my bmr

mittenswillet

hey everyone,

ive been with mfp for nearly a month now and lost 1kg (very happy)

but im starting to wonder if im eating the right calories? (my dairy is open)

im 5ft 9 (175cm) and currently weigh 114kg or 250lb

im sedentry as im a graphic designer , but i do walk to the shops every second day and thats 30 mins of exercise.

my current calorie intake is set to 1270 per day

but when i checked out other bmr calculators on line they say i need 2264 calories as my bmr is 1887 if i engage in no activity all day.

really?? 2264? im really worried, as it is its taken me almost a month to lose that 1kg. can i please have some input?

cathipa

I eat my BMR and so far have lost 8 lbs (3.6 kg) in the past month. I exercise and eat back half of my exercise calories (if I'm hungry). Try just eating BMR and see what happens.

WendyTerry420

Makes sense to me. I'd be more worried about you if you kept eating like a bird. An adult woman of a healthy weight and only lightly active will generally need about 2000 calories to maintain.

I am shorter than you and weigh less than you, and I maintain on 2500 calories. I have a desk job and only do weight training and walking (and occasional stair climbing) for exercise,.

mccindy72

Makes sense to me. I'd be more worried about you if you kept eating like a bird. An adult woman of a healthy weight and only lightly active will generally need about 2000 calories to maintain.

I am shorter than you and weigh less than you, and I maintain on 2500 calories. I have a desk job and only do weight training and walking (and occasional stair climbing) for exercise,.

Yes, I am 5'8" and weigh 130. I work a desk job, burning 300 calories on average a day with elliptical and some squats and triceps dips. I maintain on 1900-2000 calories daily.

Ctrum69

It's guessing. BMR's are averages, and you may be one of the lucky ones who actually fits the "average" profile, or you could be way out in left or right field.

It's a guideline. Work with it for 2 or 3 weeks, and see what sort of results you are getting. Then once you have a handle on how you are doing on their reccomendations, alter to suit, or continue doing what you are doing, if you are getting satisfactory results.

One of the downsides to "calorie counting" sites is that it makes it really easy for people to obsess over numbers like they are carved in stone, rather than as guidelines.

being 10 or 100 calories over on a day will make no noticeable difference, nor will being 10 or 100 calories under on a day. But people fixate on it.

Consider them a range, try to stay within those ranges, check back ever week or two and see if they are working.

MinnieInMaine

I agree, you should be fine on more calories but be cautious. If you've really been eating that few calories, I think you'd have seen a slightly higher loss by now. The problem may be more in the logging of those calories, both for food and exercise.

Try to be as accurate as you can - weigh and measure foods and double check MFP food database listings against nutritional labels or other online sources. Not many people realize this but many entries are imput by users and can contain errors and ommissions. And you can't just trust the barcode scanner either if that's what you're using - again, there are inaccuracies.

As for exercise calories, MFP burn #s are notoriously overestimated. Plan to only eat back half of the calories it gives you, maybe up to 70% if you're hungry enough.

When logging is accurate, eating at BMR plus exercise can be a great way to do it. That's what I do (set at goal BMR instead of current but there's not much of a difference) and as long as I'm good about my portions and food choices and being active, I lose fairly consistently.

Best of luck!!

mittenswillet

thanks for everyones replies.

Ive adjusted my calories to 1886, ill try that for this month and see what happens.... and i see what people mean about maybe calories put in about food by other people might not be accurate (im one of those naive people that just believes its right)

ill try to be more carefull..

mccindy72

thanks for everyones replies.

Ive adjusted my calories to 1886, ill try that for this month and see what happens.... and i see what people mean about maybe calories put in about food by other people might not be accurate (im one of those naive people that just believes its right)

ill try to be more carefull..

Yeah, don't do that. I put in my own food, and use my food scale to verify the accuracy. For example, the gluten-free bread I buy says that 2 slices is 140 calories. It also says that 32 grams is 140 calories. When I weighed 2 slices, they weighed way more than 32 grams, so the total calories for those 2 slices worked out to be 190 calories. You can see where that extra 50 calories just for that one food could add up quite a bit over the course of a day if every food were off. Especially where you are trusting that every person who added food is correct. I've found that most of the member-added entries are not correct, by the way, especially the ones that are added by measurement and not by weight.
You will be the most accurate when you are weighing all your solid food and measuring all your liquids and entering them yourself using the nutrition labels and entering in each category.