Confused about BMR and exercise calories

caloriecountmel
caloriecountmel Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have read multiple posts the last few days about BMR and exercise calories, but can't make sense of the daily calories MFP has set up for me. I'm at 225 lbs right now, and want to lose 50 lbs to end up at 175 lbs. I have my settings set to 2 lbs/week, work out 5 days a week for 50 minutes. My BMR is 1850 calories, and MFP has me eating just under 1500 calories/day.
My weekly goal according to MFP is 2050 calories burned/week.
So, between eating 350 calories below my BMR and burning 2050/week (in all actually, my workouts are about 60-70 minutes) and between boxing with an instructor and running I'm probably burning more than estimated) that only adds to 4,500 calories a week, which is a little more than a pound. Since I was confused with these numbers I checked to see what the system would do if had it set at not working out at all and the allowance of 1450 calories/day stayed the same.

Can somebody please explain to me how these numbers were calculated?
I tend to oversee small details, so that may be the problem.
This past summer I lost 7 pounds with MFP (I had my settings at 1 lb/week for all of summer and just recently switched it to 2 lbs/week). I'm not complaining that nothing is happening, I'm just wondering how the calculation works.

Thanks!

Replies

  • gp79
    gp79 Posts: 1,799 Member
    MFP relies on you entering your workouts along with calories burned into your diary.

    When you set up your MFP, it doesn't take into account (for your daily calorie goal) anything you enter as your planned exercise.
  • Going4Lean
    Going4Lean Posts: 1,078 Member
    Read the link, it should explain .


    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • this1bigdog
    this1bigdog Posts: 350 Member
    MFP lets you put the work out in..but assumes you don't do them..so it's up to you either to eat the calories back or not..you can lose more weight faster if you dont' but it's harder to do...your BMR is going to be if you didn't work out...hope that helps! :o)

    if you want you increase your activity level to equal your active lifestyle and that will increase your daily intake..but it's even rougher...good luck
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    I ignore exercise calories. It is highly over rated and confuses the who issue. If I'm particularly hungry after a hard workout day I simply eat 100 or 200 more calories. I'd rather look at my results and listen to my body than rely on inaccurate charts and numbers. You can argue with the results if you want. I got results. The whole story on bobbiesfitness. :)
  • ggcat
    ggcat Posts: 313 Member
    Read the link, it should explain .


    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    This totally helped me!
  • jollygreencc
    jollygreencc Posts: 14 Member
    Here's my understanding:
    I'm 295 and my BMR is 2445. That comes out to 17,115 calories that I burn per week if I don't do anything else. My goal is to exercise 4 times a week and I burn around 1,500 calories per workout. So between my BMR and my exercise, I am burning 23,115 calories per week.

    From what I am reading, 3,500 calories = app.1 pound. So if I want to lose 2 pounds per week, I need to burn 7,000 more calories than I eat. So if I burn 23,000 calories this week and I need to burn 7,000 extra, than I can only eat 16,000 calories of food, which comes out to around 2,200 calories a day.

    That's how I understand it. BMR + calories burned by exercise - calorie intake / 3,500 = weight lost
  • cunfewzed1
    cunfewzed1 Posts: 80
    Here's my understanding:
    I'm 295 and my BMR is 2445. That comes out to 17,115 calories that I burn per week if I don't do anything else. My goal is to exercise 4 times a week and I burn around 1,500 calories per workout. So between my BMR and my exercise, I am burning 23,115 calories per week.

    From what I am reading, 3,500 calories = app.1 pound. So if I want to lose 2 pounds per week, I need to burn 7,000 more calories than I eat. So if I burn 23,000 calories this week and I need to burn 7,000 extra, than I can only eat 16,000 calories of food, which comes out to around 2,200 calories a day.

    That's how I understand it. BMR + calories burned by exercise - calorie intake / 3,500 = weight lost

    Stop worrying so much about burning calories during a workout. Instead, change your eating habits. It's so much easier to eat less calories than it is to burn them off. Additionally, burning 1,500 calories per workout will burn you out, quickly. That one hell of a workout, 4x per week. You'll fall off the wagon.
  • Lyssa62
    Lyssa62 Posts: 930 Member
    I gave up trying to make heads or tails of what I can and can't eat as far as "extra" calories. So I make a mental note of 1200 calories regardless of exercise calorie upgrade. I log my food on here and when I get to 1200 I am done...no matter if I exercised and "earned" another 300 calories. It wasn't working for me. I just had to realize this the other day when it was my b'day and I went way over the 1200 cuz it thought I earned a bunch more for exercise..to me that sounds too good to be true.

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