Mythical BMR

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douglasmobbs
douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Why do so many people say you should not eat under your BMR? Some even try and get slightly scientific saying that the BMR shows how many calories your body needs to survive if in a coma.

1. People who log on here are not in a coma, we are moving about so burning more calories.
2. BMR is an estimate. Just look at the different values you get from the different equations.

http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/yjada/article/S0002-8223(95)00366-5/abstract

3. What is a lot more important is the nutritional quality of what you eat rather than the calorie value. Who has a healthier diet, both have a calculated BMR of 1,500. One eats 1,600 calories of lard each day the other eats 1,300 calories in a mix of lean meats, vegetables, fruit and grain.

4. When overweight your body has an adequate source of energy in the fat that makes you overweight.
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Replies

  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    I think people believe it because it kind of sounds right. (It's not.) Like this:

    If you have two items that add up to $1.10 and one costs $1 more than the other, how much do they cost? Most people will say one item costs $1 and the other costs ten cents. (It's not right.)
  • BaconMD
    BaconMD Posts: 1,165 Member
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    Everything is an estimate, not just BMR / RMR formula results. Packaging labels, database entries, HRM readouts. Everything. Just because a value is an estimate doesn't mean there is no value to it whatsoever. For example, when I get an estimate from my mechanic to fix my car, it may be a little more or a little less, but the estimate serves the purpose to tell me the ballpark I'm looking at.

    If your body has an adequate source of energy in your fat, why even bother to eat anything at all? Why not just use up all of your fat and start eating once you've lost a bunch of weight?
  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
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    If your body has an adequate source of energy in your fat, why even bother to eat anything at all? Why not just use up all of your fat and start eating once you've lost a bunch of weight?

    3. What is a lot more important is the nutritional quality of what you eat rather than the calorie value.
  • sigma54
    sigma54 Posts: 28 Member
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    You do need to eat something... you need at least some carbohydrates/sugar since this is the only fuel your brain can use. You do have some carbohydrate storage but not enough to last very long.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    You do need to eat something... you need at least some carbohydrates/sugar since this is the only fuel your brain can use. You do have some carbohydrate storage but not enough to last very long.

    Yes, pretty much this.
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    People can really obsess about the numbers on here!! I sometimes get like that too. It will make you crazy!!!

    If you have a lot to lose and your normal calorie intake 'pre-diet' was say 2400......then just eat less!!!! Pick a number less than 2400 and more than 1200 and go with it for awhile. See if it works!! It's not rocket science. It does get trickier as you get closer to goal and those dreaded plateaus happen. That I will admit. Or if you are hard core, body builder or runner...I can see the 'science' coming into play then. But for someone just starting out - eat less, move more!
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    What you need to eat is usually recommended to be 1200 for women. For many of us, our BMR is higher. When MFP tells people to eat at 1200 to meet their goals and they come in the forums and hear that's dangerous, it just muddies the waters. 1200 is not dangerous.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
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    People can really obsess about the numbers on here!! I sometimes get like that too. It will make you crazy!!!

    If you have a lot to lose and your normal calorie intake 'pre-diet' was say 2400......then just eat less!!!! Pick a number less than 2400 and more than 1200 and go with it for awhile. See if it works!! It's not rocket science. It does get trickier as you get closer to goal and those dreaded plateaus happen. That I will admit. Or if you are hard core, body builder or runner...I can see the 'science' coming into play then. But for someone just starting out - eat less, move more!

    EXACTLY!
  • emnk5308
    emnk5308 Posts: 736
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    All I can say about this entire BMR, eat more thing.. is I've been eating 1100 every day..sometimes eating back exercise cal's sometimes not. I'm not dead yet, I've got TONS O.O of energy.. and I'm losing weight. I eat very good and take vitamins.

    I'm fine. IF I stall out and stop losing weight.. I'll consider it as an option.. I'll give it a try and see what happens.
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    So if BMR is a myth, you are saying that there isn't some number of calories that your body burns at rest? What is your source that it is a myth?
  • BaconMD
    BaconMD Posts: 1,165 Member
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    You do need to eat something... you need at least some carbohydrates/sugar since this is the only fuel your brain can use. You do have some carbohydrate storage but not enough to last very long.

    Yes, pretty much this.
    So how many grams of healthy carbs must I consume in a day in order to live off of my body fat? I think the paleo diet says 50 grams for accelerated fat loss, so that's about 200 calories.
  • carld256
    carld256 Posts: 855 Member
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    I think the record for fasting is 14 months. You can definitely live on your reserves of fat for a while, and doctors routinely put morbidly obese patients on very low calorie supervised diets with good results. BMR is a good rule of thumb, but it's not magic, and the way many people here use "starvation mode" doesn't seem to be backed by any real science.
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    All I can say about this entire BMR, eat more thing.. is I've been eating 1100 every day..sometimes eating back exercise cal's sometimes not. I'm not dead yet, I've got TONS O.O of energy.. and I'm losing weight. I eat very good and take vitamins.

    I'm fine. IF I stall out and stop losing weight.. I'll consider it as an option.. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

    All I will say about the low calorie thing is that when I was eating low calories, I was dizzy, zero energy, couldn't compete a workout. Since I bumped my calories to 2500 a day, I am still losing weight, I have added 100lbs to my squat, 110 to my dead lift, etc. I have tons of energy, my concentration has improved, and I look great.
  • carld256
    carld256 Posts: 855 Member
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    So if BMR is a myth, you are saying that there isn't some number of calories that your body burns at rest? What is your source that it is a myth?

    Well, of course the body burns a certain number of calories at rest, and BMR is real, I just don't think it's as important as many people believe. There is eventually a metabolic slow down if you don't eat enough, but from what I remember reading it only kicks in at a low body fat percentage.
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    So if BMR is a myth, you are saying that there isn't some number of calories that your body burns at rest? What is your source that it is a myth?

    Well, of course the body burns a certain number of calories at rest, and BMR is real, I just don't think it's as important as many people believe. There is eventually a metabolic slow down if you don't eat enough, but from what I remember reading it only kicks in at a low body fat percentage.

    Not true at all:
    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/core_march_8.htm
  • carld256
    carld256 Posts: 855 Member
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    If you're going to link to something as proof you're going to have to do better than a bodybuilding blog.
  • vade43113
    vade43113 Posts: 836 Member
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    bump for future reading
  • LittleButMightyOne
    LittleButMightyOne Posts: 117
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    BMR is not a myth. The online calculators are just pretty worthless. There are actual ways to calculate it. I have been going to my gym to use their InBody 230 machine every couple months or so to measure my progress. It calculates my weight, BMI, % body water, % and pounds of body fat, pounds of muscle, and my BMR.

    I took it in April and my goal then was to lose fat, increase muscle, and thereby raise my BMR. Between then and 2 days ago, my fat had decreased 3.8 pounds, my muscle had increased 1.5 pounds, and my BMR had increased from 1341 to 1368. That's an actual number, not an online estimation.

    And "starvation mode" is also not a joke. I just read a paper that said healthy patients were put on a 3 day fast; their BMR decreased 8% in that time, a significant reduction!
  • chrisb75
    chrisb75 Posts: 395 Member
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    If you're going to link to something as proof you're going to have to do better than a bodybuilding blog.

    Did you read the article or just dismiss it. Where are your sources for all the crap you have claimed.
  • IronPlayground
    IronPlayground Posts: 1,594 Member
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    There are a lot of people that just want to lose weight. Period! They really don't care how they get there. The problem with that thinking is they really don't know what they are going to look like at their predetermined "goal" weight. Some like what they see when they achieve their goal and some are disappointed.

    Others, have a different goal in mind. That would be to preserve a set amount of lean mass and burn fat. This requires a different type of food intake. It is more strict with regards to macros and calories.

    Eating under BMR or at a 20% cut from TDEE is really dependent on your goals.

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