Daily Calorie Allowance

mommypenney

Hi all,

I think I have finally got my head around TDEE and calories deficits and eating back cals burned etc. There is still one thing I need clarifying! My BMR is 1600. Now .. many websites and forums say no matter what you really shouldn't eat under your BMR as you need this to keep your body/organs healthy etc. I want to lose 1-2lbs a week, preferably 2lbs as I have a target goal of April 26th which is 11 weeks away and I would ideally like to lose another 17lbs.

Now my TDEE is 2465 at my present weight of 177lbs/12st 9lbs (my height is 174cms/5ft 8.5inches). I understand that 500 cals deficit should be 1lb weight loss and I want to lose 2lbs a week so I need a 1000 cal weight loss.So that tells me really that to do this my intake should be 1465. But this is below my BMR? And as I have worked it out on Scoobys Workshop it also includes my daily exercise which is 3-5hrs of moderate exercise. Just so you know I am doing the Jillian Michaels DVDs and I've seen that she does a 30 slim down which is a mixture of some of her DVD's which I'm starting from Monday. All this week I have been doing her BFBM.

Now, if I enter my details on MFP and put sedentary for my activity it tells me to eat 1200 per day. I have put it at sedentary as many forums on here have recommended I do that and then I can add on my exercise. I have to do a bit of homework to find out what each of Jillian's DVD's is going to be in terms of what I burn in calories but I'm guessing it will be around 300-400 cals. This on top of the 1200 will be 1600-1700 cals a day including my cals burned.

So TDEE with 25% cal reduction (taking into account excercise) - 1465
MFP with sedentary and then added excercise - 1650 (average)

Now I know you may think, well there's not much between the 2 but I have been struggling with losing my weight. Typically it goes down slightly but then goes back up. I've done the BFBM all week and my weight has gone up 2lbs!

My main question is, on days when I can't excercise/rest days etc does that mean I should only have the 1200 that MFP recommends? This means I am eating way below my BMR which as I said is not healthy to do. Also as a final thought, if I put 'little activuty/desk job' (basically my normal day without doing exercise,on scooby's workshop but wanting to keep the 25% cal reduction it suggests 1431 a day with a projected 1lb a week weight loss.

I could really do with someones help as I want to be confident going into next week that I'm doing the right thing.

Thanks all x

haroon_awan

You want to lose 2lb a week? That's unrealistic and extremely hard to achieve. There is a reason MFP has a setting of 1lb a week as it's maximum.

Have a read of http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/how-to-estimate-maintenance-caloric-intake.html

To summarise it, eat: ~11-13 cal/lb of bodyweight.
For example, I weigh 155lbs so for fat loss I should eat between 1705 (11*155) and 2015 (13*155) calories per day. To be "specific" I should eat 20% less than my maintenance which is 2325 (15*155)) so that's 1860 per day.
Set protein to 1g/lb of weight.
Set fat to 0.5g/lb of weight.
Fill the remaining calories with carbs.

Eat the same on ALL days, regardless of whether you are training or not.

If your bodyweight is 177, then 177*11 = 1947 calories per day. Not 1465 or 1650, that's not enough. Constantly eating less will not make you lose fat more, it will result in water loss and more importantly, muscle loss.