I Had My BMR Tested - It's 1032 Calories

I'm frustrated by all the people saying BMR isn't TDEE. Duh, it's not, but it's the base for those calculations. Based on a 1.3 modifier for her as sedentary, maintenance would be 1342. Since her low BMR probably also lowers her calories burned during exercise (I don't know that for sure, but would assume it to be true, she would probably need to work out over an hour a day to eat 1200 cals a day and lose 1 lb a week. Or if her tdee is 1651 (gave her a 1.6 modifier) she would need to eat 1151 to lose 1 lb per week (and this is in agreement with her maintaining at ~1700.

My point: 1200 isn't categorically too low.

It is categorically low--losing 1 pound a week would be simply unfeasible for someone with a TDEE of 1651. In any case--I wouldn't use an activity multiplier in her case aside from SEDENTARY and then add on ACTUAL calories burned from exercise.

1032 x 1.2 = 1238 and add walking for errands and/or exercise, workouts, etc. It can easily add up to more. From the total I would subtract 15% for a modest deficit.

The thing that worries me about posts like this is the responses like "wow, thanks for this post", you do realise that some people reading this are at their wits end wondering why 1200 isn't helping them to lose weight and after seeing this could drop their calories lower?
Like you said this is what works for you, but probably not for the majority. I can't understand why you would feel the need to broadcast this to generally impressionable people? It's not like you need to justify what works for you, just get on and do it.

Because there ARE those people out there with similar situations like mine. Sharing my experience is meant to help them, not hurt them. If you feel as if you need to drop your calories to 1000 calories a day after reading this it's NOT because of this thread, it's because you have a borderline eating disorder.

And you think there aren't people like that here?

Yes, of course. But that does not justify a good enough reason to NOT share my experience.

I'm sorry, but I must of missed the forum rule that said,

"Unless your post applies to everyone, don't post it. "

Obviously all posts now should come with a disclaimer. Christ!

Thanks for sharing your experience! It does help those of us who struggle to lose even with religious tracking and weighing to realize that just because a calculator says we should burn X amount of calories, we may not be.

I have been tracking for a year now and I know for a fact that I burn less calories to survive than others with my stats. I know my BMR is about 300 calories less than the calculators say it is. I found this from keeping a spreadsheet of calories in vs calories out, with every device I could find...HRM...food scale...etc...and if I added 300 calories per day to my food...my weight loss equaled my deficit perfectly over that time. So this makes total sense to me.

And if anyone thinks you are wrong for posting because someone may be convinced to drop their calories too much...ignore it. The disclaimer is on every page about this is not medical advice...blah blah blah.

Great post!
I had mine tested over a year ago. It was very informative. If I listened to MFP I would be starving. Everyone is different. I hope your post encourages people to get correct medical advice and not use a standard chart for their caloric intake.

Very interesting and thank you for sharing. My only question would be is did they take into consideration getting you up every 4 hours to walk on the treadmill? If they had let you alone and let you sleep, I would think it would be easier to calculate your BRM. With waking you up and making you walk, you would think that would throw your count off a little!

Thanks again for posting!

That's why they tested me right when I woke up and again right before I went to sleep again, after walking on the treadmill. They did this several times to get an average in an attempt to rule out any extremes.

Thank you and good luck on your fitness journey!:flowerforyou:

losing 1 pound a week would be simply unfeasible for someone with a TDEE of 1651

err, why ? 1651 - 500 = 1151 if you subscribe to 3500 cals per pound.

The thing that worries me about posts like this is the responses like "wow, thanks for this post", you do realise that some people reading this are at their wits end wondering why 1200 isn't helping them to lose weight and after seeing this could drop their calories lower?
Like you said this is what works for you, but probably not for the majority. I can't understand why you would feel the need to broadcast this to generally impressionable people? It's not like you need to justify what works for you, just get on and do it.
ETA: I think the majority of the MFP population would know what works and what doesn't, but maybe not everyone, didn't mean to offend!

That's exactly what I was thinking when I was reading this post. People seem to be overjoyed at the fact that suddenly there's a reason for their 1200 calorie diets not working and dropping their calories even more!!

There's also all kinds of things that can affect BMR as it is in effect a measurement of your metabolism. If you were dieting or on a severely restrictive diet before this, it could have slowed this right down - also if you are on some medication, it tends to really affect it. If you were there for other tests, it's likely that you were on medication which could yield some "interesting" results.

Thanks for sharing.

I would imagine havin such a number will help you dial into your needs and make your efforts more effective.

I guess all i would say is why don't people just play around with their calories and figure out if they're losing weight. I lost 60 pounds in the past before people even used the internet and/or talked about BMR. We just did it the old fashioned way: SWAG (scientific wild-*kitten* guess).

I had mine tested (I breathed into a mask for 20-30 minutes) and it was remarkably close to your number, a little higher. I was advised to try to net about 1350 calories a day if I wanted to lose weight. Now that I'm lifting and exercising more, I try to net 1600, but I'm not losing any pounds... just gaining muscle.

I had mine tested (I breathed into a mask for 20-30 minutes) and it was remarkably close to your number, a little higher. I was advised to try to net about 1350 calories a day if I wanted to lose weight. Now that I'm lifting and exercising more, I try to net 1600, but I'm not losing any pounds... just gaining muscle.

Can I ask where you got this done and what prompted it? I guess some sports medicine clinics will do it but I haven't found one

Cool, I think that's what a lot of people need to here. 1200 a day for us ladies is a good goal to shoot for. You can lose weight on it and not starve yourself.
Good luck, now I want to get mine tested. I'm way older than you so I bet my BMR is something like "12"! ;-0