How far under BMR can you eat?

55tolose

Hubby has a bmr of 3305 if he eats 2000 calories would that be enough to not put him into starvation mode? or should he eat more like 2500?

background he is 6'4 and 400 pounds the only reall big area he has is his gut. everything else his legs and arms look small compared to his gut lol if I can convince him to walk with me this summer I want to know a little bit about how to help him lose weight at this weight and height. I only had 70 pounds to lose at the beginning since before MFP and he has 150 to lose and it takes less exercise to lose weight for him..

one time he had chicken and a baked potatoe for dinner every day for a week and lost I cant believe it but 20 pounds it was so weird.

rosiesparkle100

I would be keen to hear the answer to this. I have a BMR of 1840, and my calories are 1690. 1690 is a lot compared to a lot of people on here, but I do wonder if it is too low for me. It's not like your husband, I know, but there are so many people saying 'never eat below your BMR', but then their BMR is about 1200, so it would be pretty tricky to do anyway!

hpsnickers1

Personally I think that would be fine as long as he eats back calories burned during exercise.

I'm not sure of the baseline for men. Maybe 1600?

And baked potatoes are actually very nutritious. It's what we like to put on them that make them bad for you.

Yes, men seem to lose faster than women. It sucks to be a woman sometimes (at least a week a month)

girlinahat

this is something I am curious about. I think it works like this (for me)

MFP has my BMR at 1252 and my daily goal at 1200. Other sites have my BMR lower than that even as low as 1050.

But BMR is the rate for a person lying down doing nothing, which discounts us all (and if we are, chances are someone else is in charge of your calorie intake). Therefore that actual figure for calorific need is higher - ie. your BMR plus your general daily activity calories (hence why MFP asks you wether you are sedentary etc during the day). My daily needs are about 1550.

Therefore, to remove excess weight from me I need to eat below my daily calorific needs but above my BMR. For me, that means a very slow weightloss. The only way I can increase the efficiency (not necessarily the speed of the weightloss) is to exercise more and increase the burn rate of those calories.

just a thought (before I head off to the gym.....)