What's with the "don't ever go below BMR" stuff?

darlenathach

Well I'm 5'4. But its just that i have a big waist and love handles
So basically eat 1250 a day, with maybe 20 min cardio 3x a week, I'd be able to lose weight?
accounting i eat healthy foods of course. wait lets say i ate 1250 today but burned 200 calories working out. would i have to eat back up to 1250 or no?

Eat 1250 on days you don't exercise, and eat 1500 on days you do 20 minutes of cardio. Yeah, if you burned 200 calories working out today you'd want to eat 1450 calories today.

You'll lose weight this way. You could lose 5-8 pounds in two months, which is really the most you should probably lose anyway.

Strongly consider some basic strength training. Even in the span of two months, doing strength training while losing weight will give you a surprising amount of tone and definition that doing cardio alone won't do. It's also good for your health and bones, and it'll make you feel much more awesome.

My hope is that if you do this, you'll enjoy how it makes you feel you'll be motivated to do it more and exercise more and maintain a healthy weight.

thank you so much for helping me!! I understand now!
Time to work out that core!

Best of luck. Remember that you're forming habits for a healthy life. You don't want to look great for prom and then be 40 pounds heavier after college.

Of course! Do you think I'll make it though? I have a little less than 2 months. Do you think I'll be able to get rid of my flabby stomach and love handles?
Sometimes I want to resort to maybe fasting til prom is over, then start the healthy regime because it'll be quicker even though there would be major consequences like lowering of my metabolism etcetc. But yeah, its hard to find time to work out and the motivation I need to say "no" to junk food..sigh.

jonnythan

Well I'm 5'4. But its just that i have a big waist e handles
So basically eat 1250 a day, with maybe 20 min cardio 3x a week, I'd be able to lose weight?
accounting i eat healthy foods of course. wait lets say i ate 1250 today but burned 200 calories working out. would i have to eat back up to 1250 or no?

Eat 1250 on days you don't exercise, and eat 1500 on days you do 20 minutes of cardio. Yeah, if you burned 200 calories working out today you'd want to eat 1450 calories today.

You'll lose weight this way. You could lose 5-8 pounds in two months, which is really the most you should probably lose anyway.

Strongly consider some basic strength training. Even in the span of two months, doing strength training while losing weight will give you a surprising amount of tone and definition that doing cardio alone won't do. It's also good for your health and bones, and it'll make you feel much more awesome.

My hope is that if you do this, you'll enjoy how it makes you feel you'll be motivated to do it more and exercise more and maintain a healthy weight.

thank you so much for helping me!! I understand now!
Time to work out that core!

Best of luck. Remember that you're forming habits for a healthy life. You don't want to look great for prom and then be 40 pounds heavier after college.

Of course! Do you think I'll make it though? I have a little less than 2 months. Do you think I'll be able to get rid of my flabby stomach and love handles?
Sometimes I want to resort to maybe fasting til prom is over, then start the healthy regime because it'll be quicker even though there would be major consequences like lowering of my metabolism etcetc. But yeah, its hard to find time to work out and the motivation I need to say "no" to junk food..sigh.

I have no idea what you look like or how likely you are to follow my advice.

However, I can absolutely assure you that if you do you will lose a significant amount of body fat in two months.

Count your calories. Work your muscles. And so it for the long haul, not just the next two months.

CristinaL1983

I've read through a metric ****ton of research and have never found any that suggests that eating below BMR while losing weight leads to any long term negative consequences.

I've posted (and seen a lot more posted) a ton of these studies before (you can probably find them all in my post history, if interested).

If you have weight to lose, studies suggest that even on a VLCD (less than 800 calories) BMR is maintained as is muscle mass (proportional to weight loss, of course). Most studies were conducted over 16 weeks though some were longer. [I am absolutely not trying to promote or discuss a VLCD, however, for the purposes of this post, it is relevant]. Muscle preservation is even better when the diet has higher levels of protein and strength training is involved. There are several studies that show muscle gain in obese individuals while on a significant calorie deficit (up to .5lb per month).

All the studies I have seen that suggest otherwise are done on lean individuals for long periods of time (in many cases upwards of 6 months) not those of us with weight to lose.

In the Minnesota Starvation experiment, BMR was slowed up to 20% (off the top of my head) once the subjects hit "essential" body fat (5%) They continued to lose weight though it was slightly slower than expected (2.25 lb/wk instead of 3lb/wk). This is a far cry from the idea that the body will either stop all weight loss or even hold on to fat.

Edit to add: Of course a lot of the participants in the Minnesota starvation experiment experienced psychosis etc... They all started at healthy body weights and were basically starved for an extended period of time while forced to do long marches and extreme training.

I have asked other people to cite studies that show otherwise and have not seen any in response. People like to post links to websites or an article but I really want to read the research because I am interested. If anyone has any, I would definitely like to see it.

Additionally, without having BMR (or RMR) actually tested, the online calculators only estimate BMR. They can be off by upwards of 30%.

And, I just want to second the car thing being silly unless you consider that the "tank" also holds our fat stores. In that case, it suggests that we don't really need to "fill our tank" for quite sometime. I have about 20 extra pounds of fat (above my ideal body fat level) hanging around. If I used that idea I could say that at 3500 calories per pound and let's just say 2000TDEE for the sake of having a number, I could run for about 35 days before I needed to start filling my tank.

As to why everyone posts that, I don't know. Certainly, for some people, that leads to a more sustainable lifestyle however, there are studies that show that people who lose weight more quickly are more likely to continue to lose weight to a healthy weight and keep it off just as well as those who lose weight more slowly. I think which way a person gets to their ideal fitness level is up to them and should be a matter of individual preference.

jonnythan

That's a fantastic post. Thank you.

CristinaL1983

That's a fantastic post. Thank you.

Thanks (I'm assuming you are referencing my post and am going to continue believing that regardless).

jonnythan

I thrive on ambiguity.

That's actually a total lie. But pretend can be fun.

CristinaL1983

I thrive on ambiguity.

That's actually a total lie. But pretend can be fun.

:laugh:

darlenathach

Well I'm 5'4. But its just that i have a big waist e handles
So basically eat 1250 a day, with maybe 20 min cardio 3x a week, I'd be able to lose weight?
accounting i eat healthy foods of course. wait lets say i ate 1250 today but burned 200 calories working out. would i have to eat back up to 1250 or no?

Eat 1250 on days you don't exercise, and eat 1500 on days you do 20 minutes of cardio. Yeah, if you burned 200 calories working out today you'd want to eat 1450 calories today.

You'll lose weight this way. You could lose 5-8 pounds in two months, which is really the most you should probably lose anyway.

Strongly consider some basic strength training. Even in the span of two months, doing strength training while losing weight will give you a surprising amount of tone and definition that doing cardio alone won't do. It's also good for your health and bones, and it'll make you feel much more awesome.

My hope is that if you do this, you'll enjoy how it makes you feel you'll be motivated to do it more and exercise more and maintain a healthy weight.

thank you so much for helping me!! I understand now!
Time to work out that core!

Best of luck. Remember that you're forming habits for a healthy life. You don't want to look great for prom and then be 40 pounds heavier after college.

Of course! Do you think I'll make it though? I have a little less than 2 months. Do you think I'll be able to get rid of my flabby stomach and love handles?
Sometimes I want to resort to maybe fasting til prom is over, then start the healthy regime because it'll be quicker even though there would be major consequences like lowering of my metabolism etcetc. But yeah, its hard to find time to work out and the motivation I need to say "no" to junk food..sigh.

I have no idea what you look like or how likely you are to follow my advice.

However, I can absolutely assure you that if you do you will lose a significant amount of body fat in two months.

Count your calories. Work your muscles. And so it for the long haul, not just the next two months.

In this link, I'm confused because she said to subtract 500 from your BMR&activity level so now my total is 1056...So I would have to only eat 1056 on workout days instead of my usual BMR of 1250?

http://funeralformyfat.tumblr.com/eatingenough

bpotts44

Why bother asking if you're not willing to listen?..People, don't waste your time and energy replying.

I'm genuinely asking for a reason behind the claim. I have yet to see one. Do you have a good reason or justification?

What do you say about how this applies to IF plans that include fast days?

Did you not see the fueling your car simile in the last thread? That explains it beautifully, and yet you keep claiming that no one is explaining it.

The problem is your car is not your body and they don't work the same so the simile sucks. Your body stores weeks worth of energy in fat stores and in a resting state burns approximately 60% of its energy from fat. Therefore, as long as you satisfy other nutrient requirements like protein (maybe like buying the parts to maintain the car) then your gas tank is not going to run out until you get to 5 or 6% BF for men and about 12% for women. Then you are basically running your engine without oil.

prattiger65

I tried to find a thread that states "never below BMR ever!" I cant find it. Hyperbole?

It's in just about every thread in which somebody asks about calorie goals, which gets annoying as these people never consider: 1) inactive people can safely dip below BMR, and 2) metabolic slow down has nothing to do with BMR, but rather one's overall deficit relative to their amount of stored energy (fat). For some people, eating below BMR is a bad idea, but only because it means their deficit is too big, not because they're eating below BMR.

Thanks for the reply, I would really like for you to reference ONE thread that say "never below BMR ever" I do see posts that say eating below BMR is a bad idea, which you just agreed with. I am sure I don't hit BMR some days for one reason or another, No one is saying don't ever do that. But doing it consistently is bad. You agree, right?

jonnythan

I tried to find a thread that states "never below BMR ever!" I cant find it. Hyperbole?

It's in just about every thread in which somebody asks about calorie goals, which gets annoying as these people never consider: 1) inactive people can safely dip below BMR, and 2) metabolic slow down has nothing to do with BMR, but rather one's overall deficit relative to their amount of stored energy (fat). For some people, eating below BMR is a bad idea, but only because it means their deficit is too big, not because they're eating below BMR.

Thanks for the reply, I would really like for you to reference ONE thread that say "never below BMR ever" I do see posts that say eating below BMR is a bad idea, which you just agreed with. I am sure I don't hit BMR some days for one reason or another, No one is saying don't ever do that. But doing it consistently is bad. You agree, right?

I gave you a link to a thread where a lot of people said "never ever below BMR, even for a day." In the end when asked for reasons they just start posting insulting GIFs and making terrible car analogies.

Again, there area number of people on MFP who will claim that ever going below BMR is terrible.