Please explain BMR

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bouncybabymama
bouncybabymama Posts: 18 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
According to the calculator on my fitness pal, my bmr is 1814 calories per day. Whenever I eat this many calories, I gain weight. Right now I'm on a plateau at 1250 calories per day. How many calories should I be eating?
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Replies

  • Hendrix7
    Hendrix7 Posts: 1,903 Member
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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate


    If your BMR is indeed 1800 I'm surprised that is your calorie intake. How did you come to this figure?
  • joecollins9385
    joecollins9385 Posts: 355 Member
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    your BMR (basic metabolic rate) is how many calories you burn from daily activities. you should eat at or below your BMR and exercise to lose weight. you may also want to change your exercise to help fight your plateau
  • RedHeadDevotchka
    RedHeadDevotchka Posts: 1,394 Member
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    BMR is basically how many calories you need if you werent doing anything but laying in bed all day. Any additional activities (walking, exercising, etc) would require more calories. Im sure there's a more technical way to explain it, but eh... this makes sense to me :)
  • 126siany
    126siany Posts: 1,386 Member
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    your BMR (basic metabolic rate) is how many calories you burn from daily activities. you should eat at or below your BMR and exercise to lose weight. you may also want to change your exercise to help fight your plateau

    This is incorrect. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) "is how many calories you burn from daily actvities".

    You should NEVER eat below your BMR. Other folks have given you a good explanation of BMR.
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
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    BMR is the number of calories your body needs to keep your vital organs functioning properly in a day where you do no activity at all(it is this number of calories the hospitals use to feed you if you are in a coma, according to my RN mother). it is the number of calories to maintain your current weight with NO ACTIVITY at all.

    You should NEVER, as far as I have read, eat below your BMR.

    My BMR is 1314 calories.

    Using the Harris Benedict equation to calculate my total caloric needs for the day (TDEE) (see this website: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/) I multiply my BMR of 1314 times1.375 since I exercise 1-3 times per week. The result is 1806. 1806 is the number of calories I need to MAINTAIN my current weight.

    So, I eat between 1300 and 1400 calories (a 400-500 calorie deficit) and since this calculation factors in my exercise, I DO NOT EAT BACK the exercise calories.
  • knowwhentoshutup
    knowwhentoshutup Posts: 318 Member
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    How long did you up your calories to 1800? If it was less than 4 weeks you probably just gained water weight, as your body tries to get back to normal.

    If you ate at 1200 ish for a prolonged time, you may have affected your bodies metabolism.

    I'd strongly suggest you talk to your doctor.

    You should NEVER net below your BMR. Again, net is calories comsumed minus calories burned through activity.

    If you are still confused - I would check out this link: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • Juliann4k9
    Juliann4k9 Posts: 36 Member
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    bump
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
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    bump

    What is the purpose of "bump"?
  • tjham1
    tjham1 Posts: 45 Member
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    To keep the thread active. (Bring up my post = bump)


    So it's OK to not eat your exercise calories? (Not saying I don't, ;) ) but just wondering.
  • fankyskag
    fankyskag Posts: 47 Member
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    So it's OK to not eat your exercise calories? (Not saying I don't, ;) ) but just wondering.

    Only if your calorie goal already includes any calories lost through exercise (which MFP's standard setting doesn't).

    I'm guessing you use MFP's standard setting, so you should eat your exercise calories.
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
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    To keep the thread active. (Bring up my post = bump)


    So it's OK to not eat your exercise calories? (Not saying I don't, ;) ) but just wondering.

    If you use the numbers MFP sets for you, then you should eat them back. If you calculate your TDEE and set your goal numbers yourself, then do not eat them back because TDEE already factors those calories into your numbers (MFP does not do that).

    And thanks for explaining BUMP. lol. :wink:
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
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    your BMR (basic metabolic rate) is how many calories you burn from daily activities. you should eat at or below your BMR and exercise to lose weight. you may also want to change your exercise to help fight your plateau

    This is incorrect. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) "is how many calories you burn from daily actvities".

    You should NEVER eat below your BMR. Other folks have given you a good explanation of BMR.
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
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    Sorry about the qupte but no reply. BMR is not the only thing I find confuseing at times LOL.
    The quote was "You Should NEVER eat below your BMR"
    Using MFP calculator my BMR is 2206
    my goal input was to lose 1.5 LBS / Week + 750 Cal per day deficit
    I input sedentary and now planned exercise so that any exercise done will show that I have to eat them back or exceed my goal.
    I can exceed my deficit goal by 250 calories a day and still be safe at a 2 LBS wt loss amount.
    MFP says my daily starting Calories are 1800 and change.
    So is it not telling me to eat less than my BMR?

    See my confuseion?
  • Murray1246
    Murray1246 Posts: 3
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    Any time I get close to my calorie intake for the day I go out and run or something to bring it back down. anyways just go walking or something to do indoors to burn calories.
  • BrittanyKxo
    BrittanyKxo Posts: 62
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    I have a BMR of 1,959 but MFP has me at 1,350?
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
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    My starting point is as MFP sets it is below my BMR as their calculator figures it so as I see it I have to go into Cryogenic freeze to not be below my BMR? Tongue in Cheek of course but I keep seeing "DON"TEAT BELOW YOuR BMR" but my plan is below it to start with??
  • innocenceportrayed
    innocenceportrayed Posts: 569 Member
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    Oy, now I'm confused. I thought I understood it all until reading this thread.

    If MFP says I need to eat 1200 a day, and I exercise that day for say 600 calories, does that mean I need to eat back those 600 to make my net still 1200? If so I've been doing it all wrong and still losing weight. And no, my body isn't in starvation mode from it.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
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    Only you can decide calories, base it on how you feel and what the scale trend is doing, not what anyone here tells you to do. You can always gradually notch your calories up or down by 100 and see how you do. It takes some experimentation to find what works for YOU. What worked for the next person may not work for you just because it did for them. For the most part, if you have fat reserves eating more to lose weight is just plain silly, think about it.

    Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale though: water retention, digestion, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations

    If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for women over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I am a living breathing example of that. I went from obese to now under 12% BF and I've maintained for one year and built muscle the whole time. You don't BUILD muscle in starvation mode, so I proved everyone wrong. You can check out my story on Bobbies Fitness.

    Ok, so to help you though. Those BMR numbers are just estimates for any tool out there. The only way to know your exact BMR would be to go to a lab every day for a period of time and let them do the measurements and tests. So, it's a place to start.

    I ignore exercise calories anyway so the exercise log is just to track time spent exercising for me. Exercise calories are highly over rated. You can't exercise away eating too much food. I learned this the hard way most of my life running marathon after marathon (and lifting) and not being able to lose weight and in fact continued to gain year after year. And I don't pig out, binge, snack mindlessly, eat out of boredom, etc, but the portion sizes are too big for a small person like me. (well I wasn't small when I weighed over 170 lbs at 51'0"!)

    Anyway I found what worked for me was separating out the two things:

    Eat less to lose weight
    Exercise to maintain or build lean body mass
    end of story.

    Well, it did work for me. I am the fittest, leanest, strongest, and most muscular I've ever been in my life at age 51 and I'm healthy and don't get sick and have long endurance. Doesn't feel like starvation mode to me. Can you build muscle like I did while supposedly being in starvation mode?
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
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    Sorry about the qupte but no reply. BMR is not the only thing I find confuseing at times LOL.
    The quote was "You Should NEVER eat below your BMR"
    Using MFP calculator my BMR is 2206
    my goal input was to lose 1.5 LBS / Week + 750 Cal per day deficit
    I input sedentary and now planned exercise so that any exercise done will show that I have to eat them back or exceed my goal.
    I can exceed my deficit goal by 250 calories a day and still be safe at a 2 LBS wt loss amount.
    MFP says my daily starting Calories are 1800 and change.
    So is it not telling me to eat less than my BMR?

    See my confuseion?

    That is precisely why I use the TDEE method instead of how MFP calcualtes it. - it does the same for me. Says my BMR is 1208 and sets my daily calories at 1200. But then, you eat more as you burn exercise calories - so if you burn 300 calories using MFP's numbers, you eat those back in addition to the initial amount.

    Everything I have read posted by trainers or nutritionists and learned from talking with my RN mother (who is also a nutritionist) is that BMR is the lowest number of calories you should eat ever.

    That is why I chose to calculate my TDEE and ignore MFP's suggested goals. I set my goals using the custom setting according to my TDEE calculation. When I ate the recommended 1200 calories that MFP assigned, I ended up on a plateau for 5 months because I was not eating enough.
  • bouncybabymama
    bouncybabymama Posts: 18 Member
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    BMR is the number of calories your body needs to keep your vital organs functioning properly in a day where you do no activity at all(it is this number of calories the hospitals use to feed you if you are in a coma, according to my RN mother). it is the number of calories to maintain your current weight with NO ACTIVITY at all.

    You should NEVER, as far as I have read, eat below your BMR.

    My BMR is 1314 calories.

    Using the Harris Benedict equation to calculate my total caloric needs for the day (TDEE) (see this website: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/) I multiply my BMR of 1314 times1.375 since I exercise 1-3 times per week. The result is 1806. 1806 is the number of calories I need to MAINTAIN my current weight.

    So, I eat between 1300 and 1400 calories (a 400-500 calorie deficit) and since this calculation factors in my exercise, I DO NOT EAT BACK the exercise calories.

    See that's where I'm lost. I heard that you should always eat at or above your BMR, but according to the website you provided http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/), I would be maintaining my weight at 2241 calories/day and my BMR is 1867; however, I GAIN weight if I eat 1800 calories per day. Maybe the bmr calculation just isn't right for my body and metabolism.

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