tdee BMR help please

littleblonde200

My tdee is 2504 my BMR is 1821. I am eating around 1500 ish a day . On big burn days i sometimes have more. Am i going to stall weight loss wise? All i keep reading is how i should be having 20% less than tdee which is 2000 Calories, I dont think i could find nor fit 2000 good calories into my diet. . But before here i had never heard of these numbers, So people must lose weight and keep it off without knowing all these numbers, I feel all confused.

Energizer06

People on here are going to tell you never to eat below your BMR. Here's the thing, Hundreds of studies show that eating below your BMR will still cause weight loss. Your not going to die from it, nor will you go into a coma unless you take it to an extreme. I categorized them for my sanity.

Here's my take after reading at least 50 different legit studies from various clinics Northern IL University, Mayo, etc...

Extreme: If you eat 800 or so calories below your BMR, probably not a very good idea. Yes your metabolism slows, but once you start eating a sufficient amount of calories back, your metabolism will adjust. You are not getting enough nourishment to sustain any type of health. And weight loss will actually slow a little from a 3 lb loss per week to about 2.25 lbs. You will lose lean muscle and fat. If I remember correctly its about 70% adipose tissue. You will still lose weight, just not very heathly at this rate.

Severe: Eating gross calories at BMR. Not eating any exercise calories, just eating your BMR. Yes, This is what they say will sustain your life if you were in a coma. Maintains all processes to survive a day. If you were in a coma, this is the amount you would be fed through a tube to sustain life. You'll typically lose 2-3 lbs/wk. Every person is a little different...but in general 2-3lb. Typical subjects showed a small loss in Lean body mass/muscle and fat tissue.

Good: Eating net BMR calories. You eat your BMR plus any exercise/activity calories you earn for the day. This would equate to a weight loss of 1.5 -2 lb/wk. There were some studies that showed a little variance in the losses, but it seemed some studies ran longer but most agreed on this weight loss. Very small amount of LBM loss and 75% or more adipose tissue.

Best: Eating TDEE less 500 calories. Sometimes difficult to do, since most people do not know how many calories they burn in an entire day accurately. This equates to a 1 lb loss/wk. 3500 cal. loss/wk. Most revealed close to 80 -85% adipose tissue. Extreme minimal for LBM.

Best thing to do is find out what calorie level suits your body best and go with it. Start at the "Good" phase and adjust for your lifestyle and goals. The only real exception is the very obese individual (needing to lose 100+ lbs.) They can typically handle a much greater calorie deficit. This is due to extremely high risk factors of heart disease, diabetes, etc... They are better off losing the weight faster due to the fact that their chances of having a myocardio infarction are greater than a overweight individual.

All the methods work, some safer and more lifestyle realistic than others. Also, if you want to keep LBM than "Good" and "Best" are reasonable options. "Severe" and "Extreme" are where the the term "Skinny fat" came from. You can get skinny, but your LBM takes a pretty good hit along the way.

My opinion: Find a balance somewhere between TDEE and BMR that works for your body. And there is no substitute for exercise.

Greenrun99

Eating at a reasonable deficit from your TDEE will prevent some muscle loss during your weight loss journey, having a huge deficit you will be losing more muscle than most like to lose..
Kinda why you see people on here post about being goal weight but not being what they thought.. their BF% is high cause during their loss their body took muscle for energy.

you never heard of these numbers cause you probably never looked at these sites, or read studies on how to lose weight correctly.. Society has always been programmed with magazines and tv shows to lose weight, do crazy diets, don't eat certain foods, eat like a rabbit, etc...

You would be surprised how easy it is to eat 2000 healthy calories.. if you add an extra portion of protein to your meals, eliminate all the fat free and low fat items, and eat healthy fat items (nuts, avocados etc) you can easily reach it and more while not losing weight (depending on your stats/activity level)