BMR vs MFP calorie limits (frustrated & confused!)

ElizabethRoad

I currently see my food therapist and she told me to eat 1200 calories at day to lose weight and NOT to eat back calories from exercise. I haven't seen my nutritionist in a while so we can "discount" her but still... very confusing.

You said in your original post that she told you not to use a calorie-counting site. Now you're saying she wants you to count calories. Talk about confusing.

joanne51971

i do 90mins of cardio 4/5 times a week too, when i started i didnt see any results either!! but after about 8 weeks roughly i started to see results in my weight and my measurments!!
stay positive!! you will see results in a few more weeks, i to have a calorie goal of 1200 on here, which i try very hard to stick to, and i do eat back most of my exercise cals that i have burned, i sometimes stay under my goal but i do try to mostly stick to my goal!
i know how you feel it can be so disheartening to be doing all the cardio and watching your cals and then you get on the scales and a big fat nothing!! makes you want to cry!! the first few weeks of cardio is you are building and toning some muscles, it takes a good 6/8 weeks to start to see results so stick with it and you will see the rewards very soon !!
add me and i can help to motivate you, we can support each other! :flowerforyou:

dcharger18

I just joined and have already lost 18lbs doing 800 or less calories a day and cardio 4 times a week. Now I too am at a standstill, its your body saying I am starving. Just keep doing what you are doing or lower calorie intake 100 calories and see what happens.

kammy92

I go by my TDEE-500 ..............

johicks

I am experimenting w/my TDEE and seeing how the numbers work. BUT! I'm also following an eating plan that doesn't focus on calories but on keeping your metabolism on fat burning mode, not fat storing mode. It says to eat within the first 60 minutes of getting up; break-fast! Then eat every three hours all day, consuming three balance meals and three snacks of 100-200 calories. You're welcome to view my diary.

This plan teaches about fast carbs, slow carbs, proteins, and fats. Basically fast carbs (1/2C-3/4C) = starches & sugars; Slow carbs (1C)= veggies & berrries; proteins (3-5oz); and fats (cheeses, dressings, nuts = 1oz). Then snacks whatever you want as long as it's 100-200 calories. There is more to it teaching about macronutrients and reading food labels; but the above is the basics.

FEED YOUR METABOLISM, FUEL YOUR BODY!!!



Also, I override the macronutrients that MFP tells me to eat and shoot for 40% protein - 35% carbs- 25% fat.

mcarter99

I was also told by my food therapist and my former nutritionist NOT to eat back calories from excercise - but I have been following MFP suggestions and netting 1200.

These people also told you not to count calories. You're talking about completely different philosophies. You can't expect them all to agree. I guarantee you these people did not intend for you to eat a total of 1200 calories and do a ton of exercise on top of that.

I currently see my food therapist and she told me to eat 1200 calories at day to lose weight and NOT to eat back calories from exercise. I haven't seen my nutritionist in a while so we can "discount" her but still... very confusing.

The question is how she came up with that number? Most of the time it's arbitrary. Did she take your height, weight, age and body fat and daily routine/exercise routine or pull a number out of no where?

It's arbitrary in that it applies to nearly all humans, because your BMR does not matter except to determine the estimate of what you expend to try to determine how large your deficit will be at 1200, to estimate how fast your weight loss will be.

kimmraderie

THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS! I've been at this for about 2 months consistently. I've lost about 18 lbs, but that number fluctuates within 4 lbs week to week.

I'm pretty sure I'm eating too little food (~900 cals), but I maintain my meals and my snacks. My appetite has decreased quite a bit, but I'm not hungry.

My BMR on MFP says 1816. Should I reduce -500cals from that?

CONFUSED!!!

wild_wild_life

Ah! See! Some of you are telling me not to focus on BMR then others are saying that I should. Still really don't know what to do. Can't tell whether I should eat more or eat less!

Well something isn't working... I just hope that I can stay motivated to keep doing this when I'm not seeing any results.

Do you understand what BMR is? From your OP it seems you are confusing it with maintenance or TDEE. It is important to understand the difference.

BMR is a static number that does not change according to your daily activity. You can generally disregard it as it is a theoretical number. TDEE, or the calories required to maintain your weight at a given activity level, is the term you really meant to use in your OP. And yes, it looks like your deficit from TDEE is too big. Others have provided good ideas on how to remedy that.

smbarthel

Could be your excercising too hard or too much. Just saw my endo yesterday, need to stay in fat burning zone - cardio zone only burns sugar, fat doesn't convert back to sugar so your body will turn muscle to sugar to burn and leave the fat behind. I was going to the gym everyday for over an hour for the last 2 months trying to burn fat but I lost 3lbs of lean body mass that I could not afford to loose. He said I was getting my heart rate up too high and only burning the sugar and because I don't have all that much sugar (carbs) in my diet my body was using my muscle. You definitely need to do light weight training to keep from losing too much lean body mass (30min x3 a week not more than 10lbs) - Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. Also, my physch said don't pay attention to the scale ~ it can't tell you from a sack of potatoes. Try to find out your body composition % and work on that number.

juicemoogan

THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS! I've been at this for about 2 months consistently. I've lost about 18 lbs, but that number fluctuates within 4 lbs week to week.

I'm pretty sure I'm eating too little food (~900 cals), but I maintain my meals and my snacks. My appetite has decreased quite a bit, but I'm not hungry.

YES that is WAY too little! Especially if you are exercising as well!

My BMR on MFP says 1816. Should I reduce -500cals from that?
CONFUSED!!!

NO.
You should reduce 500 calories from your TDEE, not your BMR> BMR is what you need in order to just get out of bed every day.
Enter your info here to find yout TDEE: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
TDEE is the calories you need to eat to maintain your current weight, by eating at a slight defecit from that #, then you will lose weight.

Mrsbrandnewmeslimandtrim

bump

siriusalien

Could be your excercising too hard or too much. Just saw my endo yesterday, need to stay in fat burning zone - cardio zone only burns sugar, fat doesn't convert back to sugar so your body will turn muscle to sugar to burn and leave the fat behind. I was going to the gym everyday for over an hour for the last 2 months trying to burn fat but I lost 3lbs of lean body mass that I could not afford to loose. He said I was getting my heart rate up too high and only burning the sugar and because I don't have all that much sugar (carbs) in my diet my body was using my muscle. You definitely need to do light weight training to keep from losing too much lean body mass (30min x3 a week not more than 10lbs) - Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. Also, my physch said don't pay attention to the scale ~ it can't tell you from a sack of potatoes. Try to find out your body composition % and work on that number.

OK Now this is confusing. The body knows to burn sugar vs fat based on heart rate? AND the higher the HR isn't the best?

mcarter99

No offense but I think someone misunderstood their endo.

psuLemon

Could be your excercising too hard or too much. Just saw my endo yesterday, need to stay in fat burning zone - cardio zone only burns sugar, fat doesn't convert back to sugar so your body will turn muscle to sugar to burn and leave the fat behind. I was going to the gym everyday for over an hour for the last 2 months trying to burn fat but I lost 3lbs of lean body mass that I could not afford to loose. He said I was getting my heart rate up too high and only burning the sugar and because I don't have all that much sugar (carbs) in my diet my body was using my muscle. You definitely need to do light weight training to keep from losing too much lean body mass (30min x3 a week not more than 10lbs) - Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does. Also, my physch said don't pay attention to the scale ~ it can't tell you from a sack of potatoes. Try to find out your body composition % and work on that number.

Wow, so much about this is wrong. HR zone's have already been debunked. It doesn't matter which zone you are in (see link 1). Also, light weight more reps is less effective than heavy weight low rep (see link 2). So whoever is telling you this, is out of date and is living by old advice.

http://alanaragon.com/myths-under-the-microscope-the-fat-burning-zone-fasted-cardio.html


http://www.livestrong.com/article/372745-heavy-weight-vs-light-weight-weight-loss/

NYAnnie33

Hi Mel It took a while for my weight to start to go down. This is what I think helped.

1. I started to use weights ( you said your food nutr. said to do this and I agree. It def makes a difference and when you weight train your body is still working after you stop, where as cardio once you stop your body stops burning. Both are needed to lose weight. check out this article

http://www.livestrong.com/article/421082-weights-vs-cardio-your-guide-to-the-perfect-body/

2. I really try not to eat back all of my gained calories because I figure at some point since nothing is exact I might have messed up my calories and I don't want to over eat them.

3. I often questions my calories on here also though, I have no clue if 1,200 is correct. I think maybe print out the summary of your weeks for your food nutritionist and see what your lacking or over eating. I need to pay more attention to other things like fat and carbs and not concentrate only on the calories. Also I try to remind myself that just because the calories fit into my day there are just certain things I shouldn't eat and other things that will help with the weight loss.

You can do it Mel!!

70davis

bump

smilebhappy

bump to read later

gward_1984

From what I have learnt on this forum and trying it myself, if you want to lose wight you should NOT be eating less than your BMR, you should be eating that number minimum.

If you want to lose weight steadily work out what your TDEE should be using the websites on this thread and eat 15 - 20% less than what that says. The weight will come off steadily, even if it does mean eating more than what MFP suggests.