Professional BMR creates more questions for me

lambertj

Just looking for some thoughts on this. In November 2011 I went to a local hospital and had a professional BMR test administered. The directions I was given was I had to do this directly upon awakening, minimal movement as soon as I woke up. This was a breathing machine in which I was to hold perfectly still and breath into this equipment for 10 minutes. At the end of this 10 minutes the machine beeped and recorded my BMR at 1710. The nurse told me that the professional BMR was highly accurate and she even commented that I had a high BMR for my age (as I had expressed to her how high I thought it was). On the flip side is the online calculators for BMR (fat2fit) in which I get the number of 1301 (currently).

I then made the mistake of eating at 1200 for about 4 months and in February 2012 upped my calories from 1200 to 1400 and eventually to 1500. I logged about 5-6 work outs a week at a burn rate of about 500 per session per my HRM and added weight training about 2 months ago. Recently after much reading and finding this group I increased my calories to 1650 (my BMR and TDEE minus 15% using fat2fit calculators). I am only at the end of week 1 and have an initial gain of 1.6 lbs (not worried, expected this and confident i'm heading in the right direction).

But the question that keeps me up at night is which BMR is right? The professional one I had administered in November or the online one at fat2fit. Do I determine my TDEE minus 15% from the professional BMR or the online calculator at fat2fit?

My second question is how to determine what level of activity I am. I am currently weight training three days a week and doing cardio 3-5 times a week so am I Moderately Active or Highly Active?

I'm 46 years young, 5'4" tall and currently at 128-129 lbs. Any advice, input, thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

ANewLucia

Just looking for some thoughts on this. In November 2011 I went to a local hospital and had a professional BMR test administered. The directions I was given was I had to do this directly upon awakening, minimal movement as soon as I woke up. This was a breathing machine in which I was to hold perfectly still and breath into this equipment for 10 minutes. At the end of this 10 minutes the machine beeped and recorded my BMR at 1710. The nurse told me that the professional BMR was highly accurate and she even commented that I had a high BMR for my age (as I had expressed to her how high I thought it was). On the flip side is the online calculators for BMR (fat2fit) in which I get the number of 1301 (currently).

I then made the mistake of eating at 1200 for about 4 months and in February 2012 upped my calories from 1200 to 1400 and eventually to 1500. I logged about 5-6 work outs a week at a burn rate of about 500 per session per my HRM and added weight training about 2 months ago. Recently after much reading and finding this group I increased my calories to 1650 (my BMR and TDEE minus 15% using fat2fit calculators). I am only at the end of week 1 and have an initial gain of 1.6 lbs (not worried, expected this and confident i'm heading in the right direction).

But the question that keeps me up at night is which BMR is right? The professional one I had administered in November or the online one at fat2fit. Do I determine my TDEE minus 15% from the professional BMR or the online calculator at fat2fit?

My second question is how to determine what level of activity I am. I am currently weight training three days a week and doing cardio 3-5 times a week so am I Moderately Active or Highly Active?

I'm 46 years young, 5'4" tall and currently at 128-129 lbs. Any advice, input, thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

I would say go with the professional testng bec it is more accurate than the calculators which are estimates. Go with moderate and eat that daily and then be sure to net bmr on high burn days. Give it 6-8 wks to see how you trend.

ANewLucia

Dont and eat 1gr of prot per lb of weight.

lambertj

Thank you for your response, I really appreciate it. So, I take my BMR of 1700 and times it by 1.55 (Moderately Active) to get 2635 and then minus 20% from that, for a daily intake of 2098? (still would like to lose another 5-7 lbs of fat). I like to eat a little bigger on Saturdays. Do you see any problem with eating at around 1700-1800 daily and using those extra calories for my big Saturday eat day?

You are awesome, and are helping me so much, thank so much for the education in this

ANewLucia

If you've been low caling eat the 2100 daily to get your body used to receiving food. See how you trend there for 4-6 weeks.