eating back calories for smaller people

lkitty633

MFP has 500 calories BELOW your BMR built in so if you have no calories remaining at the end of the day you will lose 1 pound a week.

The problem is, MFP cannot take 500 calories off of my BMR because MFP's minimum cals are 1200 and my actual BMR is 1300.

So, should I make sure I have 400 calories left over at the end of everyday so I have a 500 cal defiect?

kaydensmom12

My BMR is 1300 also, I set a 1300 net and eat back my exercise calories. If I am hungry I eat more. I have lost 40lbs and a ton of inches.

ladyraven68

MFP has 500 calories BELOW your BMR built in so if you have no calories remaining at the end of the day you will lose 1 pound a week.

The problem is, MFP cannot take 500 calories off of my BMR because MFP's minimum cals are 1200 and my actual BMR is 1300.

So, should I make sure I have 400 calories left over at the end of everyday so I have a 500 cal defiect?

You are confusing BMR for TDEE, if BMR is 1300, you can eat at over 1300 and still lose weight as long as it is under your TDEE.

BMR is what your body would need if you were in a coma, as soon as you start moving, you need to increase it by a multiplier, depending on whether you were sedentary, active etc.

lin7604

my bmr is 1252 and i set my mfp goals to 1252. this way i and set to eat my bmr no less and i will have 250 deficit. i will only loose .5 a week max this way but it's the healthy way to go... I didn't know about my bmr when i started and mfp set me at 1200, i was loosing .5 a week steady. since then i loose less but oh well.... my maintenance is 1502 right now... so that is where i get the 250 deficit form..

persian_star

You are confusing BMR for TDEE, if BMR is 1300, you can eat at over 1300 and still lose weight as long as it is under your TDEE.

BMR is what your body would need if you were in a coma, as soon as you start moving, you need to increase it by a multiplier, depending on whether you were sedentary, active etc.

^^ This. You shouldn't eat below your BMR as your body will think you are slowly starving yourself and will gradually lower your metabolism and burn muscle mass for fuel. Eating below your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure, aka maintenance) will give you the deficit you need to lose weight.

Example: My BMR is 1350ish. I'm sedentary (office job) so my TDEE is 1600ish. I'm only 5 ft 3 and 125lbs. SO I set my cals to 1400. I then eat back all my exercise cals. This way, my body is getting slightly less than it would like to fuel me and my daily activity, but more than I would need if I didn't HAVE any activity, so it's not panicking. I'm losing weight just fine, but I'm not starving and I'm hanging onto my muscles mass. Hope that makes sense! :flowerforyou:

I agree though that it's not a big window when you're small and don't have much to lose. I still worry that I under/overestimate food and exercise. But apparently, the closer you are to your goal the less you should try to lose per week, so I figure so long as I'm somewhere in that range (1350 - 1600 net) i'm going in the right direction.