This is confusing to me!

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Goalsforsusie
Goalsforsusie Posts: 34 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My BMR says 1620 - so my totals for yesterday
1476 Total
1904 Total available
-428 remaining

So for weight loss should I have eaten a total of 1620 won't I lose more weight
if I eat less calories??
:noway:

Replies

  • sms1986
    sms1986 Posts: 113 Member
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    Your BMR is just what your body burns over the course of a day if you did nothing except lie in bed or sit down all day.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
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    Yes, fewer calories generally means faster weight loss. What are you confused about? If the site is telling you to eat 1904 calories a day it's because of the settings you gave it.
  • Goalsforsusie
    Goalsforsusie Posts: 34 Member
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    So based on their calculations I would lose weight eating the 1904 they are telling me I have available?
  • jlr_12
    jlr_12 Posts: 170 Member
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    They work in the deficit based on how many lbs you said you wanted to lose. If you said 1..they give you a calorie goal that will allow you to lose 1 lb a week WITHOUT exercising. If you exercise, you should eat those calories that you earned so that you're always netting that original number they gave you. It's pretty simple. Just do what the site says haha. If it says 1900, eat 1900...if you exercise and it says eat 2300, eat 2300 (or close to it..maybe a little less if you're going to MFP estimates and not by a heart rate monitor). If you feel like things aren't working, you can change your goal to 1 lb, 2 lbs, 1.5 lbs and 0.5 lb loss per week and your calorie goals will adjust accordingly.
  • sharonruth7
    sharonruth7 Posts: 12 Member
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    Don't worry you are not alone!! This site and "fitbit" are telling me something similar. Stating that I have 1600 calories to go today when I've had 414... Now I plan on eating a healthy dinner but no way am I going to eat 1200! And I don't enter in my meals at fitbit, I enter them here. I enter in my exercise on fitbit which syncs to here. LOL! I thought that might be screwing around with the totals but it isn't. I am not about starving myself!!! NO WAY! But I just can't justify some of the totals.
  • manoahula
    manoahula Posts: 6
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    Something to keep in mind is that one of the core concepts of this program is to ensure you're consuming the minimum number of calories your body needs to maintain its metabolism so your body doesn't think you're starving and puts your metabolism in starvation-mode fat storage. You need fuel to keep your body going! One of the most common mistakes people make in weight loss is they cut out *too* many calories (which messes up their metabolism and ultimately ends up sabotaging their efforts).

    If you're concerned, do the math yourself to double check the number of calories MFP is telling you that you need to eat. First, calculate out the minimum number of calories you need to maintain your current weight (http://www.livestrong.com/article/502251-how-to-calculate-recommended-caloric-intake/). It theoretically takes 3,500 calories to loose one pound, so divide 3,500 calories by the number of days you wish to loose that pound (that's where the article's getting the 500 calories per day to loose one pound in a week).

    But remember there's a diminishing return on this calculation due to the metabolism factor (the more you starve yourself, the less efficient your weight loss will be), hence why it's recommended to never shoot for more than 1-2 pounds per week or a minimum intake of 1,200 calories (whichever one you get to first).

    If what you calculate yourself isn't remotely close to what MFP is telling you what you should eat, double check your MFP settings.

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