BMR vs Daily Calorie Allotment on Food Chart

Well, the fact that you have less than 20 lbs you want to lose tells me that you probably have your goals set too high, but maybe not, I don't know, much of that depends on how active you are and how tall you are. Generally, for people who are only slightly overweight, you want to be above your BMR, for instance, for someone only looking to lose say 15 lbs, I would shoot for one quarter to one half pound per week. I.E. 125 to 250 calorie deficit per day.

The final part of the journey to better health is a slow, methodical one, try to do too much too fast and in many cases, you just end up putting extra stress on your body and not losing anything. Generally I tell people with very little to lose, eat your maintenance, then use exercise to reduce body fat %, and even then, don't create too large of a deficit.

[Sorry I messed up the quote part. The quote is above, my comments are below:]

I'm down to my last 10 pounds (I've dropped 20 since this time last year). 5 of those pounds are a "regain" from getting lazy with my eating habits. Anyway, I'm not too thrilled that I'll only have a deficit from exercising, and at 125 calories a day it will take me .... a month to loose a pound. Double the calorie burn, it will still take a month to loose 2 pounds.

5-10 months more ..... arrrrgh. That does not seem too ..... inspiring.

inspiration based on incorrect information isn't inspiration, it's ... I don't know any other way to put it... it's delusion.

Think about it logically, if losing the last few lbs was easy, EVERYONE would be there. It's not, it took me 9 months to lose my last 7 lbs, and I worked DAMN HARD to do it, every day in the gym, mixing up my routines, designing workouts that pushed my body, watching my calories and my nutritional breakdowns like a hawk, it's not easy, it's not meant to be easy, but it's worth it, I'm healthier, stronger, faster, and happier than I've been in 10 years.

My advice would be, don't make weight your goals, go have a body fat % test done, work on that, make some goals that are performance based, or maybe tape measure based, and work on that. Seriously, very few people will ever see a 5 to 10 lb difference in your body unless it ALL comes from one very small, very profound location. Weight is arbitrary, not a good measure for healthy people to use.

Put it this way, I can put two people side by side, they can be twins and have the same genetics, they can both be the same weight, but one could have 20% body fat and the other could have 35% body fat, which one do you think will look in better shape? When you get down near goal weights, body fat % plays a much bigger role. Lowering body fat forces you to eat right, lowering body fat forces you to eat enough to maintain (eating too little triggers fat storage), lowering body fat in essence makes your body healthier and look better.

Obviously this comes with the stipulation of reason, lowering body fat TOO much is bad for you as well, but as long as you (as a woman) stay about about 14% or so, you're fine.

Your points are valid and logical. But my illogical mind says "get these last 10 pounds off now please". I'm never going to have the same shape in my late 50's that I did in my 20's (that is reality), but I can hope to have a 50+ butt that doesn't look like it is inflated like a balloon. And my illogical mind says now that I'm on track to taking off the excess pounds, the sooner the better. I guess it is a sort of tug-of-war between my "logical" and "illogical" :devil: sides of my brain.

Oh trust me, I understand completely. Just don't let the illogical brain win! Keep gaining knowledge, that's the best way to fight!
:flowerforyou:

1) In the tool section is the BMR ["Your BMR is how many calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day — basically, how many calories you burn just to stay alive"] . Mine is approximately 1200 calories a day. That is the same calorie allotment as is on my food chart (1200). So, is that just cooincidental, or are they always the same (BMR and daily allotment)?

I would say that you need to change your goals (I think you'll find them under the "My Home" tab) to being lightly active or whatever it is that you are, because unless all you actually do is sit around all day (i.e. you don't work or do anything at all) then your calorie requirements should be higher than your BMR. Your BMR is the calories you need JUST to function. It's the bare minimum, so don't eat below it as you might not be getting the nutrition you need. The more you do, the more calories you will need to consume in a day.

So, as an example, my BMR is about 1350 (roughly). My calorie requirements are about 1400, as I have set my goals that I am lightly active (I don't have a very active job, but I'm always busy!) So, if I don't exercise, to lose weight I should be eating about 1200-1300 calories per day to give myself the deficit. If on that day I exercise, say I burn 400 extra calories exercising, I have given myself more room to eat, my daily calorie requirements will increase to 1800 (1400 normal day + 400 calories of exercise). I could either eat up to 1800 calories to maintain weight, or around 1400 calories to accumlate a deficit.

Like I said earlier, try not to eat less than 1200 calories per day, as your body will go into starvation mode. Having too great a deficit and loosing weight too quickly also increases the likelyhood of the weight returning when you aim to simply maintain your weight (i.e. once you've reached your goals).

2) If I need 1200 calories a day to "stay the same" weight when just staying in bed all day, and my daily food allotment is 1200, does that mean that the only negative calories a day I accumulate will be from activity besides just staying alive? Instead, it would seem that my calorie allotment per day should be lower than my BMR in order to lose.

I'm a little confused by what you mean here. But basically, your BMR is saying that you use around 50 calories per hour doing nothing at all but being alive (your body needs this minimum of calories to perform functions such as digest food, to think, etc.). If you then factor in everything you do on top of that, so imagine you spend 8 hours per day sleeping, 8 hours per day at work at an office job (where you might sit at a computer/do light duties), 1 hour per day light exercise, 1 hour per day cleaning the house, and 6 hours per day doing nothing (coz I can't think of anything else!)... this would add up to you burning about 1800 calories per day to function (at an estimate!) So by just doing more than laying around, you use more calories than your BMR. If you only consume those 1200 calories, everything else becomes a deficit. Just watch, as I said earlier, that you are not skipping meals and cutting too many calories.

I really hope this makes some sense! Try not to think about it too much.. because sometimes we get so hung up on the numbers that it can bring you down. Eat 5 light meals a day, exercise for at least 30 minutes every day - more if you have it in you - and you will be healthy, and eventually reach your goals. The key to all of this is being healthy and looking after yourself. Good luck, and I hope this makes sense!!! :flowerforyou:

OK, yes, I will reread your post and try to internalize the information. (That is the good brain at work.)

Thank you for your answer to my question about the calorie allotment as related to losing weight.

And can you help with my generic question, is the calorie allotment given on the food chart always the same as the BMR (as in my case), or is it just a cooincidence with me?

it's not the same, it's coincidental.

I would say that you need to change your goals (I think you'll find them under the "My Home" tab) to being lightly active or whatever it is that you are, because unless all you actually do is sit around all day (i.e. you don't work or do anything at all) then your calorie requirements should be higher than your BMR. Your BMR is the calories you need JUST to function. It's the bare minimum, so don't eat below it as you might not be getting the nutrition you need. The more you do, the more calories you will need to consume in a day.

I found the place, it is My Home, then Settings, then update profile (or something like that). The option I choose is for the job description similar to bank teller (ie sitting), since I'm at the computer a lot of the day. I suppose that setting is related to your alloted calories for the day. Meanwhile, it is the same as my "stay in bed all day" BMR.

Maybe I am just misunderstanding something, or maybe MFP is telling me to stay home all day in bed and relax. :bigsmile:

nope, even for the most sedentary job, BMR is still 30% lower, BMR is the energy required for basic body function only. It includes NO voluntary muscle energy, like blinking an eyelid, or talking, or walking...etc. It also does NOT include digestion.

essentially, if you were in a coma, and being fed a glucose drip (which requires little digestion) you would be close to your BMR.

According to the calculations of MFP:
My BMR is 1191.
My daily calorie allowance is 1200 (based upon the "bank teller" type job designation).
At my current weight, and even after losing my final 10 pounds in the future, my BMI will be in the "healthy" range.
So, it is saying that while in the coma/sleep state I'll use 1191 calories. And at my desk job, I'll be using 1200 calories.
Jeepers, sounds close to my life being in a state of coma.

no, what you are missing is that you have a goal set by MFP, I don't know what that goal is, but let's say that it's set to 1 lb per week weight loss (which is too high for you IMHO), but that means that MFP set's your calories at 500 BELOW your maintenance calories or TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), so if that was the case then your maintenance calories would be approximately 1700 calories, which is about 500+ higher than your BMR.

These are all examples pulled out of the air, they aren't your real numbers.

if you want your real resting calories, go here and put in the numbers:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-metabolism-calculator

that will tell you your maintenance calories.

Thank you!! I went to the other calculator, and indeed I DO burn more than 1200 calories during a normal day of activity. Thus, the 1200 is taking that into account, and has already calculated a deficit. I feel much better now that I"ve learned that my calorie "burn" for the day is high enough that at 1200 calories I am running on a loss. Whew!

Thanks again for sticking with me on all these questions.

hehe, no problem. I would suggest that you read a couple of things I wrote a long time ago. They may help, they explain exercise calories and expectations. Because remember, just like eating too many calories, eating too few can have it's own set of unique problems. anyway, here they are.


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations