eating BMR with success, help with what is correct!

T_Marie4

I've been doing research trying to figure out how many calories I SHOULD be eating instead of what I HAVE been eating. Currently I'm stuck at my current wt and haven't budged in nearly two weeks - I had been losing a little over a pound a week. I've been limiting myself to 1200 calories/day for the past 40+ days, but I keep reading and hearing that this is way too little calories with the exercise that I'm doing. I don't usually feel hungry unless I stay up late, but I am starving every morning. I work part time, so during the week my 'activity' is limited to housework, grocery shopping, etc., when at work I'm on my feet 12+ straight hours. According to MFP, my BMR is 1339 calories. Fat2Fit, which wants to know your workout activity, says I should eat 2091 calories - I exercise 5 to 6 days per week, ranging from 250 to 650 calories. Now I realize if I eat my exercise calories back, then it would total intake with MFP would calculate to about the same amount of calories per day as F2F (depending on burn for the day), but I have never done this. I am okay with bumping my calories up to 1339, but think that eating 2000 will be wayyyyy too much for me. It's all so confusing! Who has had success, or more success, eating workout calories back or just by simply following what F2F says?

mcarter99

There's no reason you have to eat your BMR or your exercise calories back, if you feel fine at 1200. If you average a little over a pound a week loss at 1200, that means you're burning (reality, not estimators) a little over 1700/day. If you like your previous loss level, stay at 1200. If you think eating a little more for a week might shake things up, try it. I wouldn't go much over 1700ish, though, or I'd expect to gain.

<2 weeks is not long enough to ditch your plan. Plateaus happen, it's normal.