BMR - HELP can anyone explain please

irishcailin2012
irishcailin2012 Posts: 47 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi

Ok, so I was reading another topic about your bmr and the calories you should be eating. I went to fat2fit, input my data and for my height and weight it said my bmr was 1720. When I read on down in the chart it said having a "no active" day - I'm unable to walk or really do anything at the moment due to back problems - I should be eating 1846 calories. These calories are eating for the "thin" me that I want to be.

Now correct me if I'm wrong but that just doesn't seem right! How by upping my calories by that much am I going to lose weight? Now I eat around 1200 - 1300 calories a day and sometimes thats a struggle to consume that many calories healthily. People have told me before that I don't eat enough and thats why I'm not losing weight but at the end of the day if sometimes you're full you're not going to keep on eating!! AND THE OTHER TIMES I'M JUST AFRAID TO EAT. If I was to eat another 500calories a day I'll be fast gaining weight and thats not why I'm on this site.

I know they say that your body can go into starvation mode if you don't eat enough but I'm so afraid to eat more because I KNOW I will put on even more weight.

Can anyone help PLEASE

Replies

  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    I can't see your diary, so I don't know what you are eating. It is entirely possible that you are eating too few calories, and have gone into starvation mode, especially if you are exercising on top of those only 1200-1300 calories. How many calories does MFP say you should be aiming to eat every day?

    And how do you know you will put on weight if you eat more? If you are in starvation mode, you NEED to eat more to LOSE weight.
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
    I would ignore the starvation mode fears and listen to your body. If you're comfortable at 1200-1300 and you want to lose weight, stay there. If you get uncomfortable or are not losing weight after many weeks, try something new. I would try adding maybe 200 calories a day before adding 500, personally. And I'd watch my results closely.
  • MelanieAG05
    MelanieAG05 Posts: 359 Member
    Hi there - yes it can all get very confusing!

    I have recently upped my calories from 1400 to 1800. I joined the group Eat More to Weigh Less - here is the link

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/3834-eat-more-to-weigh-less

    This explains everything really well about why you should eat more to fuel your body etc. Also, go to this website and input your numbers in the calculator and see what you get for BMR, TDEE and what you should eat at to lose weight.

    http://www.scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    If you are struggling to eat enough calories you should try eating "calorie dense" foods such as avocados, nuts & seeds, peanut butter, cheese etc.

    Hope this helps and good luck!
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    BMR is the number of calories you burn before any physical activity, just to keep your heart pumping, breathe, etc. Essentially, if you were in a coma.

    Anytime you're awake and moving, you're burning some number of calories above that number, and most of what happens on MFP is related to coming up with the right estimate of how many extra calories that is.

    For a sedentary lifestyle, the usual starting estimate of total calories burned is to multiply your BMR by 1.2 or 1.25, giving you an estimate of 2064-2150. With that in mind, 1846 is a perfectly reasonable amount of calories to eat, targeting around 0.5 pounds per week of weight loss, on average.
  • irishcailin2012
    irishcailin2012 Posts: 47 Member
    Thanks everyone

    I only started on this last thursday and one of the days I only ate just over 1000 calories. I eat either an omelette/cornflakes/ for breakfast. Lunch could be chicken and veg or couscous and tea maybe some pasta or rice with chicken - all I eat is homemade with no cream added, its low fat. For a snack it may be a piece of fruit or a low fat organic yogurt and I'm getting my 8 glasses of water in too now which took alot for me I can tell you
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
    If you just started dieting it's kind of hard to tell what calorie levels you will feel comfortable at, for a long span. Try not to eat too repetitively or too dull if you want to keep at it for a while. A lot of dieters quit because they're bored with their low-cal foods (it doesn't have to be that way) or they feel too deprived and decide the lifestyle isn't sustainable so why bother.

    Good luck!

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