PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND BMR AND CAL DEFICITS ETC!

psuLemon

Everyone, her maintenance is not 1500. Her metabolic rate alone is higher. She isnt losing weight on 1500 calories as the deficit is too high and her body is fighting to maintain.

yarwell

Everyone, her maintenance is not 1500. Her metabolic rate alone is higher.

You know that how ? has she had it measured ?

alphagirl82

I had consistently been eating 1200 net calories per day, adding about 600 for workouts for a total of around 1800. I dropped about 10 pounds in two months and then stalled out at 153 (which for my frame is very small, 16.1% body fat and a size 4-6 US). I was wondering the same thing, if maybe 1200 net was too low, and I was starving myself, so I went and had my RMR tested.

My results were even worse than I expected: my RMR is actually 1003, and with a sedentary lifestyle it puts my BMR at right around the 1200 I had been consuming. So it makes sense that I wasn't losing any weight, I was eating almost exactly what I burned. Now I'm working with a nutritionist to see if there are any foods that I can eat that will increase the speed of my metabolism so that I can eat more but still lose a couple more pounds (1200 calories feels like starving to me, even when I add every single calorie I burn when I work out). I don't want to drop below that because proper, balanced, whole-foods based nutrition is more important to me than what the scale says.

Moral of the story is, everyone has different metabolic rates. If you are seriously concerned about where you are at, go get it tested by a professional, who can set up a nutrition and exercise plan for you and send you on your way. I would hate for you to start eating more because people on MFP say you are starving yourself and then end up gaining the weight you've worked so hard to lose.

psuLemon

Based on Fat2Fit, your estimated BMR is 1600 (unless you have a lot of fat and little to no muscle) using the Harris Benedict formula. If you can figure out your body fat, we can refine the equation a bit more. With that said, you are also lightly active and since you don't have much to lose, then you should be eating a bit more calories or you body will hold onto the fat. Below is a breakout of your calories.'


TDEE = 1600 * 1.375 = 2200 (about your true maintenance calories)

CN = 2200 * .8 = 1760


I would recommend eating 1760 calories a day based on the Math. Also, generally aim for 35% carbs, 40% protein and 25% fats. Your body is currently maintaining as you put too much stress on it. Calorie deficits are stress.


ps- this equation is set up where you don't need to eat back exercise calories and you eat the same calorie level every day. The deficit is baked in over the week.

I used Fat2Fit and that said 1313. 45.1% body fat. Mainly carried in the middle. Which frustrates me cos I would proudly say I love my legs and jaw line.. just have a tyre.

Did F2F estimate your body fat or did you use another method? If so, use the one below to validate. I find it very difficult to believe that your BMR is that low based on your other stats, especially for a young person.



http://www.calculator.net/army-body-fat-calculator.html

mousepaws22

Whenever I read threads about this I get so confused. I entered my details on Fat2Fit (5 foot, 184 pounds, 32% body fat) and it says my BMR is 1601 calories. MFP says my BMR is 1,481 calories. I'm set to lose 1 pound a week, sedentary lifestyle and it gives me 1340 calories a day. What amount of calories should I be eating?

psuLemon

Everyone, her maintenance is not 1500. Her metabolic rate alone is higher.

You know that how ? has she had it measured ?

Now, I have not, but even if she is only sedentary her maintenance calories are around 1575. But she isn't complete sedentary.

psuLemon

Whenever I read threads about this I get so confused. I entered my details on Fat2Fit (5 foot, 184 pounds, 32% body fat) and it says my BMR is 1601 calories. MFP says my BMR is 1,481 calories. I'm set to lose 1 pound a week, sedentary lifestyle and it gives me 1340 calories a day. What amount of calories should I be eating?

Do you exercise?


If you do ZERO exercise, you should aim for 1420. But if you exercise, the calories go up.

mousepaws22

Whenever I read threads about this I get so confused. I entered my details on Fat2Fit (5 foot, 184 pounds, 32% body fat) and it says my BMR is 1601 calories. MFP says my BMR is 1,481 calories. I'm set to lose 1 pound a week, sedentary lifestyle and it gives me 1340 calories a day. What amount of calories should I be eating?

Do you exercise?


If you do ZERO exercise, you should aim for 1420. But if you exercise, the calories go up.

I do a little exercise mostly things like zumba, circuit training and kettlebells, but only a couple of times a week.

cbrewer904

BUMP

tabinmaine

I had consistently been eating 1200 net calories per day, adding about 600 for workouts for a total of around 1800. I dropped about 10 pounds in two months and then stalled out at 153 (which for my frame is very small, 16.1% body fat and a size 4-6 US). I was wondering the same thing, if maybe 1200 net was too low, and I was starving myself, so I went and had my RMR tested.

My results were even worse than I expected: my RMR is actually 1003, and with a sedentary lifestyle it puts my BMR at right around the 1200 I had been consuming. So it makes sense that I wasn't losing any weight, I was eating almost exactly what I burned. Now I'm working with a nutritionist to see if there are any foods that I can eat that will increase the speed of my metabolism so that I can eat more but still lose a couple more pounds (1200 calories feels like starving to me, even when I add every single calorie I burn when I work out). I don't want to drop below that because proper, balanced, whole-foods based nutrition is more important to me than what the scale says.

Moral of the story is, everyone has different metabolic rates. If you are seriously concerned about where you are at, go get it tested by a professional, who can set up a nutrition and exercise plan for you and send you on your way. I would hate for you to start eating more because people on MFP say you are starving yourself and then end up gaining the weight you've worked so hard to lose.

I think you meant that your TDEE is 1200....not BMR ??

lenya_maria4516

Copying this from another post of mine because I want more feedback.

"Basically, I eat 1500 cals a day at the moment and haven't been doing any exercise other than walk to work, walk around work and walk home. So no "extra" exercise. 1500 is maintaining me, I am not losing nor gaining. I'm stuck on 79.7kgs. The main reason I ask this is because I'm not losing any weight now, 1kg is preferred but yes would be ecstatic with half a kilo, gee even a quarter of a kilo would blow me over.

I'm having the most difficulty trying to accept the fact "eat more to lose weight" It goes against everything I was raised with. My parents didn't instill this in me, society did. Geez when I lost the most weight and was at my goal weight was when I ate a hotdog or chicken burger for lunch everything and steak chips and veggies for dinner everyday but walked always.

I can't get my head around it. My weight issue is a psycological issue. I'm getting there though, that's why I ask so many questions over and over Cynthia (in reference to my status you commented on earlier). I need the reassurance from many to understand that yes this is right.

I'm understanding.. if 1500 is maintaining me.. Should I then say, eat 1500 as a base, but days that I exercise lets say I burnt 500cals should I then eat 250? So eating 1750 a day WITH exercise? Or if I upped. I ate 1750 as an average, then burn 500 then ate 250 back so make my daily goal 1900 with 500 burned? This last equation would make it 1900 - 500 = 1400 which is above my BMR of 1313.

Am I understanding it yet or getting it wrong because from all the info thrown at me in past topics, this is the message I've been given. "

Hey, try this calculator

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

It will tell you to eat quite a lot more than you would expect, but you don't need to eat back your exercise calories at the higher intake as they have accounted for your daily expenditure. MFP puts you on a very low cal intake so it is important to eat back what you have burned (so as to not dip below your BMR). This way you don't need to worry about that

If you want to know what you should eat as maintenence once you reach your goal weight, put you goal weight in both current and goal boxes.

This is also a realy good one

http://www.health-calc.com/

ChelseaM18

It's a caloric deficit that will make you lose weight. You can do this diet alone with minimal exercise. However, it's exercise that will keep your metabolism high, bear in mind 35 mins of continuous exercise will burn almost double what you burned in the exercise thanks to the afterburner effect, a.k.a the high rise in your metabolism. Say that the calories that YOU need to maintain your weight is 1500, cut 100 calories and start exercising maybe 20 minutes a day, go for a walk, cycle, jog, circuits, weights or whichever you please , there is no doubt that you will lose weight. Nonetheless, in my experience, macros are so so important. Clean up your diet with whole foods and foods that have been minimally processed and the weight will fall off, maybe try the 40 %protein 40% GOOD carbs 20% fat system for a while Good Luck!

psuLemon

Whenever I read threads about this I get so confused. I entered my details on Fat2Fit (5 foot, 184 pounds, 32% body fat) and it says my BMR is 1601 calories. MFP says my BMR is 1,481 calories. I'm set to lose 1 pound a week, sedentary lifestyle and it gives me 1340 calories a day. What amount of calories should I be eating?

Do you exercise?


If you do ZERO exercise, you should aim for 1420. But if you exercise, the calories go up.

I do a little exercise mostly things like zumba, circuit training and kettlebells, but only a couple of times a week.

then add another 300 calories on the days you exercise.

mousepaws22

Thanks Psulemon, I'll try it.

Taffyali

Try 1,600 a day and eat back at least 50% of your exercise calories. You probably won't see weight loss straight away because your metabolism needs to get kick started again, and you might retain water for a bit. Just make sure you drink loads and watch your sodium intake Good luck! Patience etc.

Yeah I only drink water
I've worked out with MFP using a day next week so I could just see for a test and I had between 1540-1640 in food and 500cals burnt in exercise (just a test) and MFP calculated I'd weight 74kgs in 5 weeks.. which is a kilo a week. So, I think I'll stick with that, really need to motivate myself to get on my bike and work HARD! Lol.

One great thing is I have worked out my calories now so my Partner and I can actually eat TOGETHER! Nothing is more upsetting when I'm eating my dinner and he's already had his or has to go buy something and we never eat together, seems so uncoupley. So I'm gonna give it a go, up my cals by about 100, but aim to burn 500. Really 500 isn't much, it's about 30 minutes on the bike and an hour walk (slowly) or about 70 minutes on the bike, and I don't have to do it all in one big hit. I could do 30 mins on the bike in the morning then 40 mins at night to make 70.
Rambling now. Sorry. Just self motivating myself haha.

Where you say you aim to burn 500 - would you really burn this many calories by exercising 30 minutes on the bike and an hour walk (slowly)? Seems quite high to me?

freckledrats

Probably the least confusing method of losing weight is going to fitnessfrog.com and finding your TDEE. TDEE includes the amount you plan to exercise, so if you do this method, don't eat back normal exercise calories. Only eat back if you exercise above and beyond your normal planned amount.

Once you know your TDEE, subtract 500 for 1 pound per week and 1000 for 2. Maybe somewhere in between, but you get the point.

I found that trying for 2 pounds a week is super hard and I was much more likely to cheat. 1 pound works much better for me.

If you'd rather not calculate your exercise out of the gate, another method is to go to that same site and find your BMR. Eat your BMR and do your cardio, eating back at least half your calories earned from exercise.

I've never found that going below BMR did wonky things to my metabolism, but hey, just throwing that out there so no one bites my head off. If you maintain at 1500, you might be short like I am. My BMR is only around 1350, which means if I don't exercise, eating 1200 is definitely not a 500 calorie deficit for the day. That can be tricky, and I'm of the opinion that if you are small and have a low BMR to begin with, that the 1200 cut off is probably more flexible. That's for the average human being, after all, who is about 6 inches taller than I am :P

sazroy

Try 1,600 a day and eat back at least 50% of your exercise calories. You probably won't see weight loss straight away because your metabolism needs to get kick started again, and you might retain water for a bit. Just make sure you drink loads and watch your sodium intake Good luck! Patience etc.

Yeah I only drink water
I've worked out with MFP using a day next week so I could just see for a test and I had between 1540-1640 in food and 500cals burnt in exercise (just a test) and MFP calculated I'd weight 74kgs in 5 weeks.. which is a kilo a week. So, I think I'll stick with that, really need to motivate myself to get on my bike and work HARD! Lol.

One great thing is I have worked out my calories now so my Partner and I can actually eat TOGETHER! Nothing is more upsetting when I'm eating my dinner and he's already had his or has to go buy something and we never eat together, seems so uncoupley. So I'm gonna give it a go, up my cals by about 100, but aim to burn 500. Really 500 isn't much, it's about 30 minutes on the bike and an hour walk (slowly) or about 70 minutes on the bike, and I don't have to do it all in one big hit. I could do 30 mins on the bike in the morning then 40 mins at night to make 70.
Rambling now. Sorry. Just self motivating myself haha.

Where you say you aim to burn 500 - would you really burn this many calories by exercising 30 minutes on the bike and an hour walk (slowly)? Seems quite high to me?

I said 70 minutes.