BMR plz help!!!

Sneakypeek1972

my BMR is saying 1,829 cals a day for my height of 5ft 7inch and my current weight, im totally confused on what it means and what do i need to do to work out how many cals i meant to be having a day , at the moment i set my goal at 2lbs a week to lose with net cal goal 1310, and i chose the one where you sit alot(not very active), if anyone can explain to me what this means id be very grateful

UrbanRunner81

BMR is what you burn doing nothing but laying in bed all day.

You should eat over your BMR daily. You are more active than you think. On rest days I burn 2200-2400 that is just with moving around very min, doing some dishes, laundry and making meals.

Sneakypeek1972

so i have to eat more than 1829 cals a day , im finding it hard at times to go past 1500 hehe

UrbanRunner81

yes. I found what helped me is starting out is eat a bigger breakfast. Eat more snacks.

SorchaRavenlock

I'm interested in this too. It's hard to know how much to eat exactly and still lose.

So if I'm eating BMR, and my exercise calories, and am rather sedentary, I'll still lose? Because that number of calories is a lot higher then what MFP recommends for me.

now_or_never12

You should net your BMR (so what you eat plus your exercise cals eaten back). Personally I have found that to be the best for me. I am not tired and cranky as I was on low cals and I have had consistant losses each week.

TrainingWithTonya

I don't trust online BMR calculators because they may or may not be figuring BMR. A lot of them ask for activity level and that would indicate that they are actually an RMR calculator instead of a true BMR calculator. So, take anything you read online with a grain of salt regarding your specific BMR.

Technically, BMR is the Basal Metabolic Rate which is what your body would burn to maintain itself in a coma. As soon as you add your normal daily activity you bump up to RMR or Resting Metabolic Rate (or in some circles referred to as Estimated Energy Requirement--EER) which is the calories your body needs to maintain itself while doing your normal daily routine. On top of that you add in exercise calories to get the Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). TDEE is the amount of calories you burn to maintain your current condition, meaning for organ function, muscle maintenance, etc. In order to keep the body from feeling like it is not getting enough energy to maintain muscle, then you have to eat at least 80% of TDEE. Eating less then TDEE will signal the body to cut muscle mass (because it burns more calories) and lower your metabolism while storing fat for energy use later. This is commonly referred to as Starvation Mode, even though you aren't starving. I hate that term, but it is a common issue that you see in people and tends to lead to the skinny fat (Meaning someone with a body weight in the ideal range for height or BMI, but with a high % of body fat.) body type when done excessively. Anyway, if you want to figure your TDEE you can go to my blog and find the instructions for doing the math yourself. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/TrainingWithTonya

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16 years Certified Personal Trainer and Group Exercise Instructor
9 years Certified Sports Nutritionist
Bachelors in Exercise Physiology with a Minor in Nutritional Science
ACSM Certified Clinical Exercise Specialist
NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

jen9506

I too am super confused about this. Maybe it's the way MFP lays it out, but I see a net of 1450 calories and think that means that's what I should eat for the day. Adding a different amount of exercise calories every day gets confusing; plus, I think it leads to the binge mentality of "oh, I worked out so hard, now I can eat a bunch!"

BMR is 1550
RMR is 1900
I hope to add about 300 exercise calories a day.

How the heck many calories should I eat? If anyone can link to another post with a very clear explanation, that would be great!

P.S. what I really don't get is: If you are eating back all your calories, then how do you get a deficit for weight loss?

TrainingWithTonya

I too am super confused about this. Maybe it's the way MFP lays it out, but I see a net of 1450 calories and think that means that's what I should eat for the day. Adding a different amount of exercise calories every day gets confusing; plus, I think it leads to the binge mentality of "oh, I worked out so hard, now I can eat a bunch!"

BMR is 1550
RMR is 1900
I hope to add about 300 exercise calories a day.

How the heck many calories should I eat? If anyone can link to another post with a very clear explanation, that would be great!

P.S. what I really don't get is: If you are eating back all your calories, then how do you get a deficit for weight loss?

If RMR is 1900 and you exercise 300 more, then your TDEE is 2200. 80% of 2200 is 1760 Calories. If you eat 1760, then you have a deficit of 440 Calories for the day. If you don't exercise that day, then your TDEE is your RMR of 1900. 80% of 1900 is 1520 Calories. If you eat 1520, then you have a deficit of 380 Calories for the day.

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16 years Certified Personal Trainer and Group Exercise Instructor
9 years Certified Sports Nutritionist
Bachelors in Exercise Physiology with a Minor in Nutritional Science
ACSM Certified Clinical Exercise Specialist
NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

yarwell

P.S. what I really don't get is: If you are eating back all your calories, then how do you get a deficit for weight loss?

Your calorie goal in the food section has an initial deficit, let's say it's set to 1400. That will be 500 or some such below what it thinks you use in a day, depending what you set as your loss rate. ie it thinks you use 1900 in daily living.

If you exercise 300 calories it thinks you want to eat more but lose the same so your food goal goes up by 300 calories.

Hope that helps.

yarwell

If RMR is 1900 and you exercise 300 more, then your TDEE is 2200. 80% of 2200 is 1760 Calories.

It's worth pointing out that MFP doesn't do a 20% deficit, it does a fixed calorie deficit of 500 cals/day per lb/week target loss.

People need help understanding how it works, illustrating different approaches like 20% cuts from TDEE or Fat2Fit's eat for the person you want to be may be sound advice but it should be made clear that MFP doesn't work like that itself.

Sneakypeek1972

i am so confused now lol, ive changed my goals so i get a higher cal net daily, with my earned cals im sure it will go to around 1829 or more daily just hope i dont gain all the weight back ive lost so far :-/

yarwell

i am so confused now

you will be, because the site works one way and when you ask for help understanding that you are offered five alternatives instead.

Just pick a number you can live with, do it for 4 weeks, reduce it if you put weight on.