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

DavPul

How did thread last past 3 or 4 posts? There's no arguing the other side. Whatever. Thread needs more dancing

KathrynKennewell108

Here here!! OMG! The self righteous crap!

KathrynKennewell108

Exactly! Hey, let's all eat 1200cal of crap (say, 1200 cal worth of Tim Tams for example for those chocaholics out there) and compare the real life results to 1200cal of quality nutrition (1200 is just a hypothetical number for all you namby pambies out there). It's not rocket science. How many times do you want to headbutt the wall before turning to plain ole every day common sense. I used to be on a similar support group forum, and it was day in day out *****ing over mere grams of consumption, and then listening to these same people have endless conversations at a Relay For Life event over pizza delivery fantasies, and hearing their stats that they were all hovering around their ideal weights ranging from 50 odd kgs to 60 odd kgs was enough to make me sick. Who gives a ****e about the finer points? Go have a nutritious meal, look in the mirror, learn to like yourself again, and get on with your life!

lazykerry

It's probably a good rule of thumb not to eat below your BMR if you're already at a healthy weight, but your organs are not going to starve to death if you have 100 pounds of fat on your body to feed them.

BlackTimber

It's probably a good rule of thumb not to eat below your BMR if you're already at a healthy weight, but your organs are not going to starve to death if you have 100 pounds of fat on your body to feed them.

Sounds logical but it doesn't typically work that way. If a person is 100 pounds overweight then they are most likely insulin resistant to some extent and will most definitely be leptin resistant. Leptin is the "satiety" hormone that is located mainly in your adipose tissue and makes a connection with your hypothalamus. Leptin is what tells your body that you have had enough to eat, it also plays a part in controlling your metabolism. When eating at a deficit beneath your BMR, your endocrine system will see that as a time of famine. Your metabolism will slow down and your body will start saving your fat and using your muscle as energy. On top of that by being insulin resistant you will have more insulin in your blood stream than you should, this also prevents your body from being able to use the stored fat. You actually have it completely backwards. A body that is in the "normal" fat range will have a more "normal" reaction to the reduced calories. Our bodies want homeostasis, but at some point things get out of control and we enter the world of the obese. It's at this point that our bodies no longer do a good job at increasing or slowing our metabolism to keep thing under control. It's all about hormones. Hunger is hormonal, as is satiety. The problem in part is that no one really know the whole story - new things are being discovered all the time.

WendyTerry420

Just something I was thinking about, as I see people repeatedly say that you shouldn't eat below your BMR. The only explanation I've seen is along the lines of, "Because that's what your body needs to do its most basic functions," but that doesn't really make sense considering the whole point of a caloric deficit is to eat less than what your body needs to function so that it takes from its stored energy.

By that logic, and overweight person could still survive off their body fat without eating a single thing. It simply doesn't work that way though. If you don't eat a minimum amount of food each day, then you are putting undue stress on your body. In the long term, it can wreak havoc on hormone levels, especially cortisol.

DawnieB1977

I doubt your BMR is 1500. That's Probably TDEE.

Um, yes it is. I'm a 35 year old 5'6 female who weighs 163. I workout 5 times a week as stated and am always on the go. I calculated my TDEE once, but can't remember what it was. It was over 2000 though.

According to this http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ my BMR is 1509.

K

k - very humble!

So is my personal trainer wrong saying I should eat between 1400 and 1500 calories a day? My friend is shorter than me and weighs more than I do and she eats around the same and is losing steadily.

I honestly think I would gain weight if I ate more!

Greenrun99

k - very humble!

So is my personal trainer wrong saying I should eat between 1400 and 1500 calories a day? My friend is shorter than me and weighs more than I do and she eats around the same and is losing steadily.

I honestly think I would gain weight if I ate more!

Depends on how many times and how much you workout.. Most PT's aren't nutritionists and they give bad advice.. Reasoning?? You lose weight, they look good, you start eating, you gain weight, then you go back to them to lose more weight = More $$ for them.

If you ate correctly for your activity level, you wouldn't gain weight.. most people would be shocked to know what they could eat and don't.

This whole topic should just be closed when it turned into the first poster arguing with everyone.

WendyTerry420

I've been averaging nearly 1000 calories burned a day and lemme tell ya its hard to eat that back without cheating.

It is *never* "cheating" to maintain a reasonable calorie deficit. WTH?

WendyTerry420

I doubt your BMR is 1500. That's Probably TDEE.

Why? That seems reasonable to me. My BMR is around 1500 and my TDEE is closer to 1900-2100 (I forget it's been awhile since I calculated it.)

1500 is an awfully low TDEE.

lisamarie2181

Wow. You really have to ask?

BMR is absolute minimum. No moving. Just laying in bed.

When you get up, go to work, walk to the pub, have a beer and a sandwich, then go to the gym and lift heavy weights for an hour, all that is on top of BMR. That's your TDEE, which you seem to know o by are you asking. So, most people gain weight because they eat way above their TDEE. If you eat at TDEE. You will neither gain nor lose. If you eat less than TDEE, you lose. But, because your basic survival needs are at BMR, You don't want to eat below BMR. Somewhere above BMR and below TDEE is your weight loss program.

I hope that's clear.

It is clear; however, it doesn't answer my question as it completely disregards my argument.

Ok -- how about the following since you understand that below TDEE already creates a deficit.

Eating below your BMR is ok under certain conditions -- limited amount of time and for someone who has nutrient/calorie stores.

The issue isn't that you have to eat above a certain magical number. It is that at eating well-below a reasonable deficit you are going to have the following things going on:

1) insufficient nutrients - the less you eat, the less likelyhood you will have sufficient diversity and volume of essential nutrients. oops.

2) protein catabolic/anabolic balance - at large deficits the on going processes will tend to shift to a balance which favors using up protein from your muscles elsewhere. One particular place is nutrient transport - do you prefer to have muscles or have them go to make albumin miscelles to tranport food (that you aren't eating). Everyone that loses weight fights with this balance. Large deficits make it harder, much harder. About 1-3% of your protein is being replaced every day. One wants to assure that their is sufficient nutrients to keep that equilibrium in the right direction. Otherwise oops.

3) energy levels - if you are active, lower energy will impact performance in activities and general life. oops.

4) metabolic processes governed by hormonal balance - these process manage things your metabolism but also like hair, hunger, mood, skin and brain function. Long term you really do not want to screw up with that. big oops.

4b) fast drops impact your body in other ways: loose skin, internal elasticity and kidney stones are some of the other macro physiological risks.

5) mental - large deficits are mentally hard and lead to some disfunction (some of it driven by point 4) - this includes simply dropping the lifestyle change (too hard), binging, depression, moodiness to full eating disorders (see startvation studies). Another big oops.

6) lifestyle - one should be developing long term habits that work for a lifetime, and in all situations - below BMR eating is boring, painful and socially difficult.

Your BMR doesn't have to do with just weight loss, it has to do with your health. Eating at least your BMR is insuring that your body is getting the proper amount of calories for you body to function PROPERLY. you are not going to die tomorrow or see an effect in a short period of time. Consistently eating below BMR for long periods will effect your organs and how they function. It can effect your health down the road.

I have seen plenty of people losing hair and having other side effects from not eating enough calories because they are malnourished. Not everything is just about getting pounds off, these things matter for your health and how your body functions.

ETA - I quoted this cuz it was a good post

tweak222

I've been averaging nearly 1000 calories burned a day and lemme tell ya its hard to eat that back without cheating.

It is *never* "cheating" to maintain a reasonable calorie deficit. WTH?

I mean cheating on nutrition. It'd be hard to eat a 1000 calories of salad haha 1000 calories is a lot of extra food to make up. Its hardto make that 1000 calories back and not load up on unhealthy foods to do it. Especially when you're not hungry.

My BMR is 2100 and my TDEE is over 3200 i was eating around 1200 calories a day when I did it 2 years ago and lost a lot of muscle mass. My goal weight's BMR is 1800 (165lbs, 69"). I would suggest if you have to eat below your current bmr eat at your goal weight's BMR

Guys aand gals, if you eat below your TDEE and you lose weight you are in a fat burning caloric defecit. Why go above and beyond to eat below your BMR? muscle burn is a real possibility so why bother risking it if you can accomplish the same task eating above it? As stated previously why would you want to hinder skin elasticity to lose weight faster(debatable) especially if you want to look good. We aare trying to lose inches not lbs. Anyway hope you are all successful however you do it! Peace out!

Schmelvie

By your rationale (to the OP), why eat at all until you've reached your goal weight? Why not just give up eating completely until you've lost the weight?

It's not as simple as doing the math. There are a lot of physiological things at play in our bodies that can make the math obsolete.

acidosaur

How did thread last past 3 or 4 posts? There's no arguing the other side. Whatever. Thread needs more dancing

yesssss the wire

WendyTerry420

I've been averaging nearly 1000 calories burned a day and lemme tell ya its hard to eat that back without cheating.

It is *never* "cheating" to maintain a reasonable calorie deficit. WTH?

I mean cheating on nutrition. It'd be hard to eat a 1000 calories of salad haha 1000 calories is a lot of extra food to make up. Its hardto make that 1000 calories back and not load up on unhealthy foods to do it. Especially when you're not hungry.

My BMR is 2100 and my TDEE is over 3200 i was eating around 1200 calories a day when I did it 2 years ago and lost a lot of muscle mass. My goal weight's BMR is 1800 (165lbs, 69"). I would suggest if you have to eat below your current bmr eat at your goal weight's BMR

Guys aand gals, if you eat below your TDEE and you lose weight you are in a fat burning caloric defecit. Why go above and beyond to eat below your BMR? muscle burn is a real possibility so why bother risking it if you can accomplish the same task eating above it? As stated previously why would you want to hinder skin elasticity to lose weight faster(debatable) especially if you want to look good. We aare trying to lose inches not lbs. Anyway hope you are all successful however you do it! Peace out!

If you aren't hungry when eating only 1000 calories, it's because you screwed up your hormones/metabolism. And there are TONS of high calorie foods that are nutrient dense.

I suggest eating between your TDEE and BMR with plenty of protein to maintain LBM.

WendyTerry420

By your rationale (to the OP), why eat at all until you've reached your goal weight? Why not just give up eating completely until you've lost the weight?

It's not as simple as doing the math. There are a lot of physiological things at play in our bodies that can make the math obsolete.

Great comment! :flowerforyou:

mavajo

So much wrong information in here. The only real concern with eating below your BMR is potentially being deficient in macro- and micro-nutrients, because your overall intake is so low. But there are ways to solve that.

Eating below BMR will not cause vital functions to shut down. That's just complete crap. Your body stores fat for a reason - to make up for the shortfall in daily energy consumption. Your body is not going to start limiting or shutting down vital body functions while it has pound upon pound of energy stored away just for such an occasion.

There is absolutely ZERO evidence what-so-ever of vital body functions shutting down due to a person eating below BMR. Zero. None. It's pure soccer mom conjecture.

Insulin resistance, low leptin levels, etc...that's all just noise. Don't get me wrong - those things are all relevant in terms of your overall fat loss goals. But in terms of whether it's going to cause your body to be energy deficient and start shutting down vital organs - no relevance. I've yet to see someone starve to death with 40 pounds of fat still sitting on their bones.

Anyone who tells you that eating below your BMR is going to cause vital functions to shut down is an idiot, and you should never listen to anything else they say about fat loss, nutrition, etc.