BMR-BMI-my goal...I don't get any of it!!!

sam939

I've checked other posts about BMR, calorie goals, and all that, but I really don't understand this whole process. That is to say, I don't know what the most important thing is to do. I'm counting the calories, I've created my goals, I'm exercising, and I'm seeing results, which is great. But it doesn't seem like I'm losing weight as quickly and easily as I was before, like 3 weeks ago. I have a limited amount of time for exercise (unless I get something in at work), and it would be great to increase it - if I could. I have my vices for sure (wine, late night snacking), but I have changed my diet and food intake, increased water, and exercising 5 days a week. I don't know why I'm not losing like I did before - what am I doing wrong? I've read posts where people say, eat more calories, eat less calories...but which is right?

chuckles217

Quick run down:

BMI = Body Mass Index; Its a formula that takes your height and weight and turns it to one number. Its pretty much the universal method for telling you if you're normal, overweight, obese, etc. It does have erroneous results if you're extremely muscular though because the excess muscle weight will erroneously show an overweight/obese result.

BMR = Basal metabolic rate. Its the amount of calories you burn if you were to lay in bed all day just to keep everything going in your body. Generally most people working out are between moderately and intensively active so you must account for that extra effort by taking your BMI and multiplying it by 1.2-1.5 since you're 20-50% more active than someone who lays in bed all day.
IE my BMR is 2200. I'd burn that laying in bed all day. Multiply by 1.2 for moderate activity and my daily calories are about 2800.

Now take your BMR and figure out how much weight you want to lose. Say a pound a week. A pound is 3500 calories. Divide that by 7 days for a week (3500/7 = 500) to get a needed deficit of 500 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week. My BMR being 2800 means I take 2800 - 500 = 2300. I should eat 2300 calories a day to lose 1 pound a week.

Now lets throw exercise into the mix. I am eating 2300 calories a day, but I exercise 6 days a week burning 400 calories a day. That lowers my NET calories every day (but my off day) to 1900. I have to option to eat back those calories to a NET 2300 (total 2700) or too let them add to my weight loss. I choose to let them go towards weight loss so thats a 900/day calorie deficit which multiplied by 7 days (for simplicity even though I take a day off) = 5400 calorie deficit per week. That is roughly 1.5 lb loss per week.

A lot of people get discouraged by water weight though which and cause them to appear to lose a lot more or less depending on salt and carb intake prior to weigh in. I weigh in daily but only record my official weight on Sundays. Knowing my fluctuations helps me keep an idea of how much water I am retaining. It only takes 1 liter of water to add 2 lbs of weight to you, so that tells you why water can affect weigh ins so much.

meshashesha2012

it's very possible you arent doing anything wrong.

are you also keeping track of your measurements? if you're losing fat (which i'm going to assume you want to do) then measurements are going to tell you more.

also to lose a pound of fat you need to create a calorie deficit of at around 3500. if you arent averaging a 500 calorie deficit every day of the week (through a combo of diet and exercise) then you wont be losing a pound of fat

MMarvelous

Bump

sam939

Ok, all that makes sense to me (or at least I understand it better now). I never considered sodium and carbs being such an issue, because my focus has mostly been the calories, protein and fat. So now I'm going to keep an eye on those two things...my last reported weigh in was abysmal. And now it makes more sense because two days before were high sodium days for me, low water.

In terms of tracking my measurements, I haven't really been doing that (cannot find my measuring tape! Not in the sewing kit!), BUT my muffin top is steadily diminishing. I know i'm doing something right. Today I'm wearing jeans that I bought online and was so sad that they were freakishly tight...a month ago. Now I'm looking GOOD!!! Or at least better.

Thanks for the advice and information, it was so helpful!

chuckles217

For the first few months I was losing weight, the scale hardly moved but the inches disappeared quickly. It really helps with motivation if you measure (all I measured was waist and hips).

Part of this phenomenon in my opinion is if you're like me, I was completely sedentary with NO exercise for the past couple of years. My muscles were obviously atrophied (shrunken and degenerated) because of that. The rapid trauma that occurs from exercising of atrophied muscles causes them to retain water (lots of it) for quite a while as they recover and grow (hypertrophy). Eventually you will drop that water weight, but the addition of muscle + water weight can slow the scale (in my theory). Eventually muscles will heal and drop the water weight, but if you strength train this phenomenon can still occur albeit with a lesser effect.


After about two months, I got real serious with my exercise and diet (new years this year) and about 2 weeks in my weight loss picked up a lot and now I am seeing consistent drop each week as long as I don't under eat and I stay hydrated. I eat out about once or twice a week at restaurants (I am 2 months free of fast food) which means a meal with around 3 grams or more of salt and those days I drink water till I am almost sick to flush the salt out.

sam939

When I got started with this life change, I started out very slowly. I wasn't doing any extra working out, so I started doing a few exercises here and there and THEN I started modifying my diet, which wasn't super horrible, but I do have a love for some really bad fast foods. I didn't really eat regularly (sometimes one meal a day, plus bad snacking) which is horrible for my metabolism. So I changed that, and I started seeing results after about 2 weeks. I think just the drop in fast food meals alone made a big difference (but I really really miss Bojangles). I made myself start really preparing meals at home (not the bag meals), and that helped a lot with portion control I think. Getting on MFP has made a HUGE difference and taught me a lot about my eating habits.

I have incorporated small weights in my workout, which is short. I see people posting that they have done a total of 90 minutes of exercise, and it blows my mind. I wish I had that kind of time. I'm doing 20 minutes/day, 5 days a week. And even that is broken up into AM and PM. I think the weights help. Even though I still have the floppy arms, and I don't know if they will ever go away. My scale seems to have started to move again, so I think I must have retained water. I love water, but never really think about drinking it, even at home. I must increase my intake for sure.