BMR =/= Maintenance

SaraTonin

I have seen SO many misinformed posts saying that your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is your maintenance calories. This is FALSE.

PLEASE stop spreading this misinformation!

Your maintenance calories are the number of calories you expend in a regular day doing your daily activities. This is your TOTAL CALORIE EXPENDITURE for the day. Usually it is about 2000 calories. If you are sedentary, maintenance is calculated as your BMR x 1.2. If you are active, maintenance is your BMR x 1.725.

Your BMR is the BASAL metabolic rate. It is the base amount of calories you spend in a day JUST functioning (breathing, heart beating, etc). These are the calories you expend in a coma. Eating below your BMR is difficult on your body, and can lead to weight loss plateaus as your body does not have enough calories to function.

MyFitnessPal and doctors recommend a goal of 1 pound loss per week for an average person. Otherwise, you risk going under your BMR, which can send your body survival signals and tell it to hold onto fat. This leads to plateaus and unhealthy weight loss. ***

So, for your calorie deficit, you should be eating BETWEEN your Maintenance Calories and your BMR, so between say 2000 and 1200. If your maintenance is 2000 and you want a 500 calorie per day deficit for 1lb loss per week, you would eat 1500 calories per day.

MyFitnessPal often suggests lower numbers because it allows you to eat back your exercise calories.

Make sense?



*** SOME PEOPLE can eat under their BMR healthily because the equation gets thrown off when you are morbidly obese. This is why MFP sets a minimum of 1200 calories for a good guideline.


FINAL ANSWER ::::: Please consult your doctor before you start your diet and exercise plan.

bmontgomery87

Thanks for posting. It's sad that people don't know this.

But people get feed crappy info on the regular.

Rworthy

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! I've been saying this for months!!!!

NoAdditives

Thank you for posting!

Shweedog

I am 5'7.25" and 134 pounds. My BMR, per MFP, is 1365. To lose 1 pound per week I have to eat 1200 cals/day (plus exercise cals of course). That's below my BMR.

Rworthy

If you're 5'7 and 134 pounds - YOU DON'T NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. In fact, you're probably underweight. What is your fat %? If it is in the normal/healthy category, there is no reason to dip below your BMR.

SaraTonin

^ Agreed.

MFP is a dumb tool. It will try to help you get to your goal even if you have already reached an ideal weight.

Another reason to consult with you doctor.

Shweedog

If you're 5'7 and 134 pounds - YOU DON'T NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. In fact, you're probably underweight. What is your fat %? If it is in the normal/healthy category, there is no reason to dip below your BMR.

I am maintaing right now. I just plugged in those numbers to see if MFP said I would lose 1 lb per week at 1200 cal/day. It says 1lb/wk for 1200 cals. Normal weight for someone my height is 119-160.8. My BMI is 20.8. I am in the middle of the "healthy" range. Not sure of my BF%.

baisleac

Heh... I just made a blog post on this today so I'd have an easy to find place for my "standard" reply to folks using the term BMR incorrectly.

Well said. :drinker:

SaraTonin

^^^ Yup, MFP will suggest to go under your BMR if you ask it to do it. This is so obese people don't get told to eat 2400 calories when they can stand to go under their BMR.

Obviously if you don't have weight to lose then set MFP to maintenance!

DaniJeanine

Thank you!!! I was starting to think that the whole world was going crazy! lol. I get so frustrated when I hear people say "I eat 1000 calories a day and I'm still not losing weight! What's the problem?!" The problem is that your body is starving and clinging on to every last calorie you put into it!!! Ugh. Anyway, so good to see this :-)

sweebum

This is good advice and explained clearly so people can understand.

I calculated my BMR yesterday to be 1613, and 2163 is what I burn just being sedentary. Kinda explains why eating 1200-1300 cals a day wasn't working (I gained!)

So my goal is now to et my BMR at 1600 cals a day plus exercise (I eat back 1/2 my exercise calories too)

Thank you for taking the time to explain, I've noticed much misinformation about BMR the last few days.

SaraTonin

^ Good luck! It is tough to explain, especially to really tall people, that their BMR is higher. If only all of this was one-size-fits-all!

Mike523

I have seen SO many misinformed posts saying that your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is your maintenance calories. This is FALSE.

PLEASE stop spreading this misinformation!

Your maintenance calories are the number of calories you expend in a regular day doing your daily activities. This is your TOTAL CALORIE EXPENDITURE for the day. Usually it is about 2000 calories. If you are sedentary, maintenance is calculated as your BMR x 1.2. If you are active, maintenance is your BMR x 1.725.

Your BMR is the BASAL metabolic rate. It is the base amount of calories you spend in a day JUST functioning (breathing, heart beating, etc). These are the calories you expend in a coma. Eating below your BMR is difficult on your body, and can lead to weight loss plateaus as your body does not have enough calories to function.

MyFitnessPal and doctors recommend a goal of 1 pound loss per week for an average person. Otherwise, you risk going under your BMR, which can send your body survival signals and tell it to hold onto fat. This leads to plateaus and unhealthy weight loss. ***

So, for your calorie deficit, you should be eating BETWEEN your Maintenance Calories and your BMR, so between say 2000 and 1200. If your maintenance is 2000 and you want a 500 calorie per day deficit for 1lb loss per week, you would eat 1500 calories per day.

MyFitnessPal often suggests lower numbers because it allows you to eat back your exercise calories.

Make sense?



*** SOME PEOPLE can eat under their BMR healthily because the equation gets thrown off when you are morbidly obese. This is why MFP sets a minimum of 1200 calories for a good guideline.


FINAL ANSWER ::::: Please consult your doctor before you start your diet and exercise plan.

It's times like these I really wish these boards had a "Like" function.

VERY well said.

jackiebo

I liked how you likened the BMR to the # of calories someone needs if they're in a coma, that hammers in the info. It's tempting sometimes to "starve" yourself, but it'll eventually come back to bite ya. Thanks for the info, plain and easy to understand!

caitlinclock

AWESOME POST.

corpus_validum

Great post Sara!

It's pretty commonplace to get it mixed up here on MFP. I've myself made the mistake of confusing the two on a reply post recently.

Maintenance > BMR
Maintenance > MFP caloric goal (for weight loss)
But MFP caloric goal should not be < BMR

baisleac

Great post Sara!

It's pretty commonplace to get it mixed up here on MFP. I've myself made the mistake of confusing the two on a reply post recently.

Maintenance > BMR
Maintenance > MFP caloric goal (for weight loss)
But MFP caloric goal should not be < BMR

Now that would be a nice feature... If MFP could/would set an individual's BMR as their "floor". They have the information necessary to calculate a rough estimate of the number, if the software is able to integrate it.

trez8181

So my BMR is 1860, my MFP goal calories is 1370 to lose 2 lbs / week...does this mean I should be consuming more calories than 1370?

baisleac

So my BMR is 1860, my MFP goal calories is 1370 to lose 2 lbs / week...does this mean I should be consuming more calories than 1370?

Yes.

And as a man, 1370 is REALLY too low. Where women have a "base" (and I use that term lightly) of 1200; men have a "base" of 1500.

redhead91

I am 5'7.25" and 134 pounds. My BMR, per MFP, is 1365. To lose 1 pound per week I have to eat 1200 cals/day (plus exercise cals of course). That's below my BMR.

I am in a similar situation in which MFP is telling me to eat far below my BMR. My BMR is 1500 and MPF tells me to eat 1200 for 1 lb a week weight loss. Also, I am overweight but not morbidly obese. Please explain this to me!

cmriverside

hedleyrocks247

Thank you, THANK you, THANK YOU!!!!!! Amazing post that needs to be seen by everyone :happy:

baisleac

I am in a similar situation in which MFP is telling me to eat far below my BMR. My BMR is 1500 and MPF tells me to eat 1200 for 1 lb a week weight loss. Also, I am overweight but not morbidly obese. Please explain this to me!

MFP will help you lose whatever you tell it you want to lose. If you tell it you want to lose 2 lbs a week, it will do its best to help you. If you tell it you want to lose 1/2 pound a week, it will do its best to help you. It uses a general baseline, not your specific healthy baseline.

edit to add: If your BMR is 1500 and you have a sedentary lifestyle, your maintenance calories (TDEE) is 1800. A 1 pound per week loss would be 1300 not 1200. However, if you told MFP 1.5 or 2 pounds/week, it would only let you go down to 1200.

cmriverside

This healthy weight loss thing is up to us. That's why this site is for adults. All over the site is the info you need to make good decisions. At the signup, on the food diary, in the forums AT THE bottom of every page. You've heard the term "Garbage In, Garbage Out". If you input bad data, you will get bad results. A "dumb" program cannot make judgement calls on your BMR. It is up to you. That is the flaw of computers, and why they will never take over the world (sorry, Hal) -the program will let you go below your BMR, and that is not what you want to do. This can happen when you set too high a weight loss goal and/or too low an activity level.

It takes a while for this to sink in. We'll keep reminding until it does.

---

SaraTonin

This healthy weight loss thing is up to us. That's why this site is for adults. All over the site is the info you need to make good decisions. At the signup, on the food diary, in the forums AT THE bottom of every page. You've heard the term "Garbage In, Garbage Out". If you input bad data, you will get bad results. A "dumb" program cannot make judgement calls on your BMR. It is up to you. That is the flaw of computers, and why they will never take over the world (sorry, Hal) -the program will let you go below your BMR, and that is not what you want to do. This can happen when you set too high a weight loss goal and/or too low an activity level.

It takes a while for this to sink in. We'll keep reminding until it does.

^ All too true! And, once again, a good reason to talk to your doctor. You'll notice on shows like Biggest Loser they're eating 1200 calories a day, and shedding off 15 pounds a week, but that's with a personal trainer and a nutritionist on your side, not to mention having a LOT to lose!!

It's hard to see people come on here trying to lose 2 pounds a week when they only need to lose 10 pounds total. Slow and steady will make for a more sustainable weight loss goal.

And a reminder: MFP usually estimates low because it assumes you are eating exercise calories.

cmriverside

:flowerforyou:

stalksthedawn

This is exactly what I spent most of today trying to figure out. I read all the newbie links, then all the links in those links, then the links inside those and some more than once.

My BMI is 36.8 (I have a lot to lose), I'm only 5"3 and I'm sedentary.

I read in one of the links that if the BMI is higher than 33 I can set the calorie count to losing 2 lbs a week which puts me at 1200 calories. Even when I had it set to 1.5 pounds a week it set me to 1250.

My BMR is 1598 but even with a 1.5 pound count, on days I don't exercise (shooting for 5 days right now, my calorie intake is "supposed" to be 1200 but, just to make sure I totally and fully understand this, I should ignore that number and use a minimum of 1598 because that's my BMR?

Sorry that these questions are so, well, like the other questions I've read over today, I just want to do this weight loss in a safe, healthy way.

Ge0rgiana

bmi-calculator.net says that my bmr is 1,439. Then it says to find the number of calories I should be eating, I should multiply that number by 1.375 because I do exercise about 3 days a week, about to up that to 5. That gives me over 1,900 cals a day. Subtract 500 and I'm at over 1,400 cals a day. MFP has me at 1,200 to lose less than a lb a week. It's, like. 0.9 I think.

FML

stalksthedawn

So, still figuring this out, would the best thing to do would be to go into the "custom" settings and set my net calories (before exercise) to 1598? Or leave it as is?

cmriverside

Go with the site recommendations. (THIS site.)

It won't let you go under 1200 if you are female.

The more you weigh over your goal healthy weight, the larger of a deficit your body can tolerate.

Those of you within 20-30 lbs of your goal cannot set your weight loss to "2 pounds a week". You just don't have enough padding to be able to tolerate a 500 calorie a day deficit.

Don't over think this!! Input your numbers, be honest, use the tools here, and all will end well.