RMR tested...what does it mean!?!?

KatyBugs1724

I got my RMR tested today and was told it is 1340. What does this mean? How much should I eat to lose weight? Should I eat back the exercise calories? I know I'm not supposed to eat under that amount, but does that mean that I can't NET under 1340? If I were to burn 500 calories a day, should I eat those extra 500 if I want to lose? I'm just really confused!!

KatyBugs1724

anyone???

mcarter99

All it means is that's around what you burn at rest. The only reason to estimate it is to arrive at an estimate of how much your burn TOTAL in a day, which is your RMR plus your activity. Then you use that to estimate a sensible intake level according to your weight loss goals. You can eat under it or above it. A deficit is a deficit, some physical process is going to be fueled by stored calories, you don't know which and it doesn't matter. I'm assuming you're at a healthy body fat level to be dieting, that is.

KatyBugs1724

so, if I were to burn 1340 as my RMR, then say another 300 just by walking around, doing normal activities etc, my total expenditure (without purposeful exercise) would be 1640, yes? so to lose say, a pound a week I'd need to cut down by 500 calories, lowering my goal to 1140. But, if I were to eat 1140, wouldn't that be "dangerous" bc I'd be eating below what my body needs to function??? Or is that how you lose weight? I understand that obviously I'd do purposeful exercise as well most days, and thus be able to eat more too. So, on a day where I exercise, burning an additional, say, 400 calories, my total expenditure would be 2040. So, I'd eat 1540 on those days?

mcarter99

You got it. This site would have you enter an activity level like Sedentary or Moderately Active and then it applies a standard multiplier to your BMR. For sedentary it's 1.2 so 1340 times 1.2 = 1608. So if you're sedentary and do no added exercise, you'd want to aim to take in on average 1608-500=1108 to lose a pound a week. If you add in about 300 calorie per day of activity, that'd make it 1908-500=1408 to eat. You might want to try to get at least 1200/day in healthy food to be sure your basic nutrition needs are met. But there is no need to go eat above your BMR unless your body fat isn't at a healthy level for weight loss. In my opinion, you can shoot for losing 2 lbs/week (1000 calories/day under your total burn est. like that 1908 value) if you can keep your food intake up around 1200 on average, at least. But slower is healthy and it probably won't come off that fast anyway, at your size.
That's how we lose weight, like you said, by taking in less than we burn TOTAL. Good luck!