happening. A realistic and safe goal is 1% of your current weight in body fat per week. So make sure your expectations and goals are in line with that.6 -
Did you "tell" the TDEE calculator about your exercise?
(You are supposed to unlike MyFitnessPal.)
If you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. Why are you proposing to eat at BMR rather than take a percentage cut from your TDEE?5 -
Sounds like a good starting point. Honestly you don't have to starve to lose weight. It's really not that much.
I'm active (11k steps a day, 6 days exercise 20-60 mins). At 5'4.5" and around 140 lbs I lose weight eating around 2k a day. IIFYM'S estimates I should maintain at about that, but I know from experience and detailed tracking that I maintain closer to 2500.2 -
Did you "tell" the TDEE calculator about your exercise?
(You are supposed to unlike MyFitnessPal.)
If you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. Why are you proposing to eat at BMR rather than take a percentage cut from your TDEE?
bmr is 1425
Tdee is 1817
assuming I workout 5 days a week for 50 minutes.
that 400 calories deficit is what I want. I actually want 500 because I want to loose 1 pound a week.
I heard you should never go BMR because then you do damage to your body so I figure I would eat there and work out till I got that 500 calories deficit.0 -
BootyEvolve wrote: »Did you "tell" the TDEE calculator about your exercise?
(You are supposed to unlike MyFitnessPal.)
If you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. Why are you proposing to eat at BMR rather than take a percentage cut from your TDEE?
bmr is 1425
Tdee is 1817
assuming I workout 5 days a week for 50 minutes.
that 400 calories deficit is what I want. I actually want 500 because I want to loose 1 pound a week.
I heard you should never go BMR because then you do damage to your body so I figure I would eat there and work out till I got that 500 calories deficit.
That TDEE seems small, considering the workouts -- that's an activity factor of only 1.28, which is the activity factor that is used for people who are truly sedentary (give or take).
Can you show the screenshot from the calculator that you used that gave you a TDEE of 1817 *with* working out?0 -
Great.BootyEvolve wrote: »Did you "tell" the TDEE calculator about your exercise?
(You are supposed to unlike MyFitnessPal.)
If you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. Why are you proposing to eat at BMR rather than take a percentage cut from your TDEE?
bmr is 1425
Tdee is 1817
assuming I workout 5 days a week for 50 minutes.
that 400 calories deficit is what I want. I actually want 500 because I want to loose 1 pound a week.
I heard you should never go BMR because then you do damage to your body so I figure I would eat there and work out till I got that 500 calories deficit.
Your body doesn't actually know what your BMR is of course and doesn't have mode switches if you are above/below BMR but that does sound a reasonable deficit. Best of luck.
See how you get on for a month as then you will have some real world data to go on and make adjustments from there rather than a bunch of estimates.1 -
collectingblues wrote: »BootyEvolve wrote: »Did you "tell" the TDEE calculator about your exercise?
(You are supposed to unlike MyFitnessPal.)
If you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. Why are you proposing to eat at BMR rather than take a percentage cut from your TDEE?
bmr is 1425
Tdee is 1817
assuming I workout 5 days a week for 50 minutes.
that 400 calories deficit is what I want. I actually want 500 because I want to loose 1 pound a week.
I heard you should never go BMR because then you do damage to your body so I figure I would eat there and work out till I got that 500 calories deficit.
That TDEE seems small, considering the workouts -- that's an activity factor of only 1.28, which is the activity factor that is used for people who are truly sedentary (give or take).
Can you show the screenshot from the calculator that you used that gave you a TDEE of 1817 *with* working out?
I will post a screen shot when I get home and can get on my computer.
I figure I'm sedentary because aside from working on the weekends for 3 days a week for 4 hours and excersising 3 to 5 days a week for 30 to 60 minutes I am usually sitting.
I am a college student so I usually sleep for 8 hours and am sitting for 14 hours. 2 hours for exercising and walking to different classes or to get up and make food.0 -
Going into iifym.com calculator I did the iifym calculator instead of the TDEE calculator and it says my tdee is 1954 and a 25% deficit would but me at 1466. I did sedentary lifestyle with moderate exercise 5 days a week at 60 minutes.
Do take note I am 5'1, that may be why it's low.0 -
2 hours of activity can easily correspond to 12000 steps which you will be gobsmacked to learn is classified at the upper limits of mfp active, i.e. activity factor of 1.6 (assuming you don't log your exercise activity separately like you're supposed to...)1
-
BootyEvolve wrote: »collectingblues wrote: »BootyEvolve wrote: »Did you "tell" the TDEE calculator about your exercise?
(You are supposed to unlike MyFitnessPal.)
If you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. Why are you proposing to eat at BMR rather than take a percentage cut from your TDEE?
bmr is 1425
Tdee is 1817
assuming I workout 5 days a week for 50 minutes.
that 400 calories deficit is what I want. I actually want 500 because I want to loose 1 pound a week.
I heard you should never go BMR because then you do damage to your body so I figure I would eat there and work out till I got that 500 calories deficit.
That TDEE seems small, considering the workouts -- that's an activity factor of only 1.28, which is the activity factor that is used for people who are truly sedentary (give or take).
Can you show the screenshot from the calculator that you used that gave you a TDEE of 1817 *with* working out?
I will post a screen shot when I get home and can get on my computer.
I figure I'm sedentary because aside from working on the weekends for 3 days a week for 4 hours and excersising 3 to 5 days a week for 30 to 60 minutes I am usually sitting.
I am a college student so I usually sleep for 8 hours and am sitting for 14 hours. 2 hours for exercising and walking to different classes or to get up and make food.
That would be sedentary according to MFP -- which excludes exercise. It's not sedentary in the TDEE sense of the word.
Which setting did you pick on the calculator?
0 -
collectingblues wrote: »BootyEvolve wrote: »collectingblues wrote: »BootyEvolve wrote: »Did you "tell" the TDEE calculator about your exercise?
(You are supposed to unlike MyFitnessPal.)
If you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight. Why are you proposing to eat at BMR rather than take a percentage cut from your TDEE?
bmr is 1425
Tdee is 1817
assuming I workout 5 days a week for 50 minutes.
that 400 calories deficit is what I want. I actually want 500 because I want to loose 1 pound a week.
I heard you should never go BMR because then you do damage to your body so I figure I would eat there and work out till I got that 500 calories deficit.
That TDEE seems small, considering the workouts -- that's an activity factor of only 1.28, which is the activity factor that is used for people who are truly sedentary (give or take).
Can you show the screenshot from the calculator that you used that gave you a TDEE of 1817 *with* working out?
I will post a screen shot when I get home and can get on my computer.
I figure I'm sedentary because aside from working on the weekends for 3 days a week for 4 hours and excersising 3 to 5 days a week for 30 to 60 minutes I am usually sitting.
I am a college student so I usually sleep for 8 hours and am sitting for 14 hours. 2 hours for exercising and walking to different classes or to get up and make food.
That would be sedentary according to MFP -- which excludes exercise. It's not sedentary in the TDEE sense of the word.
Which setting did you pick on the calculator?
For daily activity I choose sedentary because in a normal day I don't get any higher than 4000 steps it's more like 830 steps Monday through Friday and 4000 steps Friday through Sunday.
For exercise I did 5 days a week with 60 minutes at a moderate pace because I weightlift and I can talk after each set when I'm not in the zone.1 -
-
-
-
Being on the shorter end myself, I think 1400 is a decent starting point.
How do you track your steps? How often do you plan to weigh yourself/take measurements?
I would pay close attention to how you're feeling, and aim for 1lb/week of loss at most.
~Lyssa1 -
-
That number doesn’t seem low to me. I’m 5’7” and workout 2hr 4 days a week with a group. We do 1hr weights and conditioning followed by 1hr of boxing. I have a desk job and commute the rest of the time.
These are my numbers and my lose 1lb a week figured with suggested macros0 -
That number doesn’t seem low to me. I’m 5’7” and workout 2hr 4 days a week with a group. We do 1hr weights and conditioning followed by 1hr of boxing. I have a desk job and commute the rest of the time.
These are my numbers and my lose 1lb a week figured with suggested macros
Okay! I've just never done TDEE and 1400 seemed like a lot. I just hope eating whatever macros will work too. I don't won't to focus on macros until I have the money for good protiens.
0 -
BootyEvolve wrote: »That number doesn’t seem low to me. I’m 5’7” and workout 2hr 4 days a week with a group. We do 1hr weights and conditioning followed by 1hr of boxing. I have a desk job and commute the rest of the time.
These are my numbers and my lose 1lb a week figured with suggested macros
Okay! I've just never done TDEE and 1400 seemed like a lot. I just hope eating whatever macros will work too. I don't won't to focus on macros until I have the money for good protiens.
1400 actually isn't alot, for what its worth, I'm only 1" taller and I would lose eating 1700 cals. I'm lightly active/in late 40s.1 -
BootyEvolve wrote: »That number doesn’t seem low to me. I’m 5’7” and workout 2hr 4 days a week with a group. We do 1hr weights and conditioning followed by 1hr of boxing. I have a desk job and commute the rest of the time.
These are my numbers and my lose 1lb a week figured with suggested macros
Okay! I've just never done TDEE and 1400 seemed like a lot. I just hope eating whatever macros will work too. I don't won't to focus on macros until I have the money for good protiens.
1400 isn't much for me - but to each their own!
You can eat whatever you like as long as it's within your calories. Keep in mind that eating out can contribute more to fluctuations/slow losses - there's less of a guarantee that the employees are using the advertised amounts of sauces vs. you making something at home (so, possibility of higher calories than advertised), plus there tends to be a lot of sodium (which leads to water retention)! Just be aware of that, stick with your plan for 4-6 weeks, then make modifications as needed.
Also...can you definite "good proteins"? Eating healthy doesn't have to break the bank, and maybe folks here have some suggestions if you're looking to get your money's worth
The website budgetbytes.com has tons of inexpensive, yummy recipes.
~Lyssa3 -
macgurlnet wrote: »
Also...can you definite "good proteins"? Eating healthy doesn't have to break the bank, and maybe folks here have some suggestions if you're looking to get your money's worth
~Lyssa
I just only have 25 dollars a week. Just bought eggs, frozen but cooked chicken, veggies, bread, oatmeal and a few processed foods.
I usually eat eggs and oatmeal for breakfast. Pb&j for lunch and then dinner is what I feel like.
I'm used to getting salmon, chicken, beef. But I had to make budget cuts. I should make a separate post about cheap healthy food items.
0 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »BootyEvolve wrote: »That number doesn’t seem low to me. I’m 5’7” and workout 2hr 4 days a week with a group. We do 1hr weights and conditioning followed by 1hr of boxing. I have a desk job and commute the rest of the time.
These are my numbers and my lose 1lb a week figured with suggested macros
Okay! I've just never done TDEE and 1400 seemed like a lot. I just hope eating whatever macros will work too. I don't won't to focus on macros until I have the money for good protiens.
1400 actually isn't alot, for what its worth, I'm only 1" taller and I would lose eating 1700 cals. I'm lightly active/in late 40s.
I'm also 5'2" and I lose over a pound a week at 1700 net (ETA: I currently weight 166 lbs). To the OP: don't assume that because you're short you can only eat very small amounts. Pick a number you think you can live with and stick to it for a few weeks (at least four if you're menstruating, because that can throw off your numbers). Track your calories and your weight. If you're losing at about the rate you hoped and you feel like your diet is sustainable, stick to it. If not, raise or lower your calories as needed. All the calculators in the world will only give you a place to start, not 100% accuracy.4
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 430 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions