BMR - Is this right

lemonyposset

Hi,

I've just returned to MFP after quite a long absence and a bloody annoying gain!!!!
I've always really struggled with weight loss, no matter how stringent I am with food and how hard I workout.

Now, I've been given a calorie allowance of 1300 a day and have also calculated my BMR, which has come out at 1895.
I know 1300 is on the low side, but 1895 seems like a hell of a lot for a BMR.

Can anyone advise me what I should aim for so as not to continue on this weight gain hell?

TIA

BarbieAS

It's hard to say what's right for a BMR without knowing your stats - M/F, age, height, weight. But for a larger individual that's possible.

Are you mixing up your BMR and your TDEE?

BhanGoes

It's hard to say what's right for a BMR without knowing your stats - M/F, age, height, weight. But for a larger individual that's possible.

Are you mixing up your BMR and your TDEE?

^^^ this. Try http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ where you can enter your stats and get a fairly accurate BMR. I might suggest that initially as you reintroduce MFP into your life, you just keep it simple. Let MFP calculate your calories and exercise. After a month, you may find it successful, in which case, why complicate matters with TDEE, BMR, etc. calculations.

Step 1: Do what works. (Start with the least complicated method, which is the straight-forward MFP numbers.)
Step 2: Keep doing what works. (A month or more from now, if you find MFP could work BETTER for you, then do your research and adjust the numbers.)

Don't overwhelm yourself with the science and physiology of it all. There's more information out there than you probably need right now. Just getting back into the MFP swing of things is a big change. You can incorporate additional complexities once you've really hit your stride.

I say all this because I fell victim to the over-education impulse and eventually just kind of re-gave-up. Tragic, and stupid. KEEP DOING WHAT WORKS.

xxcooneyxx

Excuse the long post, but this is how I have found that it works.

You calculate your BMR. I use this web page. http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
My BMR is 1556.4. This is the ammount of calories my body requires just to do it's basic functions like keep my heart beating and such. In order to calculate how much you actually burn a day you must plug your BMR into the harris benadict equation. It is found here: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

If you are inactive, you take your BMR and multiply it by 1.2
If you are lightly active you take your BMR and multiply by 1.375 ect.... (It's all on the link I provided)

I like to take my BMR and multiply it by 1.2 reguardless of my activity level and then just add the calories I burn for exercise on top of my result from the haris benadict equation. So if my BMR is 1556.4 and I multiply it by 1.2 that equals 1,867.68. I usually burn 300 calories a day through exercise so let's add that. 1,867.68+300= 2,167.68

NOW, there are 3,500 calories in one pound. You need to burn 3,500 more calories than you eat to lose a pound. 7 goes into 3,500 is 500. So if you eat 500 calories under your total a day, than you will lose one pound a week. So for me to lose one pound a week I would need to eat 1,667.68 a day. If I wanted to lose 2 lbs a week I would need to eat 1,167.68 calories a day. (remember going under 1,200 a day is not reccomended unless you are advised by a doctor)


Soooo that is basically how it works. I've lost enough weight by using these methods to see that it is pretty spot on. Good luck to you! I hope I didn't make your head spin.

TedStout

Oh my! I don't know about BMR, but you got to EAT! As someone who has done the whole starvation route, trust me! Eat well, exercise, relax. The weight will come off. Patience patience patience. I looked at your diary and it appears to me (I am no expert) that you are WAY undereating.

jonnythan

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

KatR13

Oh my there is more i could do?
What is BMR and TDEE???

lemonyposset

Oh my! I don't know about BMR, but you got to EAT! As someone who has done the whole starvation route, trust me! Eat well, exercise, relax. The weight will come off. Patience patience patience. I looked at your diary and it appears to me (I am no expert) that you are WAY undereating.

lol it's not finished for today

lemonyposset

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

jonnythan

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

lemonyposset

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

See those numbers terrify me. I've completed my diary for today and I'm just under 1300 cals. I know from experience if I go higher I gain rapidly. Easily 1lb a week. But, even staying at this level I struggle to lose.

I've tried so many times upping my calorie intake with lean protein, green veg and healthy foods but it always leads to a gain.

jonnythan

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

See those numbers terrify me. I've completed my diary for today and I'm just under 1300 cals. I know from experience if I go higher I gain rapidly. Easily 1lb a week. But, even staying at this level I struggle to lose.

I've tried so many times upping my calorie intake with lean protein, green veg and healthy foods but it always leads to a gain.

The bolded part is BS. Sorry. That's just the truth. You are over 200 pounds. You will not gain weight if you eat 1650 calories a day.

lemonyposset

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

See those numbers terrify me. I've completed my diary for today and I'm just under 1300 cals. I know from experience if I go higher I gain rapidly. Easily 1lb a week. But, even staying at this level I struggle to lose.

I've tried so many times upping my calorie intake with lean protein, green veg and healthy foods but it always leads to a gain.

The bolded part is BS. Sorry. That's just the truth. You are over 200 pounds. You will not gain weight if you eat 1650 calories a day.

Lol try telling that to my scales and ever expanding waistline.

jonnythan

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

See those numbers terrify me. I've completed my diary for today and I'm just under 1300 cals. I know from experience if I go higher I gain rapidly. Easily 1lb a week. But, even staying at this level I struggle to lose.

I've tried so many times upping my calorie intake with lean protein, green veg and healthy foods but it always leads to a gain.

The bolded part is BS. Sorry. That's just the truth. You are over 200 pounds. You will not gain weight if you eat 1650 calories a day.

Lol try telling that to my scales and ever expanding waistline.

I don't see any previous logging. Could you point me to some date ranges to examine where you've eaten that much and gained weight?

lemonyposset

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

See those numbers terrify me. I've completed my diary for today and I'm just under 1300 cals. I know from experience if I go higher I gain rapidly. Easily 1lb a week. But, even staying at this level I struggle to lose.

I've tried so many times upping my calorie intake with lean protein, green veg and healthy foods but it always leads to a gain.

The bolded part is BS. Sorry. That's just the truth. You are over 200 pounds. You will not gain weight if you eat 1650 calories a day.

Lol try telling that to my scales and ever expanding waistline.

I don't see any previous logging. Could you point me to some date ranges to examine where you've eaten that much and gained weight?

I've been away from this site for about a year or so, but I've been logging and following SW in the meantime.

BarbieAS

For the sake of argument, let's say you never work out. If you gain a pound a week at 1650 calories per day, then that means that, through normal daily activity, you burn 1150 calories per day. That would put your BMR at roughly 920 calories per day. For a 5'10" 43 year old female, that's the average BMR for someone who weighs 40 lbs. Not kg, lbs. FORTY POUNDS. AT FIVE FEET TEN INCHES TALL. Does that seem completely unreasonable to you? Me too. Not possible, even for the most damaged metabolism.

To me, you have a few options, and you probably need to try a few of them, as there's likely a combination of factors at work here.

1) See your doctor to rule out thyroid issues and/or vitamin deficiencies that might impact your loss rate.
2) Invest in a good heart rate monitor and a good food scale. Then, wear the HRM during workouts to ensure you're not over-logging exercise calories and weigh EVERYTHING you put in your mouth to ensure you're not under-logging food calories. You might be surprised at how easy it is to do both of those things.
3) Take a month or so of your life and shoot to eat the 2100 calories per day that was calculated for you earlier in this thread. You might see a slight initial gain, yes. But, after about 4 weeks, cut down 20% of that to about 1680 calories per day (continuing to weigh everything, of course). I suspect you'll see the weight starting to come off. Maybe it won't work, and maybe you'll gain a little bit. But I think it's certainly worth the effort to try compared to going through life eating 1300 calories per day to maintain your weight.

Good luck to you, and I hope you find something that works!

jonnythan

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

See those numbers terrify me. I've completed my diary for today and I'm just under 1300 cals. I know from experience if I go higher I gain rapidly. Easily 1lb a week. But, even staying at this level I struggle to lose.

I've tried so many times upping my calorie intake with lean protein, green veg and healthy foods but it always leads to a gain.

The bolded part is BS. Sorry. That's just the truth. You are over 200 pounds. You will not gain weight if you eat 1650 calories a day.

Lol try telling that to my scales and ever expanding waistline.

I don't see any previous logging. Could you point me to some date ranges to examine where you've eaten that much and gained weight?

I've been away from this site for about a year or so, but I've been logging and following SW in the meantime.

So do you actually have a period of logging where you ate that many calories daily and gained weight?

lemonyposset

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

See those numbers terrify me. I've completed my diary for today and I'm just under 1300 cals. I know from experience if I go higher I gain rapidly. Easily 1lb a week. But, even staying at this level I struggle to lose.

I've tried so many times upping my calorie intake with lean protein, green veg and healthy foods but it always leads to a gain.

The bolded part is BS. Sorry. That's just the truth. You are over 200 pounds. You will not gain weight if you eat 1650 calories a day.

Lol try telling that to my scales and ever expanding waistline.

I don't see any previous logging. Could you point me to some date ranges to examine where you've eaten that much and gained weight?

I've been away from this site for about a year or so, but I've been logging and following SW in the meantime.

So do you actually have a period of logging where you ate that many calories daily and gained weight?

Yes, but not on this site. I was using the SW website. I'm not a member now though so don't have access to those records.
It wasn't calorie counting as such though as that's not the basis of SW

jonnythan

Your BMR is 1895? That seems awfully high unless you're a very large person, and given your avatar you don't look that large.

Maybe you mean TDEE?

What is your height, weight, and age?

I've no idea what a TDEE is, thats a new one on me. But yes, thats me in my avatar. I've gained about 28 lbs since then though.
I'm now 110kg and 5ft 10 inches. I was 43 yesterday.
I think I was around 210 lbs int that photo, so still heavy.

I get a BMR more like 1725-1750 using the typical calculators.

Assuming that's true, 1300 is WAY too low a calorie intake. Just by living an ordinary sedentary life you'd be burning about 2100 calories a day.

You should set your calorie goal around 1650, and eat back your exercise calories. This means you'll probably be eating 1800-2000 calories most days.

See those numbers terrify me. I've completed my diary for today and I'm just under 1300 cals. I know from experience if I go higher I gain rapidly. Easily 1lb a week. But, even staying at this level I struggle to lose.

I've tried so many times upping my calorie intake with lean protein, green veg and healthy foods but it always leads to a gain.

The bolded part is BS. Sorry. That's just the truth. You are over 200 pounds. You will not gain weight if you eat 1650 calories a day.

Lol try telling that to my scales and ever expanding waistline.

I don't see any previous logging. Could you point me to some date ranges to examine where you've eaten that much and gained weight?

I've been away from this site for about a year or so, but I've been logging and following SW in the meantime.

So do you actually have a period of logging where you ate that many calories daily and gained weight?

Yes, but not on this site. I was using the SW website. I'm not a member now though so don't have access to those records.
It wasn't calorie counting as such though as that's not the basis of SW

Well calorie counting is really what it's all about.

You should be eating about 1700 calories a day PLUS exercise calories. I can pretty much absolutely guarantee you that at 220 lbs you won't gain weight doing this. That is right where you should be.

Give it a shot, or don't give it a shot. But that's the answer to your question.