advice needed

LexyLou_5

Am in need of some advice & help.. please be gentle and use basic speech for me please, I'm trying to get my head around all this number juggling

Im 31 years old, 5ft 5

weight 142 lbs ideally aiming to slim down to 135lbs or at least fitter and healthy less flub

MFP has set my intake at 1400, after reading advice i changed my settings to lose 1/2 pound a week, as advice given was that 1lb a week was too much as i don't need to lose too much weight, and i wasn't losing anything if anything i was putting on :mad:

I have TDEE 1961
BMR 1437
MFP INTAKE 1610


Would welcome any ideas/number crunching/ advice on what they hell all this means

thank you so much in advance i am losing the plot over all this

yarwell

The MFP intake is calculated as a deficit of 250 calories (for 1/2 lb a week) from its estimate of your routine daily energy expenditure, excluding exercise. If you eat that you should see a loss. If not it may be over-estimating your BMR or activity level and you might want to drop the calories a bit to ensure there is a real deficit.

If you exercise and put it into MFP your food calorie intake goal will rise accordingly, to maintain the same deficit in the day.

melaniecheeks

Dont stress about the numbers - above all, remember they are estimates, so I'm going to use rounded figures.

Your TDEE is about 1900-2000. That's how many calories you use each day.
Your BMR is about 1400. That's what you'd need just lying in bed all day.

So in theory, anywhere between those 2 figures should lead to a weight loss, as you'd be consuming less that you were using.

I'd try 1600 a day for a few weeks and then review.

dhakiyya

BMR is basal metabolic rate - i.e. how much energy (calories) your body uses to keep your cells alive - or in other words how much energy (calories) your body would need if you were in a coma

TDEE = total daily energy expenditure - this is how much energy (calories) your body uses each day (depending on how you calculate, it's usually an average of the whole week) - this is the energy keeping your cells alive AND the energy you burn moving around and doing stuff

To lose fat, you need to eat less than your TDEE. One lb of fat has 3500 calories, which means if you want to lose 1lb in a week then you need to eat 700 calories less than your TDEE each day. However many calories you eat below your TDEE is your deficit. A small deficit is good for slow and steady fat loss. Too big a deficit can cause problems, i.e. losing muscle rather than fat, metabolism slowing, greater risk of rebound fat gain etc.

Your MFP intake gives you a daily deficit of a little over 300 calories, this would add up to half a lb fat loss each week. (because that's what you've selected for it to do, if you select for more fat loss it'll give you a bigger deficit) This is a good deficit for slow and steady fat loss.

LexyLou_5

ah i think I'm understanding... thank you

So when i thought i should/could lose 1 lb a week, my calorie intake according to MFP was 1360... (even thou i won't over on many days)

which would be lower than my BMB of 1437..

would it be possible that my body had gone into starvation mode and that my be a reason i wasn't losing weight ????

psuLemon

Fairly simple equation. You know your bmr, take 20% from that and its your caloric needs. On top of that start doing heavy strength training. And by heavy i mean you cant do more than 8-12 reps. ST is what cuts fat.

SteveTries

Your TDEE is the amount of calories you need to maintain your current weight.

There are 3500 Cals in a pound of fat.

Reduce your intake calories by 250 a day, 7 days a week for a half pound a week loss.
500 cals a day for a one pound loss


Personally I prefer a day off each week but that's up to you.