BMR?

PrncessBre

Can someone please explain BMR to me and how it would help me in my everyday regimen?

PrncessBre

Can someone please explain BMR to me and how it would help me in my everyday regimen?

ChubbyBunny

Your BMR is your metabolic rate if you were to lay in bed and do nothing all day but have your organs function and breath. That's it. It's minimmum functioning.

I personally use it as my base level for calories.

PrncessBre

Okay but how do i use it?Do i use that as my daily guide of how many calories to take in or burn?

ChubbyBunny

I went in and customized my goals, using my BMR (or close to it) as my calorie base. MFP set me at 1200 and it just killed me and made me feel hungry ALL the time.

Does that make sense?

PrncessBre

I don't know all of this is so new to me.I really need to lose but just dont know the correct and most healthy way to go about it...

ChubbyBunny

I have lost better since going with 1500 (which is CLOSE to my BMR)
I know others though who are a few hundred under theirs.

kerrilucko

I'm just throwing this out there but i don't use my BMR at all. it's about 1500, but I only eat 1300. I'm never hungry and I have been losing consistently. I just use he numbers MFP gave me. Different things will work for different people as everyone's body is different. You may have to customize your plan to better suit you, as bunny did. Just please never under any circumstances go below 1200 calories a day. :flowerforyou:

cmriverside

lookie here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions?page=1

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

BMR discussions can also be found by typing "BMR" into the "search" box on the "Community" tab. MFP will pull up many past discussions.

lessertess

When you go to set up your goals in MFP it will ask you about your weight, height, gender, and age. That information will be used to calculate your BMR. Then you will choose how much weight you want to loose per week. MFP (My Fitness Pal) will then calculate the minimum number of calories you need to consume to loose weight. If you exercise and record your exercise, any additional calories that you earn from exercise will be added to your goal calories.

So, essentially, MFP does all the work for you. Just go into the goals section and fill out the information and you'll be set to go. Record everything that you eat and drink and try to get as close as possible to the calorie amount that MFP recommends.

What you want to avoid is cutting your calories too drastically. For example, if MFP recommends that you eat 1500 calories a day and then you exercise to burn an additiona 500 calories, MFP will instruct you to eat 2000 calories. If you only each 1500 calories that day then you have a calorie deficit of the original 500 calories that were programed in for you, and a deficit of the 500 calories from exercise for a total of a 1000 calorie deficit for the day, which may be enough to put you into starvation mode. Starvation mode occurs when your body does not receive enough calories to maintain basic metobolic functions. One day won't hurt you, but prolonged starvation mode will cause your body to essentially shut down fat burning, shut down vital functions, burn your muscle rather than fat and make it nearly impossible for you to loose weight in a healthy way . Additionally, when you begin eating regularly again, the loss of muscle will have decreased your metabolism so that you will gain weight from the same amount of calories that might have been needed just to maintain your weight previously.

The correct and healthy way to go about loosing weight, according to the philosophy of this site is to create a small calorie deficit everyday and to loose weight slowly. Studies show that this is the most effective way to loose weight and to keep it off. You can create a small calorie deficit in two ways:

1> Diet alone, simply eat a little bit less than required to maintain your current weight. (as I said, MFP already calculates that for you so eat enough calories to hit your MFP numbers at least within a couple 100 calories or so.)

2> Recommneded. Cut your calories by a little bit and increase your activity by a little bit. This will create a calorie deficit so that you'll loose weight without too drastic a change in your eating habits. The exercise will assist in preventing muscle loss, strengthen your heart, and improve your overall health. Again, MFP does all the work for you. If you record your exercise it will add those calories to your overall goal and you should still try to eat all (or within a couple 100 calories) of the goal set for you by MFP.


Hope this helps :