Ignorant on weight loss. Help me understand BMR

wolfgate

Seems I killed another thread, but I could use help - so I pulled this part out. Quick summary.

- I run to race. I've done so for about 5 years, until last year when an accident tore meniscus in my knee. Stopped for 8 months, had surgery, added > 20 pounds. Started running again.
- In the past I've raced up to 50 miles, but really am focusing on 5ks now.
- Since returning to running, I've lost 10 pounds and kind of flattened out.
- Good racing weight for me is around 155. I'm 168 now.
- I have a desk job but run 270 minutes a week regularly that is spread over 6 days. ST roughly twice a week, also some core work .

So I came here to try and lose the rest of the weight. I understand exercise but not weight loss. Did the profile and it gave me roughly 1350 calories/day to eat, plus what I burn running. Lost some weight immediately, now flattened out again for a few weeks.

THEN - I saw the formulas below in another thread.:

" Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 X wt in lbs) + (12.7 X ht in in.) - (6.8 X age in years)

Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 X wt in lbs) + (4.7 X ht in in.) - (4.7 X age in years)

This figure is the amount of calories your body burns just keeping you alive. After this you apply the Harris-Benedict Equation.

Harris Benedict Equation:


Little to no exercise Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x 1.2
Light exercise (1–3 days per week) Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x 1.375
Moderate exercise (3–5 days per week) Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x 1.55
Heavy exercise (6–7 days per week) Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x 1.725
Very heavy exercise (twice per day, extra heavy workouts) Daily kilocalories needed = BMR x 1.9 "

If I do that math, that tells me my BMR is 1686. The Harris Benedict takes it to 2613 if I use moderate exercise. Trying to lose a pound a week would then drop it to 2113.

That is over a typical day using the site's tools. Have I done that correctly? Should I be eating that much in calories? Or have I goofed something up. Because if I should, that would imply I'd somehow put myself in starvation mode the past few weeks, right?

Am I missing something? Like I said, while I understand running I know nothing about weight loss. It just happened before, but than again I was running more miles and just maintaining weight.

nxd10

The key thing for you, as a runner, is separating your average activity (desk job) from your exercise (a lot of running).

Calculate your baseline categories WITHOUT your exercise and then use MFP to add your running. MFP will add extra calories for the running you do. Thus if you run for however long and earn 800 calories, that gets added to what you should eat for the day. You may, of course not eat it THAT day, but you can eat average it out over the week.

So yes, you're doing it correct if you chose the right base activity level and eat back your exercise calories.