Confussed about Basal??

novatri

I've been messing around with MFP's tools and discovered at my current 194 weight I burn 1872 calories doing nothing. My daily caloric goal is 1780, a deficit of 92 calories a day. So in a week that's 644 calories in the red from my basal. I've set the goal loss at 1.5 lbs per week. So shouldn't it be at a higher deficit?

CalorieNinja

It depends what you set as your lifestyle i.e. sedentary, active or any of the in betweens.

novatri

Lightly active.

carspyder

Also if you make too high of a deficit your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto everything - which means turns it into fat. That is also why if you do not consume enough calories your diary will tell you that you need to consume more calories in order to prevent your body from holding on to it. That is why it isnt a higher deficit.

ladyhawk00

If BMR is 1872, at lightly active it adds 558 (I think I added right) for your daily activity. This puts you at 2430 for maintenance cals. It then subtracts 750 for your cal deficit, which puts you at 1780 cal goal.

Make sense?

I'd add that with less than 20 lbs to go, 1.5 lbs/week is probably too high of a loss goal (I don't know if that was part of the experimenting or your usual.)

MariSama44

basal means the amount of calories you burn laying in bed, not moving for the whole day. Even if you're lightly active, that includes getting up, moving around, driving your car, walking up stairs, etc etc etc. So, you know you burn the 1872, then you'll burn more just doing your normal daily routine. That's why its caluculating that. it does have to do what you set yourself as being...active, lightly active, sedentary.

novatri

If BMR is 1872, at lightly active it adds 558 (I think I added right) for your daily activity. This puts you at 2430 for maintenance cals. It then subtracts 750 for your cal deficit, which puts you at 1780 cal goal.

Make sense?

I'd add that with less than 20 lbs to go, 1.5 lbs/week is probably too high of a loss goal (I don't know if that was part of the experimenting or your usual.)

That makes sense. Thanks:happy: