I Had My BMR Tested - It's 1032 Calories

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

Gaining as a result of eating more to weigh less is to be expected after chronic dieting.

Mads1997

I just had mine tested also. Every BMR calculator I used on the internet all told me my BMR was 1677-1690. I found out yesterday mine is actually a lot lower at 1548. I was eating 1600, 1700 and 1800 and not losing, probably the reason why.

if a bmr was 1550 then you'd lose at 1600, 1700, and likely 1800.

You would think but I wasn't which is why I went and had blood work done to check hormones etc, every test came back fine. The next step was to check BMR. I am set to eat 1300 cals. So we will see what happens now.

kenazfehu

I think mine could be on the low side, too. We'll see. I started with maximum allowed and can cut back from there.

againagain

I am curious about what online calculators said your BMR is (NOT MFP)? I read the whole thread and I never saw that anywhere.

HypersonicFitNess

I only tell people they need to eat more when I see them consistently eating below 1000 calories; that isn't healthy. I don't believe they are even meeting their BMR forget about activity they are doing and they ARE doing activity. But they will not listen until they go into cardiac arrest, unfortunately.

staceyleew

bump

chivalryder

I just noticed that my "tested" BMR is lower than the calculated value as well. If I hop onto one of the online calculators, I am told my BMR is 2149 kcal. I have a scale that measures my body composition (including BF%, skeletal muscle %, visceral fat, etc), and it comes up with my RMR (which is different from BMR, but the two values are very close to each other). My scale says my RMR is 2004 kcal at this point in time.

Now, 150 kcal may not seem like much, but if you use the TDEE method to calculate your calories, it adds up. Sedentary has a difference of 180, lightly active 206, active 232, and so on.

Having a difference of 232 kcal/day will make a 0.5 lb/week difference. I would say that is significant.

Yes, I realize that the scale isn't 100% accurate either, but I'm willing to bet it's a lot closer than any online calculator.

etoiles_argentees

I hear you, when I was tested at my local university mine varied between 970 and 1107 or 1170...can't remember but it was low. I've always been thin though, even though I net almost 2000 calories daily at a sedentary level.

CATindeeHAT

I am curious about what online calculators said your BMR is (NOT MFP)? I read the whole thread and I never saw that anywhere.

Discover Health BMR calculator says: Your BMR is 1484.6 calories (http://health.discovery.com/centers/heart/basal/basal.html)

bmi-calculator.net says: You have a BMR of 1492.55. (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/)

Runner's World says: Your BMR is 1491 and Total Daily Calorie Needs: 1790 for Sedentary (http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/bmrcalculator/0,8210,s6-242-306-575-0,00.html)

Fitness.com says: Your BMR is: 1,492.55 Calories/24 hour period (http://www.fitness.com/tools/bmr/)

So roughly about the same everywhere.

Low and behold, they are wrong in my case...and not by 20 or so calories...

soulfulsally

I hear you, when I was tested at my local university mine varied between 970 and 1107 or 1170...can't remember but it was low. I've always been thin though, even though I net almost 2000 calories daily at a sedentary level.

That's interesting. Sounds like there's more to the ideal calorie intake than BMR, like maybe some people naturally burn more calories doing everyday activities?

DesireeLovesOrganic

Thanks for sharing! This makes sense to me and is probably why I gain when I follow MFP's "maintenance" calories. I have found that to maintain I have to do at least 150 cal less a day than MFP recommends (and I even keep it set at sedentary but I don't consider myself sedentary.) It recommends 1700 but I do 1550 (130 pound 5'7 female, 22% body fat) and have maintained for 3.5 months...

soulfulsally

CAT, do you know if a 10 minute RMR test (oxygen test) would be worth the money (it's $50)?

CATindeeHAT

CAT, do you know if a 10 minute RMR test (oxygen test) would be worth the money (it's $50)?

I mean, if you're struggling to lose weight it might be a good idea, especially for $50 (I would image they would cost around $250 or so). Personally, I feel like it's very valuable information.

For example, suppose 20 years from now you're struggling to maintain your weight like you did 20 years earlier. We all know that your calorie needs decrease as you age, but having that previous reading from when you were younger could really help you understand the problem you're having and even help rule out a more serious underlying medical issue perhaps.

However doing what one MFP member said:

I guess all i would say is why don't people just play around with their calories and figure out if they're losing weight. I lost 60 pounds in the past before people even used the internet and/or talked about BMR. We just did it the old fashioned way: SWAG (scientific wild-*kitten* guess).

Works just as well in many cases.

It just depends on your needs and your desire to know your own body.

70davis

Bump

soulfulsally

Yeah, I am struggling to lose weight. This is my upteenth time over the past 9 years trying to lose the flab. My calorie intake's been averaging in the 1,700s for the past 3 weeks and I haven't lost any weight. I lowered my calories this week and will see where it takes me. I am on the fence whether to spend the money on that RMR test. It would be nice to finally have a concrete answer!

EvgeniZyntx

I am curious about what online calculators said your BMR is (NOT MFP)? I read the whole thread and I never saw that anywhere.

Discover Health BMR calculator says: Your BMR is 1484.6 calories (http://health.discovery.com/centers/heart/basal/basal.html)

bmi-calculator.net says: You have a BMR of 1492.55. (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/)

Runner's World says: Your BMR is 1491 and Total Daily Calorie Needs: 1790 for Sedentary (http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/bmrcalculator/0,8210,s6-242-306-575-0,00.html)

Fitness.com says: Your BMR is: 1,492.55 Calories/24 hour period (http://www.fitness.com/tools/bmr/)

So roughly about the same everywhere.

Low and behold, they are wrong in my case...and not by 20 or so calories...

Can I suggest you try heybales spreadsheet here on the site? You'll see results like this but also a bf% calc that might fit better.

kdeaux1959

Thanks for sharing.

joannathechef

That is a very good read. It's not often you get something worth reading on the forums. That certainly opens up the ideas and really challenges what is considered "right."

With your numbers, if you were sedentary and rarely/never exercised, you'd have to eat 700 kcal every day to lose 1 lb/week. That would certainly stir up a storm on here!

BMR is not TDEE - to lose you need to be lower that TDEE

BMR is to keep alive in a coma it is not required eat less than BMR to lose weight it required to eat less than TDEE

chivalryder

That is a very good read. It's not often you get something worth reading on the forums. That certainly opens up the ideas and really challenges what is considered "right."

With your numbers, if you were sedentary and rarely/never exercised, you'd have to eat 700 kcal every day to lose 1 lb/week. That would certainly stir up a storm on here!

BMR is not TDEE - to lose you need to be lower that TDEE

BMR is to keep alive in a coma it is not required eat less than BMR to lose weight it required to eat less than TDEE

That hasn't already been said about 50 times in this thread... (sarcasm)

Seriously, someone else, about 4 pages back, said you the people who made that statement must be pretty dumb. We're not idiots, and neither is the OP.

AliceNov2011

This (below) is brilliant. I just applied this formula month-by-month to my entire year (I keep a spreadsheet, too) and it averaged TO THE CALORIE to what I had figured my actual TDEE is, given where I maintained during a reset. And that number is 200 calories lower than what all the online calculators tell me. Thank you SO much for sharing that.

And as a sidebar, I have no idea why anybody would give a toot what any disembodied stranger on an online forum cared about them -- and my advice to the OP (and I'm quite a lot older than you are) is that you not reply to people who poke you with sticks. Walk away.

And congratulations on learning something new about yourself! That's always very empowering... and in this case, you've helped empower a lot of other people. Good job! ;c)

I don't use the online calculators, or a BMR guess, or activity levels at all anymore. Too much guesswork for my taste. My method is that every month I review my data, I add up the total NET calories for 30 days. I'll call it NET30.

Day1(1607)+Day2(1705)+Day3(1647).........+Day30(1568)= NET30

Add to NET30 Total weight loss in 30 day period multiplied by 3500, so say it was 5.4 lbs:
NET30+(5.4*3500) = NETtdee30

Divide NETtdee30 by 30 = NET TDEE for past 30 days.
Take your deficit (500 calories, 20%, whatever you use) from the Net tdee for the past 30 days.

This method has a few assumptions that are likely somewhat false, most notably that 100% of your weight loss was fat. I would say that it has a lot less assumption than any of the online calculators have, though. In my experience, and that of my friends that have tried out this method, my calculations holds true enough to get a really good estimate of your caloric needs, and produce predictable weight loss results. Give it a try!

*Note- this won't work if you're stuck at a plateau, or if you're brand new and losing mostly water weight, or if you've been SIGNIFICANTLY undereating such that you're slowing down your metabolism, or if you've recently made a big switch- like going to ketosis for example, where your water weight would have dropped again. I would recommend waiting until you've been here about 6 weeks, and using the previous 30 days data to start.