Question about eating below my BMR

Dori_Gaga

Ok, can someone please explain to me exactly what eating below my BMR will do to me?

I know there is the argument that a very low calorie diet will lead to nutritional deficiency, but I I already supplement with a multivitamin, along with calcium/magnesium/vitamin D (because I was deficient), and I take omega-3 fish oils.

And I know starvation mode is essentially a myth.

My BMR is around 1750. My MFP calorie goal is 1670. I generally eat between 1400-1600 calories on average. If I do nothing but sit around all day, I eat less, if I'm active I eat a bit more.

So can someone just explain to me what eating below my BMR will do to me? I am about 70lbs overweight, so I have lots of fat stores to burn off. I don't allow myself to starve, if I'm hungry I eat, but I'm also getting used to eating less calories, which is making me feel hungry less often, and drinking more water.

Everything I have read has been about nutritional deficiency and starvation mode... I don't know what to believe!

WalkingAlong

It will not do anything to you. But someone will come along below me and say it will.

Try this- Do a google search on 'dangers of eating below BMR' and notice how nearly every single entry is from a forum like this one or some personal trainer's blog. Don't you think if it was a real thing someone authoritative would advise against it? WebMD? Mayo Clinic? NIH? ACSM? USRDA? ADA? AHA? WW?

jcorpern

If your body has the fat stores to support it, eating under your BMR has no adverse affect. Your body makes up the deficit by burning fat (which presumably what you're after)

festerbeatty

I guess you just need to be careful that you don't lose too much muscle mass. You could help this by doing some light weights and getting enough protein.

If you lose too much muscle you may end up shapeless...but you'll certainly be lighter if that's your main goal!

F00LofaT00K

It isn't dangerous at all (as long as you're not starving yourself, of course!), but you lose more muscle along with the fat if you eat too far below it. I started eating below my BMR and lost fewer inches per pound on the scale than I do now that I eat around my BMR. If somebody's end goal is to look leaner in addition to smaller, it may be worth it to lose the weight slower and hold on to as much muscle as possible by eating at or above their BMR. If a person's goal is to fit into a smaller size or lose weight quickly for health reasons and they aren't concerned about body fat percentage, eating below their BMR will probably not be something they are concerned about. Everybody has different goals so it's a bit closed-minded for somebody to say that eating below your BMR is definitely no good for everybody.

meshashesha2012

It isn't dangerous at all (as long as you're not starving yourself, of course!), but you lose more muscle along with the fat if you eat too far below it. I started eating below my BMR and lost fewer inches per pound on the scale than I do now that I eat around my BMR. If somebody's end goal is to look leaner in addition to smaller, it may be worth it to lose the weight slower and hold on to as much muscle as possible by eating at or above their BMR. If a person's goal is to fit into a smaller size or lose weight quickly for health reasons and they aren't concerned about body fat percentage, eating below their BMR will probably not be something they are concerned about. Everybody has different goals so it's a bit closed-minded for somebody to say that eating below your BMR is definitely no good for everybody.

according to this study she wouldnt lose much, if any, as long as she combined her diet with resistance training.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10204826


the main danger in restricting your diet too low though is that you will run the risk of binging if your restrictions are too high. besides that. it's not necessary to eat below your BMR in order to lose weight, so if anything it might just be reinforcing wrong patterns regarding food.

Dori_Gaga

Thank you everyone for the honest answers!

I do yoga so I'm not too worried about losing muscle mass. I have a gym membership, but I hate going in the winter (I'm in Canada and it's cold, I'd rather stay home and do yoga lol), but when I start going back to the gym I will up my calories, because I know that will be too big of a deficit.

And I did google search, as one poster suggested, and it was all personal trainer sites that came up, that's why I came here to find some real answers... not that I think personal trainers don't know what they are doing, but I do understand that they are trying to sell something and that is their motivation.

MoreBean13

It's probably fine given that you're not talking about a huge calorie gap and you have 70 lbs to lose. As you get closer to goal, you should be decreasing your deficit and it will work out to be higher than your BMR later.