In the Math someone help me out

maryamd05

Please clue me in, I may be wrong. My BMR is 1561 (10927 weekly) if I was to eat 1200 (8400 weekly) that would be a deficit of 2527 that doesnt even amount to 1lb (if I do no excersize). I would like to kick start my weight loss and eat 1000 cals a day (7000 weekly) and be at a deficit of 3927 which would gareentee a 1lb weight loss each week. I am currently 50lb over weight and would like to lose weight the healthy way but I know if I dont kick start myself I am not going to stick with it. just trying to do the math so that at the end of the week I can be as close to 2lb as possible.

cartea01

Hi Mary. Welcome tot he community. I don't know anything about you but let me make some observations and suggestions. First of all, I imagine you didn't gain you extra 50 pounds in 6 months? As such, don't set yourself up to fail by expecting to lose it in this amount of time (2lb/week = approx 6 months). You're more likely to be successful at this if you view it as a lifestyle change rather than a "diet." As such, small changes over a longer amount of time will be more likely to succeed. As a part of this I strongly consider you to bring exercise into your plan because improving your fitness and cardiovascular health is equally as important as losing weight. If you increase you water intake to at least 8 cups a day and watch your sodium intake, you'll likely see a bigger loss in the first week or two as you get rid of the excess water weight. Lastly, I'd encourage you to set some smaller goals so that you can stick with it. I have ~20lbs to lose and when I think about it as a single number, it seems overwhelming. Instead I've set myself little goals like, if I go to the gym I can have a frozen yoghurt for dessert or when I lose 5lbs I will get a manicure. It's the little changes that add up in the end.

Best of luck!

lodro

The way MFP calculates net calories is by building in a deficit like so:

BMR + calories used for daily living = daily caloric expenditure.

It is from this number that MFP calculates the deficit, so

say your BMR is 1500 and you use 400 cals daily to move around etc, your calculated daily calories spent will be 1900

1900 * 7 = 13300
-3500 (1lb weight loss) = 9800
9800/7 = 1400 net calories/day if you want to set up for a deficit that theoretically will give you a 1lb weight loss a week

note that this is below your BMR: however, MFP has a minimum of 1200 calories/day as its set number, because below that it's assumed you'll have trouble getting sufficient nutrients for your body.