BMR and Calories per day

jennyegan7210

According to MFP my BMR is 1350 cal/day. It has my calories set for 1200 cal/day. Which means I'm only at a calorie defecit of 150cal/day, and I'm trying to lose 20 pounds! I exercise daily (changes daily including 3 days of Circuit training with cardio and strength, Zumba class 2 days per week, and the elliptical 2 days per week.)

I always eat my exercise calories back, because it isn't healthy to eat under 1200 cal/day. I'm just not sure how I am going to lose weight with only a 150 cal/day defecit. Any thoughts on what I should do?

Andrewcpimpin

Sounds like your doing everything right. What's your body fat %? That plays a big role in how much you lose how fast. I dropped just under 20lbs in the last month. Because I'm 5'10 and was 264. More muscle you put one the higher your bmr number is.

Di3012

According to MFP my BMR is 1350 cal/day. It has my calories set for 1200 cal/day. Which means I'm only at a calorie defecit of 150cal/day, and I'm trying to lose 20 pounds! I exercise daily (changes daily including 3 days of Circuit training with cardio and strength, Zumba class 2 days per week, and the elliptical 2 days per week.)

I always eat my exercise calories back, because it isn't healthy to eat under 1200 cal/day. I'm just not sure how I am going to lose weight with only a 150 cal/day defecit. Any thoughts on what I should do?

BMR means Basal Metabolic Rate, meaning it is the calories burned that your body uses just lying or sitting still. Once you get out of bed, put the kettle on, have a shower and do other stuff, it starts to burn more. Your deficit will be more than 150, seriously.

Pebble321

MFP uses your BMR multiplied by an activity factor (based on whether you said you were sedentary, active etc) to get your maintenance calories, then subtracts your deficit from this number, not from your BMR.
So, your deficit is going to be at least 420 (more if you aren't sedentary) which could give you a bit under 1 pound a week loss.

Lots of people suggest that to stay as healthy as possible, you shouldn't eat under your BMR so you should probably be eating more than 1200 not less. Cutting calories drastically is not likely to be a good strategy for long term health.

rileysowner

Under MY HOME you will see a sub-menu for goals. If you click that the page that comes up will have two columns. The right one is Calories burned, and one of the categories is "From normal daily activity" It is that number that your deficit is calculated from, not your BMR.

jennyegan7210

Thanks everyone! I guess I was confused!

rileysowner

Thanks everyone! I guess I was confused!

It is an easy mistake to make.