What's the reasoning behind eating AT LEAST your BMR?

hestia1986

Your maintenance numbers are reversed, it takes 6 calories to maintain muscle, and only 2 or 3 to maintain fat.

Oh, I was too slow. It sucks being a perfectionist and checking things twice

jesz124

This thread depresses the crap outta me. Why is it so difficult to just eat slightly less than your TDEE, work out, eat like a normal human being and slowly and safely lose fat. Why do so many posters on this thread have to chuck themselves on the starvation bandwagon?

Theres so much info out there so help you lose safely and keep it off for good. VLCD's will generally not be healthy or be easy to maintain in the long term. Is it rocket science to work out yuor TDEE and comfortably shed fat? No, it is not. I have literally no idea why so many people on these boards seem to make weight loss as uncomfortable and hard as physically possible. It's brain numbing. Between this thread and the mulitple 1200 calorie threads of late I've pretty much had enough of the forums for a while I think. Some of the *kitten* on here lately is just damn right unhealthy and the members encouraging others to eat VLC should be ashamed of themselves. Educate yourselves and stop passing on bad info.

EmilyOfTheSun

I'd rather not feel like I'm gonna faint when I stand up from lack of food. I'd rather lose weight AND eat like a boss.

Lyssa62

my body has learned to tell me when it's hungry. I have learned what my day can look like and still maintain. I don't pay attention to the days I exercise and one of the sites tells me I can eat a gazillion more calories. I eat when I am hungry and that's it. ( ok except for my popcorn at night..that's habit but a healthy one). I gave up worrying about those letters ( you know) BMR TDEE ..etc and so on and so forth.

I feel good..and just had my yearly and am healthier than the doctor I see that is my age. GO ME!

Toumani

Well done, OP. I could never troll with such subtlety!

chocl8girl

This thread depresses the crap outta me. Why is it so difficult to just eat slightly less than your TDEE, work out, eat like a normal human being and slowly and safely lose fat. Why do so many posters on this thread have to chuck themselves on the starvation bandwagon?

Theres so much info out there so help you lose safely and keep it off for good. VLCD's will generally not be healthy or be easy to maintain in the long term. Is it rocket science to work out yuor TDEE and comfortably shed fat? No, it is not. I have literally no idea why so many people on these boards seem to make weight loss as uncomfortable and hard as physically possible. It's brain numbing. Between this thread and the mulitple 1200 calorie threads of late I've pretty much had enough of the forums for a while I think. Some of the *kitten* on here lately is just damn right unhealthy and the members encouraging others to eat VLC should be ashamed of themselves. Educate yourselves and stop passing on bad info.

^^^THIS.

Everyone wants things to happen as quickly as possible, and they just disregard any information that will not get them from point A to point B as fast as they think they should go. Personally, I am quite happy losing 1/2 pound a week or less, it's not a race, and this way, I can stay healthy, give my body everything it needs, be KIND to my body, and live this way for the rest of my life. I won't tell anyone else what to do, hell, I don't know if my way is the right way, but it works for me, I'm healthy, I'm losing weight, I'm not hungry, I have allowances for treats, I forgive myself if I make mistakes, and that's all I have to offer.

I wonder how many calories overthinking something uses?

People who want to eat too little already seem to have all the answers, and will just continue to argue that their way is the right way, so I say, let them do whatever they want to do.

eyvindur

This discussion (what I've read - I only had time for the first page, so sorry if this is a rehash) seems off course to me. Calories are only one part of the puzzle. You could eat the correct amount of calories and still starve to death if you didn't get any good nutrition. It's about getting the correct amount of nutrition, not just calories.

Just be patient, eat right and exercise. Whole foods, quality nutrients, in the right amounts, plus exercise is THE ONLY METHOD OF PERMANENT WEIGHT LOSS THAT WORKS. I'm sorry, but those are the facts.

mogz36

Think of it like this. If you always eat below your BMR, you WILL eventually starve to death. Now, your body doesn't have a mind of it's own. It doesn't know that you're on a diet and that the calorie restriction is temporary. So, the longer you eat below your BMR, the more convinced your body is that you're starving to death. It will then try to save itself by lowering it's own BMR by burning muscle.

naomibabes3

Please help with this one.........Can I ask what you're supposed to do if 20% off your TDEE is less than your BMR?

Should I up my exercise/activity so my TDEE is higher so minus 20% is still more than BMR? - Seems the healthiest most sensible way to follow this rule.

Just eat my BMR?

OR

Eat TDEE minus 20% anyway?

I'm not convinced my numbers are right, I worked out BMR to 1700 (roughly) and TDEE to 2100 which is you take 20% means I should be eating 1600 calories. Does my BMR sound high at 1700?? I figured it would be around the 1200 calories mark! I've been following a 1300 hundred calorie diet (on the advice of MFP) and I'm worried I'm actually eating far too little.

Any help would be much appreciated, it may sound ignorant but I've never heard these things before and I'm now thinking I'm not losing weight in the healthiest/most effective way.

Thank you.

jst1986

Does the same theory work for all weights? As a big guy my BMR is way up above 2750 and I'm really struggling to eat healthily and get anywhere near that number!

3foldchord

I would guess, if your TDEE and BMR are that close, you probably don't have much to lose and -10% might be a meter, healthier, more maintainable goal.

Please help with this one.........Can I ask what you're supposed to do if 20% off your TDEE is less than your BMR?

Should I up my exercise/activity so my TDEE is higher so minus 20% is still more than BMR? - Seems the healthiest most sensible way to follow this rule.

Just eat my BMR?

OR

Eat TDEE minus 20% anyway?

Thanks!

sanndandi

It's more about establishing a healthy body economy. Calories are the monetary system. Your BMR is the bill your body has to pay to sustain the roof over its head. Think of a bank where you keep your calories. You have to keep paying your BMR or the bank will start seizing your valuable property (muscles). You invest calories into a diversified portfolio and you can watch your body prosper (muscle growth) while trimming away unnecessary expenditure (fat stores). It's pretty basic budgeting really only with some slight mechanical differences.

Like how you explained that. Makes a lot of sense

IntoTheSky

can your body tell the difference between losing calories to exercise and losing calories to BMR? my guess is probably not.

Yes. It can. In exercise, you are working muscles. Even in cardio. You are strengthening your heart and lungs and legs. If you do not eat enough to feed those muscles, your body will pull from THEM to find the energy it needs to still function. Assuming that you are not bedridden, you at least move *some*. Yes, you will still lose weight. However, you will lose muscle and will be all weak and jiggly. If that is your goal, then, by all means, go for it. But, most people would like to have good skin and hair and be firm (not even ripped, just firm) and have all of their organs work properly.

tgotthold

I am no fitness guru or nutrition expert, but I would guess that BMR would be based on your LEAN body mass and not your ACTUAL body mass. That is something that the BMR calculators cannot even come close to estimating. Meaning that the calculator would be more accurate the "skinnier" you become (or the closer your lean body mass is to the "estimated percentage" the calculator uses).

For a lack of articulation....fat is stored energy. The less you have of it, the more important it becomes that you eat at or above your ACTUAL BMR. The more you have....well....it shouldn't be an immediate concern since your body has stored energy for times of hardship.

naomibabes3

Thanks 3foldchord, I've got about another 40lbs to lose to get within a healthy BMI which I would have considered a lot! I'm still in the Obese catergory of things. I put Sedentary in as my activity because I do a desk job so maybe that's why the difference is so small? I really don't know and this is all so new to me!

fbmandy55

AnabolicKyle

Your maintenance numbers are reversed, it takes 6 calories to maintain muscle, and only 2 or 3 to maintain fat.

thanks!

thats what i meant.

714rah714

It's just far too much of a deficit. You will lose a lot of muscle mass along with some fat loss. If you lose a lot of muscle, your weight loss will slow.

Because we all have so much muscle, oh wait a minute, no, thats fat, never mind.