Still lost on how many calories!

vsecret921
vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So MFP says I Ned to at 1200 then I check mym BMR and it says it's 1501 and my TDEE is 1801. Since I'm not supposed to eat below my BMR should I eat more than 1501 or do what MFP says and eat 1200?

Please help....

5'3
155
Female
26
«1

Replies

  • Welsh_Rarebit
    Welsh_Rarebit Posts: 14 Member
    Is your MFP at 1200 what you need to LOSE weight at the rate you fed into the calculation, and the 1501 for BMR what you need to maintain your current weight?
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    Welsh what I have been reading is the BMR is what your body needs just to stay alive. So you need to eat above it so your body doesn't go into starvation mode. But I'm confused on why MFP is 200 calories less. And right now I have a sedentary job so I'm not getting much movement at all....
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
    Come on now, what have you set your weekly loss to?
  • melissachipman123
    melissachipman123 Posts: 64
    You have to eat below it in order to loose weight or otherwise you would just stay the same. So if your 1500 bmi and you ate 1200 you would be banking 300 calories a day or 2100 a week. Without exercise you would loose a little over 1/2 a pound a week.
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
    You have to eat below it in order to loose weight or otherwise you would just stay the same. So if your 1500 bmi and you ate 1200 you would be banking 300 calories a day or 2100 a week. Without exercise you would loose a little over 1/2 a pound a week.

    Amazing
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    What I'm confused about is the fact that I have read so many places not to eat below your BMR
  • ChantalGG
    ChantalGG Posts: 2,404 Member
    Do you exercise? If so eat 1500 and dont eat it back unless you are training for a marathon or something.
  • holleysings
    holleysings Posts: 664 Member
    MFP does not care about your BMR it only cares about how much weight you want to lose per week. So if you want to lose a certain amount, it's going to set you lower regardless of your BMR. You can manually set your goals if you want to eat at BMR. That's what I do!
  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
    BMR is just an estimated number do not get too hung up on it.
  • dare2love81
    dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
    Never eat below your BMR!!! MFP calculates way too low. It told me I should be eating 1400 a day to lose two pounds a week, yet my BMR is between 1700-1800. So no, don't eat below your BMR - ESPECIALLY if you're exercising.
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    Okay I didn't realize it does not take into account your BMR. So I can manually set it for a different number.

    Thanks everyone!

    Is there a way to estimate how many lbs I will lose a week if it set it to a different number?
  • JoniBologna
    JoniBologna Posts: 653 Member
    Wow. There is a lot of very very bad information in this thread. Do not eat below your BMR. You were right to think that. BMR is what your body needs to function if you were laying in bed all day. You should definitely eat below your TDEE. Set your goals to lose 1lb a week. Right now, you have overridden the system MFP uses because you did not use the recommended weekly weight loss goal.
  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
    Wow. There is a lot of very very bad information in this thread. Do not eat below your BMR. You were right to think that. BMR is what your body needs to function if you were laying in bed all day. You should definitely eat below your TDEE. Set your goals to lost 1/lb a week. Right now, you have overridden the system MFP uses because you did not use the recommended goal.

    Thanks for adding to the bad information
  • 1jacqua
    1jacqua Posts: 5
    Thanks for the info. I had been wondering how would I know how many calories I would need to maintain once I reach my goal.
  • JoniBologna
    JoniBologna Posts: 653 Member
    Wow. There is a lot of very very bad information in this thread. Do not eat below your BMR. You were right to think that. BMR is what your body needs to function if you were laying in bed all day. You should definitely eat below your TDEE. Set your goals to lost 1/lb a week. Right now, you have overridden the system MFP uses because you did not use the recommended goal.

    Thanks for adding to the bad information

    Sorry, I must've missed the part where you were enlightening us all.
  • ChantalGG
    ChantalGG Posts: 2,404 Member
    I did the 1200 CAL and eating back it didnt work for me. I switched it to 150 and ate 1400 to 1800 each day and started losing weight. 1200 calories didnt work for my body.
  • ScottRy76
    ScottRy76 Posts: 31 Member
    Never eat below your BMR!!! MFP calculates way too low. It told me I should be eating 1400 a day to lose two pounds a week, yet my BMR is between 1700-1800. So no, don't eat below your BMR - ESPECIALLY if you're exercising.

    tbh you shouldn't be trying to lose 2 pounds a week not healthy at all
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    Thanks for all the advice but I think I'm more confused due to all the conflicting information :(
  • Bobby_Clerici
    Bobby_Clerici Posts: 1,828 Member
    That's quite a load of muck.
    Keep it simple.
    Just eat lean meats, low fat dairy, nuts, whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies. And follow MFP recommendations for 1 lb per week as a goal. It's easy.
    And track your training both cardio and resistance and eat back those exercise calories to maintain a steady deficit every day.
    Simple.:bigsmile:

    Good Luck!
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    I'm not trying to lose 2 lbs a week
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    It says for me to lose 1lbs a week to eat 1270 calories a day.....seems way under my 1501 BMR
  • beekuzz
    beekuzz Posts: 428 Member
    The way I understand it, and it's working, is your BMR is what your body burns just staying alive. BUT. . . to actually lose weight and not stay stagnant at that weight is to eat less than BMR. My BMR is over 1700, so I am allowed 1200 calories to actually eat. That's burning an extra 500+ calories so that I will LOSE WEIGHT but that would take forever if I didn't exercise.

    Now, the main point is DO NOT EAT UNDER 1200 - not your BMR number. When you eat under the "lose weight" calorie count, your body goes into starvation mode. BUT . . . do not eat your exercise calories earned, if you can help it, because that's just extra burning of calories you get to benefit from.

    Thus far, 3 weeks into the plan, I've lost 10 lbs.

    If I've said anything wrong here, anybody please correct me.

    Good luck
  • melisha922
    melisha922 Posts: 19 Member
    @OP: From what I understand, MFP does take into account your BMR. It then takes into account your fitness level. If you don't do much during the day, then eating your BMR won't help you because you're not exercising enough to lose weight. Basically, you'll just stay the same weight- you won't gain but you won't lose. Then MFP takes into account how much you want to lose/week and creates a deficit so you can reach those goals. It will never let you eat less than 1200 because that would surely put you in starvation mode (so there are safety measures). I've been using a 1200 CAL plan and have been steadily losing weight. I notice that if I consistently eat more, I start gaining or stop losing. I eat most of my exercise calories back when I exercise. Good luck! You'll always find people with contrary opinions but this is my understanding of how MFP works and calculates your goal calories.

    Oh... And I'm 5'6" and started at 134lbs (if that helps)
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    Thanks :)
  • Init_to_winit
    Init_to_winit Posts: 258 Member
    Take this into account. one lb. equals 3,500 calories. So if you want to lose 1lb. a week, you need a 500 calorie a day deficiency. A 1,000 calorie a day deficiency is 2 lbs a week (which is extreme).

    What I've been doing is I calculated my TDEE (this will vary by website, just go with whatever number you want, I used http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html)

    It was around 1,950 so in order for me to lose a lb. a week I put my calorie goal at 1,450. Already I've been losing weight and I'm never starving, I work out occasionally but not often (I chose sedentary as my lifestyle). The important thing is to calculate the TDEE correctly, if you are sedentary and don't work out often then chose that, if you do workout, then chose lightly active and so on, don't cheat on that because you only end up cheating yourself in the long run by trying to eat a diet you can't keep lifelong.
  • em9371
    em9371 Posts: 1,047 Member
    You have to eat below it in order to loose weight or otherwise you would just stay the same. So if your 1500 bmi and you ate 1200 you would be banking 300 calories a day or 2100 a week. Without exercise you would loose a little over 1/2 a pound a week.

    wrong!
    BMR is what you burn by just being alive, you calculate your deficit from TDEE -
    example a person with a BMR of 1500 who is sedentary, would multiply BMR x 1.2 to get TDEE = 1800.
    to lose 0.5lb per week you would take 250 cals from 1800 and so eat 1550.
    to lose 1lb per week take 500 from 1500 and eat 1300.

    If the same person was lightly active, mutliply by 1.3 = 1950
    1700 to lose 0.5lb / 1450 to lose 1lb.
    Plus eat back any exercise cals (or choose a higher activity level), as the above numbers assume you are sedentary, ie no exercise at all.

    Personally I lose best by netting around BMR (1550), and eating 2000ish total.


    www.fat2fitradio.com has a good BMR / TDEE calculator, its more accurate than MFP as it takes into account your body fat %. At the end of the day, you need to remember that MFP is only a computer program that spits out numbers based on what you tell it.
    OP - If MFP gave you 1200 cals, its more than likely you have chosen to lose too much per week, or your activity level is too low.
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    @OP: From what I understand, MFP does take into account your BMR. It then takes into account your fitness level. If you don't do much during the day, then eating your BMR won't help you because you're not exercising enough to lose weight. Basically, you'll just stay the same weight- you won't gain but you won't lose. Then MFP takes into account how much you want to lose/week and creates a deficit so you can reach those goals. It will never let you eat less than 1200 because that would surely put you in starvation mode (so there are safety measures). I've been using a 1200 CAL plan and have been steadily losing weight. I notice that if I consistently eat more, I start gaining or stop losing. I eat most of my exercise calories back when I exercise. Good luck! You'll always find people with contrary opinions but this is my understanding of how MFP works and calculates your goal calories.

    That's makes sense for someone like me who isn't moviing during the day. I'm basically "staying alive" all day!

    Truly it's as though it just "clicked"!

    Thanks :)
  • holleysings
    holleysings Posts: 664 Member
    The way I understand it, and it's working, is your BMR is what your body burns just staying alive. BUT. . . to actually lose weight and not stay stagnant at that weight is to eat less than BMR. My BMR is over 1700, so I am allowed 1200 calories to actually eat. That's burning an extra 500+ calories so that I will LOSE WEIGHT but that would take forever if I didn't exercise.

    Now, the main point is DO NOT EAT UNDER 1200 - not your BMR number. When you eat under the "lose weight" calorie count, your body goes into starvation mode. BUT . . . do not eat your exercise calories earned, if you can help it, because that's just extra burning of calories you get to benefit from.

    Thus far, 3 weeks into the plan, I've lost 10 lbs.

    If I've said anything wrong here, anybody please correct me.

    Good luck

    You will not keep the weight off if you eat under your BMR. Yeah, you might be losing now, but it will not stay off in the long run as you will go into starvation mode. BMR does not take into account your activity, so you will still burn more than you intake as long as you're moving and not laying in bed all day!
  • vsecret921
    vsecret921 Posts: 100 Member
    Thanks EVERYONE for your advice :)
  • em9371
    em9371 Posts: 1,047 Member
    The way I understand it, and it's working, is your BMR is what your body burns just staying alive. BUT. . . to actually lose weight and not stay stagnant at that weight is to eat less than BMR. My BMR is over 1700, so I am allowed 1200 calories to actually eat. That's burning an extra 500+ calories so that I will LOSE WEIGHT but that would take forever if I didn't exercise.

    Now, the main point is DO NOT EAT UNDER 1200 - not your BMR number. When you eat under the "lose weight" calorie count, your body goes into starvation mode. BUT . . . do not eat your exercise calories earned, if you can help it, because that's just extra burning of calories you get to benefit from.

    Thus far, 3 weeks into the plan, I've lost 10 lbs.

    If I've said anything wrong here, anybody please correct me.

    Good luck

    as my last post, create deficit from TDEE not BMR. by deducting from BMR you are effectively creating deficit twice. Initially you will lose, but long term you will lose muscle as well as fat which will slow your metabolism and you will find it harder to lose / easier to gain.....the typical crash diet / regain the weight, and repeat many times cycle!!

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