MFP warning about eating under BMR

Sarauk2sf

So according to MFP my BMR is 1,627 calories and I eat that or more daily, but I net 1200-1300 calories. Is that ok?

You need to at least net your BMR.

ladyraven68

Don't worry about your age and height - I'm 44 and 4ft 11.5.

I also started on 1200, but it made me feel ill too, so increased to 1600 as my real TDEE (including exercise) is over 2000 and am losing 1-2lb per week.

Do you realize, you're like a mythical creature I've been searching for? Everyone usually comes back with oh but I'm 5'4 so I'm short and 1200 is more then plenty. It seems so hard to get someone to consider upping...Watch out people, now I have an example

I'm so proud of this moment...I knew you existed out there somewhere (short-e who eats on this site). It's even more awesome that that comment had so many 4's in it :P

ssshh, don't tell anyone, but I even have 3k spike days.

Why would I want to eat at 1200, when I can eat at 1600 and still lose weight?

JennieAL

So according to MFP my BMR is 1,627 calories and I eat that or more daily, but I net 1200-1300 calories. Is that ok?

You need to eat somewhere between TDEE & no lower than 20% deficit. Somewhere in that range is best. It is NOT ok to net less than RMR.

CoderGal

So according to MFP my BMR is 1,627 calories and I eat that or more daily, but I net 1200-1300 calories. Is that ok?

You need to eat somewhere between TDEE & no lower than 20% deficit. Somewhere in that range is best. It is NOT ok to net less than RMR.

^This

ssshh, don't tell anyone, but I even have 3k spike days.

Why would I want to eat at 1200, when I can eat at 1600 and still lose weight?

My thoughts exactly! And ssshh I won't tell if you don't tell sometimes I have 4k spike days ... especially if it involves a 5 course meal at a fancy restaurant.

court617

So, should I pretty much ignore all settings on MFP? According to http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ at moderately active my BMR is 2195... that seems like a lot of calories! I'm assuming it says that because I run 10-15 miles a week so I burn quite a bit of calories. Is that the amount I'm supposed to net? Or supposed to net the days that I run? And I'll still lose weight??

I have the calories set on MFP to 1900 a day and it says that I'll only lose .2 lbs a week.... that's NOTHING! Should I disregard that?

I did WW and lost 40 lbs last year but want to do something free this time... but this seems much more complicated since I can't actually figure out the correct amount of calories I'm supposed to be eating.

So what I'm seeing is my TDEE is 2388 and my BMR is 2195 both with moderate activity.
I'm not sure what that means for me to lose weight at all haha... I see so many people answering the same questions and for some reason it's not clicking for me.

Helloitsdan

Mine will give me a warning today.
Eat Stop Eat day so maybe 600 cals.
The problem is most new peeps think its okay to get that daily and it will lead to disaster!
Or worse!!!!

Skinny Fatness!!!!!

veggieshark

/shrug. I'm 5'9" and I max at 1200 and I exercise. I don't eat back my exercise, either. I'm always full and energized and I lose about a pound every 5 days. I say everyone's different. I'm fine how I am.

Sarauk2sf

So, should I pretty much ignore all settings on MFP? According to http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ at moderately active my BMR is 2195... that seems like a lot of calories! I'm assuming it says that because I run 10-15 miles a week so I burn quite a bit of calories. Is that the amount I'm supposed to net? Or supposed to net the days that I run? And I'll still lose weight??

I have the calories set on MFP to 1900 a day and it says that I'll only lose .2 lbs a week.... that's NOTHING! Should I disregard that?

I did WW and lost 40 lbs last year but want to do something free this time... but this seems much more complicated since I can't actually figure out the correct amount of calories I'm supposed to be eating.

So what I'm seeing is my TDEE is 2388 and my BMR is 2195 both with moderate activity.
I'm not sure what that means for me to lose weight at all haha... I see so many people answering the same questions and for some reason it's not clicking for me.

Where are you getting the TDEE of 2388 from?

Disregard what the MFP projected weight loss says -one of the big differences is that it does not include exercise in its base settings (you have to 'earn them and eat them back' under th MFP model).

Sarauk2sf

/shrug. I'm 5'9" and I max at 1200 and I exercise. I don't eat back my exercise, either. I'm always full and energized and I lose about a pound every 5 days. I say everyone's different. I'm fine how I am.

You will have (and actually probably have) a very slowed metabolic rate and your body has become used to having less food - therefore does not send the hunger pang signals to your brain.

CoderGal

/shrug. I'm 5'9" and I max at 1200 and I exercise. I don't eat back my exercise, either. I'm always full and energized and I lose about a pound every 5 days. I say everyone's different. I'm fine how I am.

You will have (and actually probably have) a very slowed metabolic rate and your body has become used to having less food - therefore does not send the hunger pang signals to your brain.

^This...

Toothpicklimbs, just curious since according to your profile you're a recovering anorexic, what does your medical professional have to say about that?

Nastasha915

I agree.

Although I don't understand why people just don't use the tools here HONESTLY and accurately. If you actually input the correct info, it's unlikely to give you "bad" numbers. The low 1200 numbers are given to people who choose "Sedentary" and "Lose two pounds a week." Almost no one is Sedentary. And unless they have 50 or more pounds to lose, they shouldn't be set at two pounds. The site will prompt you to choose more reasonably, but people override the tool.

One of the big problems these days on the Boards is the ten thousand different ways to calculate what you should be eating.

I lost over 50 pounds by using this site only. I've kept it off. I didn't go to ten different sites to try to figure things out. I did it the way this site is set up. I used all the numbers given to me. I think people make it harder by trying to speed up the process, and reading too many forum threads.

Keep it simple.

I set it to sedentary, and loose .5 pounds a week and it gave me 1200 (my bmr is more then that) and I didn't override anything. As a person who never had to loose weight until last year, I had no idea what was an unreasonable amount to loose in a week...and if you ask around you get even more unreasonable answers.

Same here. I set mine to .5 pounds sedentary and got 1200 cals. I have a desk jobs so I really do sit at a computer screen for 9 hours a day. I didn't include exercise in my initial calculation because I think that's the point of eating them back, but I just upped my cals to my BMR and have been steadily and consistently losing weight since then. I do agree, though, that a lot of people on MFP overanalyze their weight loss numbers.

CoderGal

Same here. I set mine to .5 pounds sedentary and got 1200 cals. I have a desk jobs so I really do sit at a computer screen for 9 hours a day. I didn't include exercise in my initial calculation because I think that's the point of eating them back, but I just upped my cals to my BMR and have been steadily and consistently losing weight since then. I do agree, though, that a lot of people on MFP overanalyze their weight loss numbers.

Good for you for upping your cals. I'm VERY sedentary, I upped my calories past 1200, past BMR, and regularly eat past TDEE calculations, and I'm still loosing at what's going to be a concerning rate since I'm soon going to be in the underweight category according to my BMI. I suggest you try upping again soon!

jenj1313

There ARE warnings on the site, they're just not as obvious as the 1200 calorie thing... and people tend to do what's most obvious. Luckily this comes up in forum topics at least 1x per week it seems, so hopefully some people are reading those.

court617

So, should I pretty much ignore all settings on MFP? According to http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ at moderately active my BMR is 2195... that seems like a lot of calories! I'm assuming it says that because I run 10-15 miles a week so I burn quite a bit of calories. Is that the amount I'm supposed to net? Or supposed to net the days that I run? And I'll still lose weight??

I have the calories set on MFP to 1900 a day and it says that I'll only lose .2 lbs a week.... that's NOTHING! Should I disregard that?

I did WW and lost 40 lbs last year but want to do something free this time... but this seems much more complicated since I can't actually figure out the correct amount of calories I'm supposed to be eating.

So what I'm seeing is my TDEE is 2388 and my BMR is 2195 both with moderate activity.
I'm not sure what that means for me to lose weight at all haha... I see so many people answering the same questions and for some reason it's not clicking for me.

Where are you getting the TDEE of 2388 from?

Disregard what the MFP projected weight loss says -one of the big differences is that it does not include exercise in its base settings (you have to 'earn them and eat them back' under th MFP model).

I got my TDEE from http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

Why exactly does that number matter? Isn't BMR more important? And isn't that what I should base my calories on that I eat?

AshCakes88

I'm glad I saw this post. I'm 5'10 240 and exercise daily. My calorie limit was set at 1380 and I always go over. Of course I chose the wrong activity level. I thought that since I sit most of the day at work that I should have chosen the lowest activity level. I just now went and changed my activity level to active and now I believe the site upped my calories to 1800 calories. Hopefully this will help! I haven't been losing anything with the calories set at 1380

JennieAL

I got my TDEE from http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

Why exactly does that number matter? Isn't BMR more important? And isn't that what I should base my calories on that I eat?

TDEE is your total daily energy expenditure. It's what you burn, overall, on a daily basis. It's important because if you eat below this, you're eating in a calorie deficit... meaning, you should be losing weight. Eating above TDEE, you should be gaining... and of course, eating around TDEE... maintaining.

Your BMR or RMR (basal or resting metabolic rate.... they are a little different, and resting is more practical for MFP purposes) is your baseline burn... your RMR is what you burn while at rest. It's basically what your body requires to keep its vital functions going. THIS is why no one should be eating below RMR for a significant length of time.

If you eat somewhere between your RMR and your TDEE... you should eventually begin to lose weight... in a sensible & healthy manner.

Sarauk2sf

So, should I pretty much ignore all settings on MFP? According to http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ at moderately active my BMR is 2195... that seems like a lot of calories! I'm assuming it says that because I run 10-15 miles a week so I burn quite a bit of calories. Is that the amount I'm supposed to net? Or supposed to net the days that I run? And I'll still lose weight??

I have the calories set on MFP to 1900 a day and it says that I'll only lose .2 lbs a week.... that's NOTHING! Should I disregard that?

I did WW and lost 40 lbs last year but want to do something free this time... but this seems much more complicated since I can't actually figure out the correct amount of calories I'm supposed to be eating.

So what I'm seeing is my TDEE is 2388 and my BMR is 2195 both with moderate activity.
I'm not sure what that means for me to lose weight at all haha... I see so many people answering the same questions and for some reason it's not clicking for me.

Where are you getting the TDEE of 2388 from?

Disregard what the MFP projected weight loss says -one of the big differences is that it does not include exercise in its base settings (you have to 'earn them and eat them back' under th MFP model).

I got my TDEE from http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

Why exactly does that number matter? Isn't BMR more important? And isn't that what I should base my calories on that I eat?

Your TDEE is what you expend each day - (BMR + daily activity + exercise = TDEE) - they are both important as you should eat above your BMR but below your TDEE to lose weight. A rough guide is BR x 1.2 = sedentary activity with no exercise TDEE. I was asking because your BMR seemed very high compared to your TDEE. If you are taking the numbers from the fat2fit site - what you are caling your BMR is your TDEE less a calorie defict - i.e. what you should eat to lose weight. The number(s) at the top of the page will give you your BMR - if you did not input your body fat you will get the BMR from the Harris-Benedict Formula, if you included your bod fat % it will giveyou 2 calculations - Harris-Benedict Formula and the Katch-McArdle Formula (which uses your BF% in its calc).

JadeRabbit08

I cannot remember where I read this but I was under the impression that for obese or severely obese individuals it is ok to eat under BMR due to much lower meabolisms and a high fat storage %.

My BMR is higher than most because I am obese.
BMR 1750
When I reach my goal weight it will be BMR 1268

When I started at MFP I was sedentary (never moved from the computer and was still recovering from the tail end of a chronic fatigue episode. I thought I knew alot about health and fitness as I use to be very fit. In reality I had a lot of misconceptions that were drilled into me by the diet industry.

I set my goal for 1200 and as there is only a warning about going below that magic amount that infered to me that 1200 was perfectly safe. Within a couple of weeks the low calories triggered gall bladder attacks. This forced me start to research further to find out - 1. Very low cals can trigger gall bladder problems even if you now eat healthy. 2. There was such a thing as a BMR and TDEE and these numbers were important.

I adjusted my calorie intake up and the gall bladder attacks stopped. I was stalling with my weight loss until I started eating above my BMR.

I think MFP could be structured differently and inform you when you set a calorie goal below your BMR. I know some have medically supervised low cal diets and will still choose to go below BMR but knowledge is power and at least people are then making a more informed decision.

court617

Ohh I think I get it... so the number at the top on Fat 2 Fit is my actual BMR and the number down at the bottom where it takes into account the activity is actually the TDEE? SO my BMR is actually 1547 and with moderate activity my TDEE is 2195 meaning I should NET somewhere between 1547 and 2195 calories daily to begin to lose weight?

Did I do that right??

slkehl

And people view it so wrong, as if 1200 is the highest they should eat instead of the lowest. But that's kind of their own fault.

Perhaps there should be something suggesting that people visit their doctor to get a more appropriate minimum.