Bmr low...advice needed again

Suzd1976

Hi,
Need your advice once again.
I went and got my body fat checked where they used one of the electronic hand held devices. My weight is 144( 65.5 kilos) and my body fat is 24.8 kilos( 37%) which is quite a bit but considering the last time I checked it was around 46 %, I am relatively happy about it. But my bmr is showing as 1170. Isn't that really low? On scooby my bmr was showing around 1300 so accordingly I have been consuming around 1500 calories. Now in fact I was planning to up my calories since i have been on a stall for the last 4 months( though i feel i am losing inches) and also I feel really hungry since I have started strong lifts. But with my bmr being so low, is it ok to consume more calories? Pl advice..
(P.s- My workouts are strong lifts 3 times a week ,HIIT once a week and I walk everyday for around 40-45 mins)
P.p.s-( I am 5 feet 1 and 37 years old)

heybales

BMR formula's came from studies of people at healthy weight and average ratio of fat to non-fat (LBM) mass.

When you are overweight, rarely do you keep that much LBM, so the formula's for BMR that use age, weight, height are inflated to some degree.
Whereas the Katch BMR using LBM have better chance of accuracy.

So indeed, the Katch BMR based on BF% that the device likely spit out is lower than the MFP Mifflin BMR or Harris BMR (especially inflated) you got from scooby.

But find Scooby's Most Accurate link and input your BF% and select Katch BMR - it should match. And you'll likely find your TDEE then about where you have been eating.

And if you have been losing inches but not weight, it means your are most likely eating at maintenance.
But using the inflated figures you were, you thought it was a deficit. Obviously not.

So you have to decide, what's important now, weight loss, or performance gains?

The body is going to want excess calories to make the improvements it wants - bulking in other words and gaining weight.
You can slowly, really slowly, lose fat eating at maintenance, but no weight.
You can lose fat and weight at reasonable pace eating at deficit, but that's not what the body wants and you will be hungry doing that type of workout.

The in-between would be using the more accurate figures, but taking just a 10% deficit.

Then again, if you will continue doing the same program you have been doing, and you have 28 days of it in the past to look at- you already have your exact TDEE.

Get the actual average eaten for the last 4 months. Any missed meals or days get estimated, 0 is no good.

That real average is your TDEE if you have lost or gained nothing using valid weigh-in days.

Take a 10% cut.

If you want to confirm before doing that, eat 250 more daily for 2 weeks. If truly over TDEE, you should only gain 1 lb slowly.
If fast water weight despite a valid weigh-in day, then you were not at TDEE.

If you do that, don't get used to how the body feels eating more doing that workout - it'll be tough to stop.

Suzd1976

So if I understand it correctly ( and pl forgive me if I didn't coz am pretty slow when it comes to all this)... My TDEE is around 1500 since I have been consuming around this much for the last few months and I have neither gained nor lost weight though as I have said I have definitely lost inches. So in that case if my TDEE is 1500 and since I want to lose I have to be on a deficit right? So I have to cut 10% from 1500 to meet my weight loss goal...have I got it right? Right now I definitely want to lose weight( or fat rather) more than get performance gains so I should go for a 10% cut from my TDEE which is around 1500 u feel?
Also I have been thinking of buying the fitbit zip to have a more accurate idea about my daily activities.
So pl advice if I should go for a 10% cut straight away from my 1500 or should I wait to get my TDEE from my fitbit
Thank u so much hey bales. U have been always so very helpful.

heybales

You got it exactly.

If you actually had a suppressed TDEE you were living with, you wouldn't see inches drop usually. Because body doesn't want to build more metabolically active tissue when it's not getting enough already. And if fat is going and weight is the same, something is being built, even if some of it is water weight.

You've seen the posts. Eats 1200 and no loss for 2 months. Eats 1400 for 2 weeks and no loss either. Well, obviously 1200 wasn't potential TDEE despite no loss or gain, but suppressed. 1400 may or may not be. Only way to confirm - eat more.
And look at the other side effects.

So Fitbit for step based activities (not lifting, rowing, cycling, ect) uses your weight and attempt at measuring pace with stride length.
Very accurate formulas there if pace is correct and step based activities. Walking and daily life would be your only valid activities.
But for all non-moving time, guess what it uses?
BMR based on age, gender, weight, height.

So depending on how much non-moving time you have daily (8 hrs sleep, perhaps another 8 on weekdays for sedentary work?), you'll have inflated calorie burns for that upwards of 2/3 of the day.

So it may not be that useful.

Monthly going for results and what you ate is best bet - if you can log accurately enough. You can actually be sloppy with accuracy, as long as everything is logged.

Using current example, say you logged 1500, but inaccurate. Reality was 1650 if you logged really accurate.
So you cut accurate 250 from sloppy 1500 and eat sloppy 1250. Looks bad, but reality is you are eating 1400.

Now, not saying your 1500 is inaccurate, just that results trump estimates if you have them to use with good logging.

And if you don't care about the lifting becoming maintenance (depends on how long doing it, you could still make progress if newbie), then you could take 15% deficit.

Knowing perhaps upper range is 10% in case you do get hungry.

Only if you feel like testing the 2 week 250 extra calorie confirmation. I think it'll show up close to 1 lb slow gain, and no fast water weight if valid weigh-in days.
Which could actually be checked in 1 week.
If no fast water weight gain, forget the other week, take the deficit from 1500 or whatever you really ate on average.

And unless you really know, I'd confirm that 1500. There's a goal of 1500, and sometimes there's the reality of 1500 + 100 for true average.