Soo confused, recommended daily intake and BMR, TDEE etc

ianwhite5555

Hello and thanks for reading. For some members this will feel like groundhog day reading the same thing over and over from new members. Be patient please, this is my first.
So, by themselves I understand all the calculations and what the answers mean. But linking them together gets confusing. I end up reading for 3 hours and no nearer to figuring this thing out.
Here in Britain we are advised by our health service that to maintain weight for men we should consume a balanced diet of 2500 calories. But how come my BMR is a thousand less than that? Wouldn't that mean I'm eating 1000 calories less than the recommended amount? Or if my BMR is 1500 to maintain, to lose weight I need to consume 500 less calories a day to lose a lb a week. So a diet of 1000 calories a day (which is 1500 less than what we are told to eat.) See how quickly I get muddled! Please help clear this mud up. Thank you.
For info I'm semi retired 50 year old male 5'11" and 150lbs. At the moment I'm eating about 900 calories a day and burn most of that off with a 7 mile run (every night). I guess including 2-3 hours walking my Siberian husky I may even dip into the magical negative. Thanks again.

kimny72

Government recommendations for men and women are an average. Your calorie needs depend on your height, weight, and activity level mostly, with other factors playing minor roles. A short inactive man will need less fuel than a tall active man.

Second, BMR is really a useless number. It's the number of calories your body uses with little to no movement, like in a coma. Unless you're planning to stay in bed for the foreseeable future, your BMR doesn't mean much.

To maintain your current weight, you need to eat your TDEE. Any calculator is just giving you an estimate, the only way to get a more personalized figure is well documented trial an error. Pick a reasonable estimate. Log your food, your exercise, and your weight accurately and consistently for at least 6-8 weeks and then tweak your numbers based on what you're weight does

No offense, but I highly doubt you are really eating 900 cals. You would be starving and dropping weight alarmingly fast. The healthy minimum for a man is 1500 lbs. There are common logging errors many of us made when we first started logging - picking innacurate entries in the database, incorrectly eyeballing portions, over estimating exercise calorie burns.

Check out the Most Helpful Posts threads pinned to the top of each sub-forum, especially the ones with tips on accurate logging and how to best use MFP. There's a lot to learn! Good luck:drinker:

kimny72

OP, I looked at the charts, and you are right in the middle of the healthy weight range for your height. You can certainly lose a little weight if you want, but progress will be slow once you're dealing with vanity lbs. Are you doing any strength training? If it's aesthetics you are concerned with, you might get more bang for your buck by building more muscle.

And just to be clear, your goal is NOT to net negative calories, it's to net your MFP goal. So if you put your stats into mfp and say you want to lose 0.25kg per week and it gives you a goal of say 1900 cals, your goal is to net 1900 cals.

ianwhite5555

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It helped a lot(calorie intake, bowl of cereal morning and night and 300g steamed veg mixed with a can of soup divided into two meals). Dropped from 200lbs to 140lbs in 4 months. Bounced a little to 150lbs so back on diet and increased cardio from a single 4 mile run a day to 2 x 3 mile run. No weights (a tad old plus time etc.)
The answer was a great help.

sijomial

Serious question from a fellow semi-retired, 50 something, male from the UK......

Would you put your husky on a crash diet with a miniscule amount of food, little protein and a lot of exercise?

sijomial

This is well worth reading and will explain a lot of the acronyms that get thrown around.....

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1

Hooliekom

ianwhite5555 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It helped a lot(calorie intake, bowl of cereal morning and night and 300g steamed veg mixed with a can of soup divided into two meals). Dropped from 200lbs to 140lbs in 4 months. Bounced a little to 150lbs so back on diet and increased cardio from a single 4 mile run a day to 2 x 3 mile run. No weights (a tad old plus time etc.)
The answer was a great help.

There isn't an age limit on being able to lift weights.. If you wanted to you could drop one of the 3 mile runs and add in a weights session

ianwhite5555

Thanks for everyone taking their time to reply.
And no of course my husky would never be on a diet but he's not overweight and will always out run me

kimny72

ianwhite5555 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It helped a lot(calorie intake, bowl of cereal morning and night and 300g steamed veg mixed with a can of soup divided into two meals). Dropped from 200lbs to 140lbs in 4 months. Bounced a little to 150lbs so back on diet and increased cardio from a single 4 mile run a day to 2 x 3 mile run. No weights (a tad old plus time etc.)
The answer was a great help.

This isn't really healthy at all. Your body requires fuel (calories), protein, and fat. The long term affects of what you are doing is quite dangerous. Eat more, get at least minimum amounts of protein and fat, and start focusing on some kind of resistance/strength training even if it means cutting back on cardio to fit it in. You probably lost a lot of muscle by losing weight so dangerously fast and eating such a limited, protein poor diet. Lack of muscle is one of the key dangers as you get older, your body loves muscle. And it is never too late to incorporate. Please take care of yourself, and good luck!

sijomial

ianwhite5555 wrote: »

Thanks for everyone taking their time to reply.
And no of course my husky would never be on a diet but he's not overweight and will always out run me

My point was that you wouldn't starve your dog - whether he was overweight or not. If you treated your dog the way you are treating yourself the RSPCA would get involved!

Make a fresh start, use this site (or a TDEE site if you prefer to account for your exercise that way) as they are intended to achieve a sensible calorie allowance because what you are doing is desperately unhealthy.

AnnPT77

kimny72 wrote: »

ianwhite5555 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It helped a lot(calorie intake, bowl of cereal morning and night and 300g steamed veg mixed with a can of soup divided into two meals). Dropped from 200lbs to 140lbs in 4 months. Bounced a little to 150lbs so back on diet and increased cardio from a single 4 mile run a day to 2 x 3 mile run. No weights (a tad old plus time etc.)
The answer was a great help.

This isn't really healthy at all. Your body requires fuel (calories), protein, and fat. The long term affects of what you are doing is quite dangerous. Eat more, get at least minimum amounts of protein and fat, and start focusing on some kind of resistance/strength training even if it means cutting back on cardio to fit it in. You probably lost a lot of muscle by losing weight so dangerously fast and eating such a limited, protein poor diet. Lack of muscle is one of the key dangers as you get older, your body loves muscle. And it is never too late to incorporate. Please take care of yourself, and good luck!

^^^ Please take this on board: She's so right.

I'm a 64-year-old woman. I can lift weights, so I'll bet you can, too. Quite a few people here have started at 50+. There are research studies in which people started in their 80s, and gained useful amounts of strength/muscle.

It doesn't need to be time consuming; half an hour 3 times a week, well spent, should be very adequate. Even twice a week is better than zero. Start with low weights (very manageable, just a little challenging), get proper instruction about form, and progress gradually. You'll do fine.

You're at risk for losing - having already lost - muscle by dramatically undereating for your body size, and getting way too little protein.

Your body can only metabolize a certain amount of fat daily, per pound of fat still on your body. When you ask it to lose weight faster than that, it will burn more than minimum lean tissue to make up the difference. You don't want that.

I'm saying this out of sincere concern, truly.

Best wishes!

MikePTY

ianwhite5555 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It helped a lot(calorie intake, bowl of cereal morning and night and 300g steamed veg mixed with a can of soup divided into two meals). Dropped from 200lbs to 140lbs in 4 months. Bounced a little to 150lbs so back on diet and increased cardio from a single 4 mile run a day to 2 x 3 mile run. No weights (a tad old plus time etc.)
The answer was a great help.

Yikes. I really wish you would have come here asking the questions before you had gone on your weight loss plan. This was an incredibly unhealthy way to lose weight, and way to fast. It was more than 3 times too fast for what would have been considered safe. Adding on top of that not weight lifting, and not eating much protein, you almost certainly lost significant amount of muscle during your weight loss. This may be why you are still unhappy despite being a very low weight.

I implore you to not try to lose any more weight right now. Please try to eat at maintenance (use a TDEE calculator, put in your stats and choose very active, and eat that amount of calories). I suggest you schedule an appointment with your doctor, and look for a referral to a registered dietitian and possibly a mental health counselor. What you are doing to yourself is not healthy, and despite what people may think, things like eating disorders can affect males and older people, not just young women. It sounds like you have possibly been heading in that direction, but I am not qualified to give that diagnosis.

Then at some point, when you are at a healthier relationship with food and weight loss, you can look at a plan that will help you build more muscle and recomposition your body, to build back some of the muscle you lost, and maybe lose some fat.

But focus on your health first. Like the others, I say this out of genuine concern from what I read.

dewd2

50 Years old is too old to lift weights????? Oh my. You're not going to like what you've done to yourself. I suggest listening to the advice you've gotten before it is too late (and you really do get old long before your time).

Good luck.