BMR vs. Caloric Intake

jdix000

Ok, I am a little confused. I just look at my BMR which when calculate was at 1,839. Am I understanding this right: If I were to do NOTHING but lay in bed for 24 hours I would burn 1,839 calories just to stay alive. So why then am I trying to eat only 1500 calories a day + exercise calories. If I were to only eat 1500 calories a day, that's a 300+ calorie deficit per day, or 2100 calorie deficit per week. That only is pace for a 2lb per week weight loss.....

Can someone shed some light on this?

jillbarnes

My BMR is 1276 but MFP has me eating 1200 plus my exercise calories. Doesn't really add up to me losing much a week at all.

NoAdditives

Yes, your BMR is the amount of calories you would burn from doing nothing. The reason your daily calorie goal is set to 1500 + exercise calories is because MFP adds a certain number of calories to your BMR based on the activity level you select. It does this because it assumes you won't track and log all the calories you burn from simply walking around, doing dishes, etc.

taletreader

Ok, I am a little confused. I just look at my BMR which when calculate was at 1,839. Am I understanding this right: If I were to do NOTHING but lay in bed for 24 hours I would burn 1,839 calories just to stay alive. So why then am I trying to eat only 1500 calories a day + exercise calories. If I were to only eat 1500 calories a day, that's a 300+ calorie deficit per day, or 2100 calorie deficit per week. That only is pace for a 2lb per week weight loss.....

Can someone shed some light on this?

Well, personally I think the BMR is a good though very rough lower limit on what you should eat to lose weight. Your calorie expenditure is composed of the BMR + the thermic effect of food (what your body expends to break down the food you eat -- roughly 10% of the total) + the thermic effect of activity (exercise, moving around, the entire activity level). This is very roughly speaking and neglects some details.

1500 for a man counts as an extreme deficit. I'm not sure why you'd put yourself through this -- if your BMR is say 1850 and you're sedentary, no gym, no sports, just a desk job, you'd have a calorie expenditure of the order of 2220. I would imagine yours is higher.

For the record, my BMR is usually being estimated as 1450-1500 by online calculators, my target calories are set to 1500 (I'm usually about 100 below, but occasionally over), I have a desk job but try to exercise a few times a week, occasionally lift weights and work in the yard, and I've lost more than 2 pounds a week on the average for the last 5 months.

Good links to read to find your right target: http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/index2.html

nomex

a couple of things also to consider.

BMR + the activity level you suggested you use is your daily expenditure.
minus your daily intake is your daily deficit.

I think that MFP will not creat a deficit greater than 500 cal per day. So it will automatically reduce your lbs per week loss to accommadate the difference.

1 lb = 3500 cal. so your anticipated loss is actually 1.6 lbs per week. based on the 2100 deficit per week (but I think your weekly deficit is great than that because you activity level calories are not considered).

does that make sense?