1200/day calories

brandylj80

MFP is setting my calories at 1200/day but when I use the BMR it is calculating higher. Should I adjust to follow the BMR or should I stay at 1200?

stanmann571

brandylj80 wrote: »

MFP is setting my calories at 1200/day but when I use the BMR it is calculating higher. Should I adjust to follow the BMR or should I stay at 1200?

If there is a significant difference between your MFP calculated defict and another calculation.

1. make sure you used the same factors in both
2. understand that with MFP(NEAT) you'll need to also add and eat your daily exercise calories vs a TDEE average daily exercise aggregation formula.

janejellyroll

If you're choosing to go with the MFP method, I'd use those numbers. Keep in mind that with MFP, you'll be eating back at least some of the calories burn through exercise (if you're exercising).

How much do you want to lose? If you choose aggressive goals, you'll get lower calories. If you've chosen something like 1 or 2 pounds a week, you'll get more calories per day if you change it to something like .5 a week.

brandylj80

I used the BMR calculator on MFP and it calculates to be 1527 but only asks for age, weight and height. Quite a bit of a difference. I do not have my exercise calculated in to eat because it seemed MFP calculates calories burned quite a bit higher than what they actually are so if I do exercise I give myself a couple hundred calories play room. I am looking to lose 38 lbs and chose aggressive loss.

janejellyroll

brandylj80 wrote: »

I used the BMR calculator on MFP and it calculates to be 1527 but only asks for age, weight and height. Quite a bit of a difference. I do not have my exercise calculated in to eat because it seemed MFP calculates calories burned quite a bit higher than what they actually are so if I do exercise I give myself a couple hundred calories play room. I am looking to lose 38 lbs and chose aggressive loss.

Choosing an aggressive rate of loss when you don't have much to lose (as you did) will often result in a goal that is lower than your BMR. You need a high deficit to lose a lot of weight quickly and not everyone has the body weight to support that high of a deficit. I recommend choosing a more reasonable goal.

snickerscharlie

This^^^

cmriverside

Set it to "Lose one pound per week."

Be honest and as accurate as possible on the "Activity Level" (your daily routine.)

Log your Food and Exercise as accurately as you can for 4-6 weeks. Adjust based on your results AFTER 4-6 weeks. It's the same experiment we all have to run.

snickerscharlie

And this^^^

endermako

BMR is different than NEAT. BMR is the total calories that your body needs to function, It doesn't include any other activity. Your best bet would be to calculate your TDEE and subtract how much of a deficit you want and then eat that amount. If you do not have much to lose 1lb or .5lb per week would be best.

kshama2001

Another vote for "Lose one pound per week."

brandylj80

Thanks everyone! Set it to 1 lb and it upped it to over 1400 which seems like a better, more attainable goal.

snickerscharlie

brandylj80 wrote: »

Thanks everyone! Set it to 1 lb and it upped it to over 1400 which seems like a better, more attainable goal.

Keep us posted. And remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

AnnPT77

Let's be sure we're all using the same terms for the same things:

BMR = Basal metabolic rate, roughly the calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day doing nothing (REE, resting energy expenditure, and RMR, resting metabolic rate, are something slightly different, but close)

NEAT = Non exercise activity thermogenesis, the number of calories you burn doing all of the things you do - job, home chores, non-exercise hobbies/play, etc. - not including intentional exercise. NEAT also includes BMR. NEAT is the number MFP estimates from your profile settings, then takes off some calories to create a deficit based on your weight loss target rate, and gives you as a daily goal.

TDEE = Total daily energy expenditure, which is NEAT plus intentional exercise, a.k.a. all of the calories you burn in a day doing everything you do.

BMR/REE/RMR can be measured in a lab (still subject to some error/variation, but it's a measurement). Most of us work from an estimated BMR (from a so-called "calculator"), not a measured one.

NEAT and TDEE can't be measured in any practical way (you'd have to be locked in a metabolic chamber, and they're different every day in practice anyway). We all use estimates from these either from the so-called "calculators" (to start) or from our own experiential data (once we have enough to make realistic estimates).

+1 to the idea that 2 pounds a week is too fast a loss rate with only 38 pounds to lose, unless goal weight is unusually high for your size. Losing too fast not only risks setbacks from unsustainability, it risks:

* losing more than the minimum of lean tissue (like muscle) alongside fat,
* causing potential fatigue/weakness (that can reduce effective calorie deficit and slow weight loss, through fatigue-induced inactivity),
* makes it more difficult to achieve adequate nutrition, and
* creates physical stress that can increase water weight retention and even compromise one's health.

ladyhusker39

brandylj80 wrote: »

Thanks everyone! Set it to 1 lb and it upped it to over 1400 which seems like a better, more attainable goal.

This means that you don't enough to lose to support the more aggressive deficit you were trying for. This is a much wiser course. Good luck.

Silentpadna

cmriverside wrote: »

Set it to "Lose one pound per week."

Be honest and as accurate as possible on the "Activity Level" (your daily routine.)

Log your Food and Exercise as accurately as you can for 4-6 weeks. Adjust based on your results AFTER 4-6 weeks. It's the same experiment we all have to run.

Don't lose this important nugget of info! Now that you've set your goal to a reasonable 1 pound per week, that also means that completely normal fluid fluctuations can mask (or exaggerate) fat loss even more because the fluctuations in a day can easily exceed the fat loss goal for a week. The scale is less reliable in the short term. You simply have to give it time and run the experiment. NEVER make an adjustment decision on less than 4-6 weeks (or more) of data.