BMR, TDEE etc - what should my calories be?

Tari_D

I've been reading every topic on here I can find on the subject of BMR, TDEE, starvation mode and so on. For the most part it makes sense and it's great that it's a pinned topic for newbies like me.

Where I am confused though is when it comes to my own figures from MFP.

I am 22, 5ft4, 202lbs and I've put my activity level as the lowest as I generally do very little during the day. I've been doing more excersize now but I prefer to add that on incase I don't do it one day or week.

According to MFP my BMR is 1665 and according to Fitness Frog me TDEE 2071. Currently my calorie target on MFP is 1310 to lose 1.5lbs a week. If I want to lose 1lb a week (which I might go back to just to get used to eating healthily and not think of it as a diet) its 1560. Both of these targets are below my BMR and a lot of the advice on the forums is that you should never eat below your BMR so I'm a bit confused and just trying to get everything I've learnt straight in my head.

Is it a good idea for me to eat less than my BMR because I am very overweight and so I want my body to be using up the fat reserves when it runs out of calories from food? And then later when I (hopefully) reach a better weight then I need to avoid going below my new BMR at that time to avoid starvation mode and burning of muscle because by then i'd have less fat?

Any clarification and advice based on my situation would be much appreciated

neanderthin

People generally pick the lowest activity level and then figure they don't actually burn many calories after that. It is highly suspect that you with your stats only burn an additional 400 calories living your life. Your TDEE is probably higher. This is a very common train of thought and why 1200 seems to be what the vast majority of people seem to land as their intake........if 1200 wasn't seen as the absolute bottom in the dieting community, people would go less or do go less and don't say they do. Bottom line pick a number because the acurracy isn't very good anyway, and see how it goes......personally I would give 1500 to 1600 calories a try for a few months and see where you are then. it's not a race.

Tari_D

Thanks for the advice Neanderthin, I suppose I should stop being so impatient and really I want to make this a long term health adjustment rather than a speedy diet. I just don't want to just be upping my calories because secretly i think it would just be easier and then end up not losing the weight I could be.