BMR advice please.

The minimum calories MFP allows is 1200 because what I've heard is that no one should eat less than 1200 calories a day. Since you are nearly at your goal weight and don't have much to lose, your weight loss may be a little slower than 1 pound a week.

Your BMR is basically what your body would burn if you slept all day. It's the energy required just to live. Normal daily activity burns more calories, and exercise even more on top of that. MFP calculates your calorie allowance based off of this (remember when you filled in your daily activity - sedentary, normal, active, etc) and that's why your allowance is higher. Hopefully that helps.

A quote of a website i found about BMR that helped me to understand it all better. It also mentions those 3500 calories you talked about:

"Calorie Needs to lose weight

There are approximately 3500 calories in a pound of stored body fat. So, if you create a 3500-calorie deficit through diet, exercise or a combination of both, you will lose one pound of body weight. (On average 75% of this is fat, 25% lean tissue) If you create a 7000 calorie deficit you will lose two pounds and so on. The calorie deficit can be achieved either by calorie-restriction alone, or by a combination of fewer calories in (diet) and more calories out (exercise). This combination of diet and exercise is best for lasting weight loss. Indeed, sustained weight loss is difficult or impossible without increased regular exercise.

If you want to lose fat, a useful guideline for lowering your calorie intake is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more than 1000 below your maintenance level. For people with only a small amount of weight to lose, 1000 calories will be too much of a deficit. As a guide to minimum calorie intake, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 calories per day for men. Even these calorie levels are quite low.

An alternative way of calculating a safe minimum calorie-intake level is by reference to your body weight or current body weight. Reducing calories by 15-20% below your daily calorie maintenance needs is a useful start. You may increase this depending on your weight loss goals."

LittleSpy - when did we all of a sudden start agreeing on things? :laugh:

i had my bmr taken by a clever computer 5 hours after my last meal or drink--it came out at 1693 which according to the dietician is average for my age---it does run against the previous quote of not going below 1800 for a male though--mfp has set me at 1200 which means i am burning at nealy 500 a day so gets me to the 3500 a week--my trainer's bmr is 1299 -she is 24 and petite so there is a wide range of figures

My BMR is 1800 - lab tested (female-50yrs old-165 lbs). Dietician said I should never eat below that. My calories burned, without exercise, are 2300 on an average day.

You can lose weight by eating below BMR. But you'll also lose brain ability, energy, muscle, and your metabolism will slow down to compensate for the fact that you aren't eating enough to sustain your organs. Every time you plateau, you'll need to drop those calories down some more...and if you're already at sub-par nutrition, where ya gonna go??

my bmr was measured at 1700 and feel when i go really low on cals i stop or impede this rate from doing its work!--i had an enforced big meal from someone who wouldnt let me say no and i didnt eat for another 16 hours but i lost a kilo in that time--i went back onto diet and havent shifted since--6 days ago despite loads of gym and keeping my calories on target-i know we fluctuate but i had been losing steadily up to this week!