I have done the BMR making no sense...advise please

You are confusing BMR and TDEE...

BMR = calories used by internal functions to sustain you
TDEE = BMR + crap you do throughout the day like sitting, walking, brushing your teeth, etc.

It takes 3500 calories to lose 1 lb of fat. I recomend excercising to make the deficit greater. Walking is a good start.

I would say instead of eating less, try doing more. Work in a few walks, stair climbs, or a trip to the gym if possible.

I would say instead of eating less, try doing more. Work in a few walks, stair climbs, or a trip to the gym if possible.

Aye. A good idea is to eat at least your BMR, and then make up the rest of the deficit needed with extra exercise.

So, if your BMR is only 250 cals under your TDEE< either 1. be happy with 1/2 pound loss a week, or 2. do 250 cals of exercise every day for 1 pound a week.

at the moment the fitbit says i have burned 1450 lol. Been at work all day grrr

I dunno what time of day it is for you. Keep in mind this means overall... it is not 1450 + your BMR. Basically, at this moment, Fitbit says if you eat over 1450 calories right now, you'll gain fat.

at the moment the fitbit says i have burned 1450 lol. Been at work all day grrr

But that won't be your TDEE. Fitbit will continue to add amounts for your BMR regardless of whether you move or not during the next few hours. Take your BMR, divide by 24 and multiply by the number of hours left in the day to estimate the additional calories.

My BMR =1430(cals I use doing NOTHING)

Is this actually your BMR or your TDEE? For sedentary, your total daily energy expenditure is BMR x 1.2 = TDEE

I'm going to assume for the rest of the explanation that you really mean TDEE.

If you really mean BMR then your TDEE is 1716.



MFP is set to 1200cals/a day =a deficit of 230cals a day.
I wear a fitbit and have set MFP to sedatary for this reason.

Ok, its nearly 5pm. My fitbit ajustment to my intake of cals so far today is 235 (means i have burned 235cals extra over my 1430)
So.........MFP is saying I now can have 1200 + 235 = 1435 cals today!

If all of your settings are correct. And fitbit is giving you an activity adjustment of 235, then you eat your 1200 calories PLUS your 235. For a total of 1435 calories.

The 1200 calories already has your deficit built in. In your case 230 calories.

If you are following the MFP program, you can not net lower than 1200 calories per day.

BUT 1435 cals (-500 cals deficit for just a lb a week weight loss) would be 935 cals.
So....I can only eat 935 cals a day?

to have a legitimate 500 calorie deficit, you would take your 1430 TDEE + 235 activity adjustment = 1670 - 500 calorie deficit = 1170 calories to eat.

If you are indeed confusing your terminology and your TDEE is actually 1716. To calculate a 500 cal deficit...

1716 + 235 = 1951 calories expenditure for the day. Less your 500 calorie deficit and you should eat 1451 calories today.

Clear as mud?

Your fitbit will calculate your TDEE. On the fitbit website, it will even give you an estimation of how many total calories you will burn in the day based on your activity throughout the day. This is the number you subtract 500 from.

So. If my fitbit says I am going to burn 2000 calories in a day, I can subtract 500 from that and eat 1500 calories per day and not eat my exercise calories back.

MFP includes the calorie deficit in its calculations, which is why it gives you extra calories for exercise, which you should eat. When it says to eat 1200 calories, it means 1200 NET calories.

If I were you, I would wear my fitbit for a while and get some average data. So, after a month you can look at your fitbit report and it will tell you how many calories you average per day, and this will give you an average TDEE you can then subtract from.

Hi
My BMR =1430(cals I use doing NOTHING)
MFP is set to 1200cals/a day =a deficit of 230cals a day.
I wear a fitbit and have set MFP to sedatary for this reason.

Ok, its nearly 5pm. My fitbit ajustment to my intake of cals so far today is 235 (means i have burned 235cals extra over my 1430)
So.........MFP is saying: I now can have 1200 + 235 = 1435 cals today!
BUT 1435 cals (-500 cals deficit for just a lb a week weight loss) would be 935 cals.
So....I can only eat 935 cals a day?

Confused here xx

Sounds like those numbers are correct SO FAR today. You still have several hours left to burn more calories.

1435-500=935
1200 (eat) -235 (burn) =965 Pretty damn close to me.
Don't eat your cals back unless you burn more you want to net 900-1,000.
Net is the magic number.

Yep, net is the magic number, but you're doing it wrong. The MFP calorie goal is NET calories, not total calories. So if she eats 1200 calories a day, but exercises 200 calories off, she will then need to eat those 200 calories to get back to 1200 net. MFP calculates the caloric deficit into your daily net calorie goal so you don't have to do the math yourself.

This will only produce .5lb per week when they want 1.

Hi
My BMR =1430(cals I use doing NOTHING)
MFP is set to 1200cals/a day =a deficit of 230cals a day.
I wear a fitbit and have set MFP to sedatary for this reason.

Ok, its nearly 5pm. My fitbit ajustment to my intake of cals so far today is 235 (means i have burned 235cals extra over my 1430)
So.........MFP is saying: I now can have 1200 + 235 = 1435 cals today!
BUT 1435 cals (-500 cals deficit for just a lb a week weight loss) would be 935 cals.
So....I can only eat 935 cals a day?

Confused here xx

Sounds like those numbers are correct SO FAR today. You still have several hours left to burn more calories.

1435-500=935
1200 (eat) -235 (burn) =965 Pretty damn close to me.
Don't eat your cals back unless you burn more you want to net 900-1,000.
Net is the magic number.

Yep, net is the magic number, but you're doing it wrong. The MFP calorie goal is NET calories, not total calories. So if she eats 1200 calories a day, but exercises 200 calories off, she will then need to eat those 200 calories to get back to 1200 net. MFP calculates the caloric deficit into your daily net calorie goal so you don't have to do the math yourself.

This will only produce .5lb per week when they want 1.

Not true. MFP has given her 1200 calories for a weight loss of 1 lb per week based on her info. So if she nets that number, she will lose 1 lb per week. She doesn't need to do any math, just net that number. If she netted 1000 calories, she would likely see greater weight loss, but it wouldn't be good for her.

As an example:

If i set my MFP to lose 1 lb a week, it would give me somewhere around 1400 calories. This number includes a 500 calorie deficit from MFP's estimation of my TDEE based on a sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, any exercise I would do would raise my TDEE, giving me more calories I could eat during the day. So if i exercised 300 calories, I could eat 1700 calories and still have my 500 calorie deficit. It this weren't true, then MFP would not give you the calories back from exercise.

Facts in this case.
The 230 was a given daily deficit by MFP (read the original post again). 235 was what fibit said she had burned extra over what her body burns on its own doing nothing. The 1200 she was given by MFP already factors in calories burned in normal activity which are in the fibit number too, workouts are extra to the 1200. This is why she and most people using MFP are confused to what they really should be eating.

If you are going to use a fibit then you can not go by the net MFP gives you. One needs to go to what if you stayed in bed and did nothing which is 10x your weight minus minus 500 and add fibit# for what you should eat daily to lose 1lb a week.

So if Sue veg's out the rest of the day then 1650-500+235=1385 cals

The MFP plan already has the 500 calorie deficit factored into it. So, the simplest solution (while sticking to the MFP plan) would be to either eat back or not eat back the exercise calories you've burned using your Fitbit, but still maintaining the base calorie consumption defined by MFP settings. Not use the calories to further your deficit. To use the Fitbit correctly, you'd need to take the total calories you've burned in a day and subtract the 500 from them (to achieve the calorie deficit required to lose a 1b a week), and that is the amount of calories you should consume in a day.

Your Welcome:happy: