Am I right?

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SeaMonkey83
SeaMonkey83 Posts: 44
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm a 5'7" male that is 215 lbs. The past two months I was eating 1200-1500 calories and burning 500 a day through exercise. Lately I read an article about deficit and BMR. I want to avoid starvation mode, burn fat, lose inches, lose weight and gain lean muscle. Did I understand it correctly?

My BMR is 3000.
I burn 0-1000 calories of exercise a day.
I want a deficit of 1000 calories per day (2 lbs per week).
___________________________________________

So I should eat = 3000 + Exercise - Deficit

(2000-3000)?
MFP says 1750 without any exercise should be what I eat.

Replies

  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    I'm a 5'7" male that is 215 lbs. The past two months I was eating 1200-1500 calories and burning 500 a day through exercise. Lately I read an article about deficit and BMR. I want to avoid starvation mode, burn fat, lose inches, lose weight and gain lean muscle. Did I understand it correctly?

    My BMR is 3000.
    I burn 0-1000 calories of exercise a day.
    I want a deficit of 1000 calories per day (2 lbs per week).
    ___________________________________________

    So I should eat = 3000 + Exercise - Deficit

    (2000-3000)?
    MFP says 1750 without any exercise should be what I eat.

    I would follow MFP and eat back the calories you burn through exercise but change your goal to 1 or 1.5lbs/week.

    FYI:P there is a 99.9% chance you will lose some muscle as you lose weight. The best way to avoid doing this is to eat a good amount of protein (25-30% of total calories is sufficient) and to do strength training, while maintaining a small caloric deficit. If you are really against losing muscle I would suggest changing your goal to 1 lb/week maybe 1.5 as a maximum.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
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    MFP is a tool that takes care of the math for you- it's not perfect, it's all based on esitmates, but I would say if you are just starting out, be honest with your info (height, weight, activity level) and modest with your goals (1-1.5 lb/wk max) and eat the amout of calories MFP suggests as healthily as you can.

    1750 sounds about right for a guy. The general rule of thumb is that you (as a guy) should try not to dip below 1500+exercise calories if you are looking to avoid starvation mode - but again, everything is estimates- the basic concept of starvation mode is that less calories does not always equal more weightloss and fueling your body is more important than losing weight.

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