So confused!

ws williams 67-

That makes sense. I think now that I'm lifting heavy and that isn't reflected well in the "calories burned" department it makes more sense to do TDEE. What i do now is try to eat no more than 1800 on my lifting days (TDEE at my goal weight with my current exercise level is 1811),on other days I do 1300+ exercise cals. On non lifting days, I try to run at least 3 miles and walk 30 mins which burns approx 350 cals so on those days I eat about 1650 cals. My BMR is 1392. One day a week, I don't run or lift, but I usually go rock climbing or surfing or some other such awesomeness on my "day off" and burn calories which I add to my 1300.

So I think I'm kinda doing what you say to do, only I do it in my own weird complicated fashion which makes perfect sense to me

YEP! Same destination.. different road LOL.

I used this to guestimate my lifting calories... http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calories_burned.htm

It's not perfect, but it's a ballpark. I'm just not a Heart Rate Monitor & stopwatch kinda guy.

ack. again. not to be complicated, but because now I am confused also....

as i have said, i already lost my weight (my profile pic is my before pic) and now i'm focused on body composition...

but like i said, when I started my BMR was 1562 and i ate 1200+. Now back then I'd run maybe 2 miles 2 or 3 x's a week so I was eating 1200-1400 cals a day. All under my BMR. I didn't die. My organs didn't fail. My thought is that my body got those extra cals from my fat which so obviously went away. I got my nutrients from the healthy food I ate.

What's wrong with what I did??

ETA: I do really want to understand this stuff, btw.

Nothing wrong with it. You CAN eat under your BMR, but eventually your metabolism WILL shut down. It's just how the body works. For some people that happens quicker than others. You just got lucky and your metabolism didn't shut down. Now in your case, maybe as you were leaning out your BMR was dropping as well which kept your caloric intake just above your BMR so you never hit that wall. Maybe you were underestimating your caloric intake? Maybe you're an alien mutant to whom the laws of physiology don't apply LOL? No way to tell at this point. My guess wold be one of the first two reasons not the alien one.

But again, every person is different except for one thing. We all have a metabolism. Knowing your current BMR & TDEE will give you a caloric range to stay within for your current weight and exercise level. Eat less than your TDEE but more than your BMR and you will lose weight. Do the same, but exercise (build lean muscle) and you will lose fat. The more you eat below your TDEE the more you will lose. Eat less than your BMR and eventually your metabolism will shut down. Eat your TDEE exactly and you will maintain your current weight.

Hey the way i see it, the less i eat, the more weight i lose. On the other hand, if im hungry, i eat. Regarding my exercise, i have the extra cals there is i feel hungry later in the evening after dinner. I dont really pay too much attention to BMR or similar ...hope this helps! Wouldnt worry too much about what every one else says on the msg boards, just find what works for you :-)

This is wrong - IT IS NOT TRUE THAT THE LESS YOU EAT THE MORE WEIGHT YOU LOSE. good way to develop an eating disorder. Starving yourself is not a good way to lose weight - if you do lose that way, you will gain your weight back as soon as you start eating again, and worse.

ack. again. not to be complicated, but because now I am confused also....

as i have said, i already lost my weight (my profile pic is my before pic) and now i'm focused on body composition...

but like i said, when I started my BMR was 1562 and i ate 1200+. Now back then I'd run maybe 2 miles 2 or 3 x's a week so I was eating 1200-1400 cals a day. All under my BMR. I didn't die. My organs didn't fail. My thought is that my body got those extra cals from my fat which so obviously went away. I got my nutrients from the healthy food I ate.

What's wrong with what I did??

ETA: I do really want to understand this stuff, btw.

Nothing wrong with it. You CAN eat under your BMR, but eventually your metabolism WILL shut down. It's just how the body works. For some people that happens quicker than others. You just got lucky and your metabolism didn't shut down. Now in your case, maybe as you were leaning out your BMR was dropping as well which kept your caloric intake just above your BMR so you never hit that wall. Maybe you were underestimating your caloric intake? Maybe you're an alien mutant to whom the laws of physiology don't apply LOL? No way to tell at this point. My guess wold be one of the first two reasons not the alien one.

But again, every person is different except for one thing. We all have a metabolism. Knowing your current BMR & TDEE will give you a caloric range to stay within for your current weight and exercise level. Eat less than your TDEE but more than your BMR and you will lose weight. Do the same, but exercise (build lean muscle) and you will lose fat. The more you eat below your TDEE the more you will lose. Eat less than your BMR and eventually your metabolism will shut down. Eat your TDEE exactly and you will maintain your current weight.

I may be an alien. I can't be too sure. LOL!

I suspect that as i began to exercise more, I ate more than my BMR. I don't think I lost it too fast. I lost I think 30 lbs in five months. That's 1-2 lbs a week. At that point my BMR was 1435. I was still doing 1200+ but I think because i gave myself credit for walks, etc, I was probably eating about 1400 a day. I do remember hitting plateaus. I started doing HIIT and other things to get my weight down. I eventually got down to 123 (which I think is too low for me). My BMR then was 1300 (wow! My BMR is higher than I thought!). At that point, I freaked out that I was too skinny and slowly upped my cals to 1800 and started weight training. I put on 15 lbs. Freaked out again and lowerd my cals again! Now I'm at that weird thing I told you about and maintaining at 135 lbs and about 20% bf. Trying to get to 130 lbs and 16% bf. So confusing the closer you get to goal!

We set your nutritional target in Net Calories which we define as:

Calories Consumed (Food) - Calories Burned (Exercise) = Net Calories

What that means is that if you exercise, you will be able to eat more for that day. For example, if your Net Calorie goal is 2000 calories, one way to meet that goal is to eat 2,500 calories of food, but then burn 500 calories through exercise.

Think of your Net Calories like a daily budget of calories to spend. You spend them by eating, and you earn more calories to eat by exercising.