my BMR/TDEE--is this right?

scarlettd12

Ok I need a little advice on what I should set my daily calorie intake to. MFP suggests 1200 but after reading all the posts about BMR's and TDEE I decided to do a little research and this number seems a little low. Here are the different numbers I have found.

BMR:

Harris Benedict- 1498
Kater-McArdle- 1342

And below that is says for a sedentary lifestyle (this was on fat2fitradio.com) I should consume 1668 calories.

Then I went to a different website and calculated my TDEE at 1791. I multiplied this by 20% (1791-358=1433) to get an estimate of the calories I should consume to lose weight.

Basically I am asking which number I should go by? I think if I eat 1400-1500 calories daily, I should be good?! And if I work out I should eat those calories back so my net calories stays in the 1400-1500 range, correct? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

bizco

More information is needed. MFP suggests 1200 based on your inputs. What did you use for your weekly weight loss goal? What did you use for lifestyle/activity setting? You can review these by clicking on "Settings" at the top of the page and selecting "Update diet/fitness profile."

Then go to My Home>>Goals. On the right hand side of the screen, what does MFP show for your "Calories burned from normal daily activity"? These are your maintenance calories. You can see how your daily calorie deficit and projected weight loss goal. MFP will not allow you to go below 1200 net calories per day.

scarlettd12

Ok I guess MFP is fairly accurate. My "maintenance calories" is a little over 1700, which matches with my TDEE. So if I want to lose 1.5 lbs per week I would have to still eat around 1200 calories per day. I changed my calorie intake to 1450 per day and it says I will lose .6 lbs per week. Which I am ok with too.

The thing I still question though is shouldn't I be at least eating my BMR?

bizco

Not necessarily, it depends on how much weight you have to lose. Obese or overweight people have lots of extra fat stores to draw from before they need to worry about starvation mode or decreased metabolism. The more weight you lose, your BMR decreases.

Drastiic

A safe area to be in would be 20-35% less of your TDEE to lose weight.
If a person's TDEE is 1791:
20% of 1791 = 358 --> 1791-358=1433 (0.72 lbs per week)
35% of 1791 = 627 --> 1791-627=1164 (1.25 lbs per week)
In this example to lose weight, eat between 1165-1430 calories.

MFP doesn't use percentages. They base their loss by lbs per week.
3500 calories = 1 lb. 3500/7 = 500 calories per day
7000 calories = 2 lb. 7000/7 = 1000 calories per day
1791-500 = 1291
1791-1000 = 791
As you can tell, using poundages for a person with such a low TDEE wouldn't be a great idea.

If you had a higher TDEE of 2700, it would be fine to subtract 500-1000 calories per day.
2700-500=2200
2700-1000=1700

But a better way, would still be to use the 20-35%.
20% of 2700 = 540 --> 2700-540=2160 (0.72 lbs per week)
35% of 2700 = 945 --> 2700-945=1755 (1.25 lbs per week)
In this example to lose weight, eat between 1750-2150 calories.