High BMR daily Calorie intake

Skyliner1232002

Hi all,

This is my first post. I am a 6ft male and have always been bulky all over rather than have a belly. I have been dieting since the new year and so far have lost 17 lbs. My target is a loss of 52 lbs so quite a way to go yet.

My question is to do with BMR and TDEE. I have been studying the other posts on the subject and think I have a good understanding of the basics but I have a dilemma. Up to now I have been consuming a daily net calorie intake of around 1200 to 1500 after adding and eating back exercise calories. My goals have been set on standard MFP defaults.

Having now calculated my current BMR it is showing 2258 and a TDEE of 3104 or 2483 with a 20% deficit. This is a shock as even without adding exercise (as the TDEE method takes care of this already) I am well under the BMR let alone the 2483. I was losing around 3lbs a week until last week where it dropped to around 1lb although this came after suffering from flu like symptoms for a week which killed off the exercising.

The question is does the BMR of 2258 sound realistic as I am concerned whether I can consume that amount and still lose weight? Also at the amount I have been consuming will my body be in starvation mode, I have not been 'starving' myself?

Any advice would be welcome.

Lee

rileysowner

You are a 6' tall male. The fact that you are not feeling miserable on the calories you are eating, which is low even for a 5'5" woman is surprising. You may be happy with the 3 pounds per week weight loss, but at that calorie level you have likely lost a lot of muscle mass in that as well. The generally accepted minimum for males is 1500 calories, not the 1200 for women that gets tossed around here. You should be eating much more. Likely there will be an adjustment phase when you increase your calories. I would suggest friending helloitdan and following this program http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Going the way you are as a 6' male will have you lose weight, but look at your body in the mirror, and realize what you will get is the same looking body, but smaller. Not a healthy athletic look.

Skyliner1232002

Many thanks for the reply and the advice.

I had already read the link earlier and it was one if the ones that made me start checking BMR and TDEE numbers. I avoid the BMI results as it even puts my target at overweight (currently says obese).

Interestingly, although I have lost around a stone, my main measurements have not really reduced which I wonder is connected with muscle mass loss rather than fat?

I am now starting to look at the macro nutrient mixes instead of just calories so will monitor for a few weeks at new levels and see what happens.

neandermagnon

yes that BMR number sounds very realistic for a 6' tall man with a fair bit of fat still to lose. On other forums I've posted on, there were big men who were losing fat at over 3000 cals/day

eta: lift heavy weights to protect your lean body mass (or any exercise that works the muscles very hard) plus ensure you're getting enough protein.