Eating all of your calories/BMR
eyescatchfire
Posts: 257 Member
I certainly eat all of my calories as suggested by MFP. However, I checked my BMR, and it listed it as about 1500. MFP suggests that I eat 1380 cals/day to lose 1 pound a week. (This is before excercise, which I do 3 times a week. I eat those calories when I have them.) Should I be worried that I'm eating less than my BMR? I do feel ok (plenty of energy, no headaches, not getting sick, etc), and I'm losing actually about 1.5-2 pounds a week. Does this mean I have even more of a deficit than I think I have (the 500/day calculated by MFP?) I have, in total, about 70 pounds to lose to be at the high end of "normal" weight for my height.
How many times has this been posted about? Sorry if this is a repeat, but I started to get a little worried...I want to lose the weight only once!
How many times has this been posted about? Sorry if this is a repeat, but I started to get a little worried...I want to lose the weight only once!
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Replies
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I certainly eat all of my calories as suggested by MFP. However, I checked my BMR, and it listed it as about 1500. MFP suggests that I eat 1380 cals/day to lose 1 pound a week. (This is before excercise, which I do 3 times a week. I eat those calories when I have them.) Should I be worried that I'm eating less than my BMR? I do feel ok (plenty of energy, no headaches, not getting sick, etc), and I'm losing actually about 1.5-2 pounds a week. Does this mean I have even more of a deficit than I think I have (the 500/day calculated by MFP?) I have, in total, about 70 pounds to lose to be at the high end of "normal" weight for my height.
How many times has this been posted about? Sorry if this is a repeat, but I started to get a little worried...I want to lose the weight only once!0 -
Hey - at least you're coming at it from a different angle!! :happy: I guess if your BMR is that high, and it is what your body needs just to exist you probably need to eat at least that much. I think Banks is the one who said to check your BMR on at least a couple of different sites and then average because some will figure it differently. Maybe take a look at that and then see where you should be! Good luck
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I think that is a lot of weight to lose each week for the little amount you need to lose total. I would cut it back to 1-1.5 lbs a week.0
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wewereundone,
(love the screen name by the way.)
Have you been to the following post?
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions?page=1
Good luck!
Cheryl0 -
I think that is a lot of weight to lose each week for the little amount you need to lose total. I would cut it back to 1-1.5 lbs a week.
Mary, she is trying to lose 70 pounds according to her post............?? Right? :huh:0 -
I copied this quote from http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
"The BMR Calculator will calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR); the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day."
So you do want to stay at less calories than your BMR if you want to lose weight, the other calories is what you would eat if you wanted to maintain weight, without exercise.
Hope that helps.0 -
I actually did read the post (and all of the replies) trying to find the answer so I wouldn't have to post again...maybe it's in there and I missed it. Why would MFP calculate my calories at something lower than my BMR?
Per the above suggestion, I went on half a dozen other sites, and they all said my BMR was 1600 or MORE! I have no problem eating more food, of course! :blushing: Should I just manually alter my goals to up the calories? I have a desk job and drive to work, so I really do literally sit on my *kitten* for 10 hours a day...0 -
I think you are doing fine. Just listen to your body. You are successfully losing at a good rate 1-2 lbs a week.
if you feel you are undereating, then add some more veggies and salads to your lifestyle. And you are exercising which makes your heart healthy.
Don't over analyze.0 -
Gosh - that BMR seems kind of high! 1600 or more?? Sounds more like maintenance calories to me :laugh: (although for me right now, that is my LOSING weight calories :laugh: ) Don't know what to tell you at this point! You seem to be doing o.k. where your at and losing weight consistantly. If you stall out for a longer period of time - 2-3 weeks - maybe you should re-evaluate what your doing, but I guess for now if it ain't broke, don't fix it!! Unless something is off in how you are putting in your information, that is the only other thing I can think of!
Hallusmc - you need to be above your BMR calories to keep your body functioning. You want to be less than the calories you need to maintain your current weight to lose weight.0 -
I think that is a lot of weight to lose each week for the little amount you need to lose total. I would cut it back to 1-1.5 lbs a week.
Mary, she is trying to lose 70 pounds according to her post............?? Right? :huh:
:blushing: :blushing: :blushing:
I just went to her page to find her weight loss goals. Please forgive.0 -
Sorry Mary, that's the first of 2 or 3 goals. I'm trying to be realistic.
MontanaGirl--I've checked 5 or 6 sites, and they all say the same thing. I think I'm going to up my calories to at least what MFP says my BMR is, and see what happens. I just want to be healthy, darnit!
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Gosh - that BMR seems kind of high! 1600 or more?? Sounds more like maintenance calories to me :laugh: (although for me right now, that is my LOSING weight calories :laugh: ) Don't know what to tell you at this point! You seem to be doing o.k. where your at and losing weight consistantly. If you stall out for a longer period of time - 2-3 weeks - maybe you should re-evaluate what your doing, but I guess for now if it ain't broke, don't fix it!! Unless something is off in how you are putting in your information, that is the only other thing I can think of!
Hallusmc - you need to be above your BMR calories to keep your body functioning. You want to be less than the calories you need to maintain your current weight to lose weight.
Took the words right out of my mouth
My BMR is 1670 which is the amount of calories I eat every day no matter how much or how little I exercise. I do this for two reason
1. I totally agree you should not eat below your BMR, your body needs to keep functioning
2. I calulated my TDEE, TDEE is the total number of calories that your body expends in 24 hours, including all activities. TDEE is also known as your "maintenance level". I based this on my current weight. Here is a rough way to calculate your TDEE. Take your BMR and multiply it according to your activity level
Activity Multiplier
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)
With my numbers I consider myself between Mod and very active so I multiply my BMR by 1.6, this gives me a TDEE of 2672. So if I wanted to maitain my current weight of 211(which I don't) at my current activity level I would eat 2,672 calories a day. But I want to lose weight. So I am reducing my caloric intake for a 2lb a week weight loss, which is 1,000 calories a day. So, to lose 2lbs a week I eat 1,672 calories a day and wouldn't you know it, that's right where my BMR is! When I actually did all these calculations I was very happy to see the numbers were supported both ways. This is also why I don't adjust my food intake for exercise, I've already worked my activity level into my calculations on my TDEE, now if I really do an extra long workout that's more than my average I'll certainly add some more calories in.
So, that's just my two cents. 1 -
I just checked several sites and my BMR is between 1750 and 1760 - I threw out the 2 that said 2304 and 2640:noway: . And my maintenance from this site is like 2300. Wow - but to lose 1 lb/week it calculates me to eat 1660 cal/day. So it's only 100 different, but less than it calculated my BMR to be. Very interesting. I guess I assumed the calculation was correct and have been aiming for at least 1600 calories per day but not more. Maybe I need to adjust?!! I hear you - I want to be healthy and have energy and be able to play with the kids - and get rid of this extra weight!0
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I think we are confusing the terms and their usage here.
The true definition of the basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories you'd burn just lying in bed; they keep your heart beating, lungs functioning, etc.
Maintenance calories are the calories that you burn each day with your BMR and ALL of your activities based on your lifestyle (sedentary, lightly active, moderately active).
Your lifestyle doesn't change your BMR. Your lifestyle changes your maintenance calories. MFP asks you what your lifestyle is, so when you give your body stats (height, weight, etc.) and your lifestyle (sedentary, etc.) it calculates your projected MAINTENANCE calories, then subtracts a deficit. That deficit will not bring you below 1200, because pretty much any adult without a thyroid problem will have a BMR around that number.
Montana, the numbers 2304 and 2604 are probably MAINTENANCE calories, not BMR calories. Your BMR may very well be 1750 depending on your size. I'm fairly small and mine is 1265. But my *maintenance* calories are 2400-2500.0 -
Nope song - they were BMR - :laugh: I was kind of shocked - the various BMR's (NOT maintenance) numbers I got were 1757.7, 1756, 1758, 1750, 2304, 2640. I threw out the last two and assumed the calculator was faulty or had a faulty premise. None of these took activity or lifestyle into account - one I could recalculate the calories I needed each day based on various activities but I didn't do that. These were BMR - and this site said BMR of like 1738 or something close to it.0
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Nope song - they were BMR - :laugh: I was kind of shocked - the various BMR's (NOT maintenance) numbers I got were 1757.7, 1756, 1758, 1750, 2304, 2640. I threw out the last two and assumed the calculator was faulty or had a faulty premise. None of these took activity or lifestyle into account - one I could recalculate the calories I needed each day based on various activities but I didn't do that. These were BMR - and this site said BMR of like 1738 or something close to it.
Weird. What site did you use for the last two?0 -
I think it was this one
www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate
It is a manual calculation :blushing: I looked again, I may have done something wrong, seeing as how math is NOT my forte! Anyhow, I threw out those numbers, but all the others were basically in agreement.0 -
I think it was this one
www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate
It is a manual calculation :blushing: I looked again, I may have done something wrong, seeing as how math is NOT my forte! Anyhow, I threw out those numbers, but all the others were basically in agreement.
The "BMR" calculator I found is actually a maintenance calculator; it had a box for choosing moderately/very active, etc. I should've mentioned that a lot of sites use maintenance and BMR interchangeably, even though they really aren't. So that 2300 number is actually your maintenance if you used what I did on that site. It doesn't help when sites don't use the right words lol!0 -
I used the Harris-Benedict (?) formula - BMR based on total body weight. I think the next one down was for maintenance. Don't remember (and I just looked :noway: ) Yeah - whatever is wrong - them or me - those numbers WOULD spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E for me!! And then can you imagine adding on exercise calories to that????? :sick:0
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My BMR, according to this site, is 1708 but has gone down from 1790 since I starting on here. My maintainance is around 2150. The bigger you are, the higher the BMR.0
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My BMR, according to this site, is 1708 but has gone down from 1790 since I starting on here. My maintainance is around 2150. The bigger you are, the higher the BMR.
Yep - got that part down!! I guess I'm still surprised that my daily intake total is actually less than my BMR. Seems thats been pointed out before, but I thought that was just for everyone else, apparently :laugh:0 -
I certainly eat all of my calories as suggested by MFP. However, I checked my BMR, and it listed it as about 1500. MFP suggests that I eat 1380 cals/day to lose 1 pound a week. (This is before excercise, which I do 3 times a week. I eat those calories when I have them.) Should I be worried that I'm eating less than my BMR? I do feel ok (plenty of energy, no headaches, not getting sick, etc), and I'm losing actually about 1.5-2 pounds a week. Does this mean I have even more of a deficit than I think I have (the 500/day calculated by MFP?) I have, in total, about 70 pounds to lose to be at the high end of "normal" weight for my height.
How many times has this been posted about? Sorry if this is a repeat, but I started to get a little worried...I want to lose the weight only once! Sounds good to me. If your losing weight (and that is a very healthy rate). Just listen to your body.
Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Easy Calorie Counting0 -
I certainly eat all of my calories as suggested by MFP. However, I checked my BMR, and it listed it as about 1500. MFP suggests that I eat 1380 cals/day to lose 1 pound a week. (This is before excercise, which I do 3 times a week. I eat those calories when I have them.) Should I be worried that I'm eating less than my BMR? I do feel ok (plenty of energy, no headaches, not getting sick, etc), and I'm losing actually about 1.5-2 pounds a week. Does this mean I have even more of a deficit than I think I have (the 500/day calculated by MFP?) I have, in total, about 70 pounds to lose to be at the high end of "normal" weight for my height.
How many times has this been posted about? Sorry if this is a repeat, but I started to get a little worried...I want to lose the weight only once! Sounds good to me. If your losing weight (and that is a very healthy rate). Just listen to your body.
Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Easy Calorie Counting
The original post you quoted was in February of '08, several months ago. Please read the entire thread with all the resulting replies from some very smart people. "Listening to your body" is not a good rule of thumb for safe weight loss. Your body will stop being hungry after several hours of food denial past when you normally should have eaten. But this was a very old post, so I'm sure she has figured it out by now!
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I am really confused now. MFP gave a daily food goal of 1200 (without exercise) and today it is 1697 cals (with exercise). I have been on this site for close to 2 wks now and I love it. It is helping me keep accountable with my food and exercise. Getting a little discouraged looking at the scale everyday it goes up and down like a yo yo. I am staying within my goal and have been averaging no more than 1500 cals/day ( I also exercise daily). I feel better and my body is getting tighter, or so it feels. Why am I not seeming to lose any weight? It's really bugging me.
For example last sat I weighed in at 180.0 (au naturale), last night I weighed 184.8 (ok .w/ clothes on). This morning 183.4 (dressed) MFP gave BMR as 1457. ]
Is this normal ? What gives or am I just being obsessive?
Apologies if you all have addressed this ~ I am just confused and hoping you all will help.
I don't want to quit now.0 -
Just a little BUMP in the seat to start your monday.0
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BUMP0
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Dragonfly, it makes a big difference what time of day you weigh yourself. I always like weighing the first thing in the morning (usually a smaller number than later in the day for me) :laugh: Your numbers will be more consistent that way.0
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what the?
talking about bringing a post back from the dead. This one was from 20080 -
I'm glad its been bumped! I've read the newbies threads and the various posts about not to eat below your BMR but I seem to be in the same position as a lot of people: My BMR is ABOVE what MFP says to eat:
My BMR is 1500ish and MFP advises 1200 a day. I've only been on 1200 a day for about 5 days now but I've felt faint, nauseous and headachey - so I'm going to up my intake to 1500+excercise calories and lose weight slowly but healthily.
I think the best advice has to be to listen to your body - if I wasn't feeling so unwell I'd carry on with the 1200 mark for the faster (but not OTT) weight loss. Hope this isn't too contentious!0 -
I am really confused now. MFP gave a daily food goal of 1200 (without exercise) and today it is 1697 cals (with exercise). I have been on this site for close to 2 wks now and I love it. It is helping me keep accountable with my food and exercise. Getting a little discouraged looking at the scale everyday it goes up and down like a yo yo. I am staying within my goal and have been averaging no more than 1500 cals/day ( I also exercise daily). I feel better and my body is getting tighter, or so it feels. Why am I not seeming to lose any weight? It's really bugging me.
For example last sat I weighed in at 180.0 (au naturale), last night I weighed 184.8 (ok .w/ clothes on). This morning 183.4 (dressed) MFP gave BMR as 1457. ]
Is this normal ? What gives or am I just being obsessive?
Apologies if you all have addressed this ~ I am just confused and hoping you all will help.
I don't want to quit now.
It’s your clothes!! You were naked the first weight in and then wearing clothes both times after! Trust me on that one. I'm running a Biggest Loser Challenge at work and its my scale so I weigh in at home in the morning before showering and breakfast and the 2 bottles of water I have near breakfast, after the washroom, and naked and I am 3.5 lbs heavier when I weigh in again at 9:00 am at work. Don't fret! You are on the right track eating 1500 cals with working out that should keep your body away from starvation mode.
Edit: plus you may gain a lb or so eventually (but now its your clothes I swear!) if you are weight-training but don't let that deter you, you feel yourself getting tighter, you will loose inches and the more muscle you have the more fat you burn so keep it up!0
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