MFP Calorie Goal vs. BMR

juladrtou16
juladrtou16 Posts: 4
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, I'm new to the site (again..) and when I enter in my info it gives me a calorie intake of 1200/day. I have a desk job so I don't get a lot of exercise and have a two yr old and a four yr old that I take care when I'm not at work so getting out for exercise is usually hard (not trying to make an excuse, it's just that by the time they're in bed I'm exhausted....). Anyway, when I calculate my BMR is comes up with 1782 and with a calorie deficit of 15-20% it's roughly 1426 calories/day. Which number should I go with? I'm ok with 1200/day and am not starving by the end of the day at all since I space all of my meals/snacks out. Will I lose the weight I want if I only eat 1200/day??? I need help. Thank you.

Replies

  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I think the issue here comes down to your weekly weight loss goal, and you seem to be confusing BMR with maintenance calories. If you are sedentary your maintenance is around 20% higher than your BMR, which means eating at BMR you will lose weight.

    Having said all this, with such a small amount to lose (11lbs) your weekly weight loss goal should be at 0.5lbs/week, not 2lbs/week, there reason MFP gave you so few cals was due to your overly aggressive weekly weight loss goal.
  • dogsahall67
    dogsahall67 Posts: 2 Member
    Hi Julie, I have been using MFP and other calorie trackers for a couple years off and on now. There are many different formulas that have been created by different doctors and dieticians for determining your BMR. These are all simply estimates based on an average. The only true way to get an accurate BMR is to go to a doctor with the appropriate monitoring equipment and get hooked up after fasting for awhile and it's a huge pain and probably not cheap. My recommendation is to edit your caloric goal in the goals section as opposed to just setting a '2 lbs a week' goal in the settings section on this sight. Roughly 3500 calories is 1 pound so 500 calories a 500 cal/day deficit would result in 1 lb perweek.

    If you google BMR calculators you will find a TON of them online. What I did was use some of those and go with a number close to what you get most often. I did about 8-10 of them and found I range from 2200-2900 a day but roughly 2400 seemed to come up most often so that is what I went with. You can either set your goal at that number and make sure you maintain a deficit (remaining calories) each day that will result in meeting your goal or you can just subtract that deficit number from your goal and set that as your goal.

    As the weeks go by and you end up losing more or less than you should be based on caloric intake you can adjust that goal number until it seems like it is pretty accurate.

    I hope I didn't lose you on any of this. Does this answer your question or did I get too off topic?
  • juladrtou16
    juladrtou16 Posts: 4
    Ok, thank you for your reply. So, if I change my settings to lose 1lb/week I really would and my goal at actually 17lbs (where I would really love to be), it is giving me 1280/day....since you obviously know what you're talking about, should I manually set my calorie goal to 1485/day since that's what my BMR is? I'm sorry I sound so dumb, but I have no idea what I'm doing...
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    If you list your stats, age, sex, height , weight it will be easier to help you. Your BMR is the calories your body would burn in a coma. You don't eat less than your BMR unless you are grossly overweight and doctor supervised. Your TDEE is the calories your body would burn in a day doing your normal activities. TDEE is the number you deduct your deficit from not your BMR.
  • juladrtou16
    juladrtou16 Posts: 4
    Thank you.
  • juladrtou16
    juladrtou16 Posts: 4
    So everyone here eats their BMR?

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