BMR from MFP?

tmarie2715

I have plateaued. I try to run 3 miles 3X a week. I ran 4X M-F of this week and will run again Sunday for a total of 10 miles. My weight is in the normal range (19.2 BMI).

Am I eating too few calories? I'm set at 1200 and frankly, the idea of upping my calories to lose weight terrifies me. I just read a Banks post that was so very helpful and I finally think I understand the reason for it.

I guess my bottom line here is that I know MFP has a crazy calculator that tells you you'll be X lbs in 5 weeks, so should I trust the BMR tool?

carajo

I gained 5 lbs. and stayed there for over a month...i started (through advice of a trainer) not "counting calories" and focusing on fats, protein and fiber at every meal and snack. I still track my calories on mfp, but mostly so i know how many carbs, fats and proteins, i am eating. I was eating way too little fat, i swear i started adding peanut butter to my smoothies and yogurt, and started eating more almonds as well as more beef and chicken and i am back to 125! i also stopped running as much as i had been and strength training more. Now i do cardio everyother day, and strength when i dont do cardio. Sometimes i do strength 2 days in a row...arms and back one day and legs the next, but leg day gets your hr so high it IS a cardio workout;) Good luck hun! Your bmi is AMAZING so your body is probably where it wants to be i would DEFINATELY up those cals!!!!!

Tracy184

Your BMI is quite low. Maybe you just need to tone up rather than lose more weight? I definitely think you should increase your calories. Your body needs fuel to burn more fat.

tmarie2715

Your BMI is quite low. Maybe you just need to tone up rather than lose more weight? I definitely think you should increase your calories. Your body needs fuel to burn more fat.

I think I may try upping cals.

According to MFP my BMI is well within the healthy range...

juliapurpletoes

hi :flowerforyou:

I was like you that in the beginning of my journey here I ate at the 1200 calorie suggestion. I lost a few right away and then struggled to lose a few more......

Then I read Banks and a whole lot of the other brilliant information on here about BMI, BMR, etc. I found that (only having 20 total to lose) 1200 was really inappropriate for me. Way to low....... and my body just wanted to hang on to whatever extra pounds I had.

So, I retweaked everything. I put my cals up to 1400 (since my BMR was 1300), it made no sense to eat below that. I learned later that only fairly overweight folks can eat below their BMR and not really for that long to be healthy.

I got educated on many things related to nutrition, measuring food with a scale, backing out BMR calories before reporting the exercise as calories burned, etc. In short I just made EVERYTHING more accurate. I kept my cardio and added some weight training although nothing drastic there!

Then I began to lose at a steady rate and I haven't stopped. i have 4 pounds to go happily. I didn't starve, I enjoyed the process and feel healthier than ever.

So, my advice to you is probably longer than you wanted - but yes, eat a bit more, report it all accurately. Trust this process it will work for you.

tmarie2715

NO, that was wonderful, Julia! Thank you SO very much for taking the time to respond so well. I upped my cals and am still really, really feeling like it defies everything you hear about weight loss, but we will see!

Thank you again.

Lyadeia

I had the same issue last year. Everyone was telling me that I had to do what MFP told me, and that was to starve myself with 1200 calories on non-exercise days. I couldn't take it any longer!

I went to Tom Venuto's website and bought his e-book. My BMR is around 1350 or so, so that right there tells me that I should have AT LEAST been eating 150 more calories than what MFP says. And then after learning about TDEE and other such factors, I found out that I should have been eating more than 1350, but less than 2000 to lose weight. He recommends about 70%-80% of your TDEE calories to lose weight should be eating. So I upped it to between 1500-1600 and bingo! I started losing weight.

As stated above, eating fewer calories is OK for obese people because they have more energy stored in their bodies. But when we are thin already trying to lose the last few, it's a different situation completely.

tbrown1025

Hi! I have also found that I when I try to eat the 1200-1350 (depending on my weight loss goals) that MFP gives me on nonworkout days, that I don't actually "lose." I did finally see some scale and body changes when I upped my calories as well and started to incorporte heavier strength training into my plan. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around that, but I do like to eat, so I'll roll with it.

ladyhawk00

You've gotten great advice here already, so ditto to what others have said.

But I did want to point out a couple of things. Generally, when MFP is telling someone to eat 1200 and it's not an appropriate cal level..... it's not MFP's fault. lol MFP is a dumb tool - it does what you tell it to do. So if YOU (as in, a general you) put in the wrong info, it will give you back the wrong info. People often choose too high of a loss/week goal or they don't adjust their goal as they lose weight. For the most part, MFP's numbers are pretty accurate - if the info you give it is accurate and realistic.

As for BMR, MFP uses the Mifflin - St. Jeor equation, which is generally considered one of the most accurate (and more accurate than Harris-Benedict, which is what most online calculators use.) Some folks will be outside the curve, but it's pretty close for the vast majority.

The other factor here is activity level, which can also make you end up with the wrong numbers. Unfortunately, activity level is fairly subjective and many people (especially moms of small kids and people who work out a lot and have a high % of lean mass) choose the wrong level. It can be a tricky one to judge.

However, all of this becomes pretty hazy when you're talking about someone already at a healthy BF%. When your BF% is already fairly low and you're trying to improve composition or lose just a couple more lbs, you simply have to do more experimenting to find that sweet spot. At this point, none of the calculators will be able to be as precise as you need them - this is the one of the few situations where "every body is different" is actually true and applicable.

Finally, you have to give it time to work. When you're already pretty lean, changes are SLOW. So if you change cal levels or other settings, your body needs a lot more time for those changes to show up. Gone are the days of seeing daily or weekly results. So be patient and don't expect major results in short periods. :flowerforyou: