Eating 500 Calories less than my BMR a day?

CanuckianOne

I've been doing some research tonight and I'm getting a lot of conflicting results, so I figured I'd make an account here and ask you all.

I'm 165 pounds and I want to lose 10-20 pounds (I'm male, 23 years old)

My BMR according to this site here : http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm = 1724

I've read that if you cut 500 calories a day you'll lose a pound a week, ( I know it's not exact numbers ) so should I be eating roughly 1200 calories a day? Or should I be eating 1700 a day and then trying to burn off 500 with exercise? Or both?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, It's just kinda confusing :laugh:

melaniecheeks

500 less than your TDEE, ie the calories you'd expend on a normal day. BMR is your Basic Metabolic Rate, that's the minimum calories you need to survive, before you even get out of bed. I wouldn't recommend consistently eating well under your BMR.

happystars82

bump

ninerbuff

500 less than your TDEE, ie the calories you'd expend on a normal day. BMR is your Basic Metabolic Rate, that's the minimum calories you need to survive, before you even get out of bed. I wouldn't recommend consistently eating well under your BMR.

Correct on TDEE, but BMR is the rate the body burns at total rest in 24 hours and not necessarily the calories needs to survive. If one is well overweight, then consuming less than their BMR won't endanger them.
IE. Someone is 200lbs at 5'2 and 30 years old and BMR is 1680. If they were sedentary and consumed 1400 calories a day, I truly doubt they would starve or be in danger of survival. Now if that same person was 120lbs then they would definitely have to adjust deficit since there's much less to lose.

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Sarauk2sf

You need to work out your TDEE (not BMR) and take a reasonable cut from there.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

jmp463

All of this past summer I ate about 200 calories less than my BMR and I was fine. Of course I had some 50lbs to lose. I lost at a very steady pace and from what I could tell suffered no ill effects. Everyone is different in how they handle things but for me it worked out well. Not saying this is for everyone but it did work really well for me.

Now that my weight is down I am trying to do TDEE minus each day. Seems to be working but because I don't have far to go the progress has slowed some. But then again I am not running as large a deficit on purpose.

Hope everything goes well for you.

fionarama

yeah I reckon these calculators are just guides, at best. Its impossible to be accurate - our bodies aren't callibrated machines, we're all different plus calories are difficult to calculate accurately anyway.
I reckon the best way is to make the changes slowly - spend a week just cleaning up your diet, cutting out junk, getting into cooking and veges. Then slowly reduce your portions until you hit the right balance and you start losing weight.
Especially since the difference can be a simple as eating 200-300 calories too much (we're talking a very light sandwich) which can prevent you losing. Or cutting that one small thing out which pushes you the other weigh into losing territory.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

You need to work out your TDEE (not BMR) and take a reasonable cut from there.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

This.

Don't take your cut from your BMR.