Some guidance for a beginner

alung2k3

Mike your a legend. Okay so the goal set for me by MFP was 1750 cals per day. Do you suggest I up it slightly?

MikeSEA

I'll put it this way. A direct comparison between two people isn't always useful because everyone burns calories differently. With that said..

I'm shorter than you by about 5-6inches, weigh almost 40lbs less, and am 8 years older (metabolism is slower for me). Granted I'm in the gym 6 days/week, but I'm on my butt for the rest of my time during the day.

I eat 2200 cal/day and lose about 2lbs/ week.

I'd suggest carefully monitoring your calories in, try for 2200 cal/day, and see where you are in two weeks. You'll have an ok picture of how that works for you and you can adjust from there.

kyle4jem

After using the BMR calculator under tools the result was:
" Your estimated BMR is: 2,207 calories/day*"

It might be your BMR, but assuming you're not comatose, you're burning a fair chunk more than that. You need to figure your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and then adjust that for caloric deficit to suit your goals.

MFP uses the Mifflin-St Joer equation for calculating BMR

Men's RMR = 5 + (10 x weight in kg) + (6.5 x height in cm) - (5 x age in years)

so, based on your stats that gives you a BMR of 2257 Calories

Then you have to multiply that by one of the following factors:

Sedentary (e.g., you do no exercising and have a desk job) = 1.2
Lightly active (e.g., you participate in light exercise or sports 1 to 3 times per week) = 1.375
Moderately active (e.g., you participate in moderate exercise or sports 3 to 5 times per week) = 1.55
Very active (e.g., you train hard 6 to 7 per week in exercise and/or sports) = 1.725
Extremely Active (e.g., you exercise or play sports hard everyday & have physical job or  2X day training, i.e. marathon, contest etc.)

As you said you were sedentary then it's 2257 x 1.2 = 2709

You then need to add 5-10% for digestion so that would give you a TDEE of 2929 - 2980 Calories

Now to lose 2lbs (1kg) a week you would really need to be in calorie deficit of ca. 1000 Calories a day or collectively 7000 Calories a week, assuming little or no exercise. If you are using your static exercise bike daily, then you can chose not to eat back all your calories for the fist few months, or eat back half of them. But it really depends on what kind of exercise you are doing and how strenuous and intense the effort, how much you want to lose and by when.

It's good that you are doing this now while you are still young and your body can bounce back. For an old git like me, I have to be careful not to lose too much too soon, or I could be at a greater risk of being left with too much loose skin.

You've lost 11lbs so are on the right track... as long as you log accurately and accept that it's not an exact science and your body will have to get used to eating less than it was used to then as long as you keep positive and believe you can do it, you will succeed.

Good luck!