my BMR - seems VERY low???

kitwright
kitwright Posts: 15 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, I just found the BMR calculator in the tools section, i'm 30, 5'2 and 9 stone, my BMR came up as 1,240... this seems VERY low? How will I ever loose weight? I thought you had to have a deficit of 500cal a day to loose a pound a week (is that right)?

Kit. x

Replies

  • gaiareeves
    gaiareeves Posts: 292 Member
    Your BMR is the absolutely minimal amount of calories your body needs to survive on. As in, that is the amount your body burns in a day just performing basic functions; breathing, cell repair, digestion, etc. You'd burn that much even if you lay in bed all day and did absolutely nothing It basically means you should never, ever eat less than than NET that number, otherwise it's bad for your body.

    Your BMR is not how many calories you burn a day. In actuality just by general movement and day-to-day life you'll be burning at least 1800-1900, more if you exercise.

    I'm 19, 5'3.5", 9st 1lb and my BMR is around 1400 calories. Add in general movement and light exercise and I'm burning around 2000 a day.

    I eat on average 1500 calories a day to lose weight.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    You don't take your deficit from your BMR - you take it from your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), which is a higher number. You're already a healthy weight for your height, so if you want to lose more it would be more appropriate (and sustainable) to aim for a 0.5 lb a week loss, so that would be a 250 calorie deficit from your TDEE.

    According to one online calculator (there are a couple of different formulae for this), if you are sedentary, your TDEE would be about 1617 calories a day, so to lose 0.5 lb a week, you'd need to eat 1367 cals a day. That's for sedentary though, so doesn't include any planned exercise. You would need to log any exercise onto MFP and eat those calories as well. If you don't like doing that, you could calculate your TDEE based on for example a lightly active or moderately active lifestyle, taking into account all your exercise. If you are exercising several days a week at moderate intensity, you might end up with a goal nearer 2000 calories a day.

    If you don't want to mess around with the calculations, just set MFP to lose 0.5 lb a week and it should give you a reasonable goal - then log exercise and eat back those calories.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    At 9 stone (126 pounds) you don't have a lot of pounds to lose, so one pound a week might not be a realistic goal.

    According to this site, my BMR is also low - 1,276 calories - but my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure - all the calories I burn in a day with normal activity and exercise - is around 2300. I lose weight at 2000 calories a day.
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
    This is a great calories calculator

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    BMR is an important number, but what is more important is your TDEE .....it is the number where you would maintain your weight.
  • witchy_wife
    witchy_wife Posts: 792 Member
    This is what I thought too. My BMR is like 1650 so I thought I had to cut 4-500 calories from this to lose weight. I did very slowly lose weight (I still have a lot of weight to lose so should have been moving quicker than it was lol) but I was so hungry all the time!

    I eventually figured it out and eat much more but still lose weight, I am so much happier that I can eat food and not be hungry all the time lol.

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