BMR and its effect on losing weight???

cfiiman · March 2013

I know this topic has been beat to death b/c I just spent an hour reading all I could. I started my weight loss a couple of months ago in the form of just reducing my calorie intake. This was because I herniated a disc in my back and could not walk/stand for more than a few minutes. I had successful surgery about 6 weeks ago and am now walking about 4-5 miles a day (moderately) and moving all the time through the day. My pedometer shows I do about 17,000+ steps a day. I have only been able to get to this level for the last few weeks during recovery and it has been great! Basically the whole time I've been on myfitnesspal.com I could not really exercise until now, and even now I'm only cleared to walk by my surgeon. I am hoping in 2 weeks I am starting PT and he'll clear me for something like elliptical machines which I have. So that is my background.

My question is I always I guess falsely believed that if I just stopped eating as much weight would fall off, and I guess that was the case for the first 8 lbs. I am 5'11" and weighed 205 with a muscular build but certainly need to lose weight from not being able to do much for the last year b/c of my back injury. Within the last 2 months I'm down to 196 which is great but I have been here for the last 3 weeks with absolutely 0 movement any lower. I have been eating around 1500 calories give or take (this is total, not eating back exercise calories) and with all the added walking in the last couple of weeks I thought I'd be flying with the lbs coming off but again no movement.

So after researching this BMR and checking mine on here it says I should be around 1850 or something, so I went back into my profile and switched my "sedentary" activity level to "active" with all my new walking and said I wanted to lose 2lbs a week and my "net" goal is now 1637 calories. Well to me this is going to be a lot more calories than i'm used to b/c with 400 or so exercise calories I'm going to now have to consume 2000 calories 7 days a week b/c I walk everyday b/c of my recovery. I'm scared to do this thinking I'm going to put on a ton of weight, but according to this BMR thing I should lose a lot more, it is a foreign concept to me, eating more to lose more weight. My questions are is this true? Is this why my weight loss has stalled at only 8 lbs.? For my frame size and build my doctor said I need to be around 189, my goal is 185 so I'm only 11lbs away and I feel like i'm not going to get there. My reflex action is to eat LESS and that is what my plan was until I started researching this BMR thing tonight and so now I'm getting ready to do the opposite and I guess I'm worried if I'm wrong here then I'm going to just put all my weight back on, help!

1ConcreteGirl · March 2013

Due to a lot of misinformation, eating in a scientifically healthy way is actually a scary and foreign concept to most people.

I know I felt that way at first, too, and so have many people here, but it truly does work. The best way to do this is to gradually adjust your calories up by 100 per week, so that you can get used to it and not see a big movement on the scale as you're doing that.

You will either gain a very small amount of weight during your weekly weigh-ins or you will (more likely) maintain your current weight as you adjust. About a week after you have completed the transition, you will probably see several pounds come off all at once.

Good luck! I know it's scary, but trust the process.

silversociety · March 2013

Interesting concept. I'm going to have to check back on this post as I myself am interested in this as well.

1ConcreteGirl · March 2013

One other thing, I checked your profile and noticed that you want to lose about 20 lbs. Your body cannot oxidize 2 lbs of fat per week with only 20 lbs to lose. You would be better off putting your goal at 0.5 to 1 lb lost per week, because that would make your entire loss body fat. If you lose more than that, you are losing lean muscle mass as well, which will 1) affect your body composition post-weight loss, 2) slow down you weight loss in the long run and 3) potentially damage your metabolism.

I have about 17 to lose and I purposefully try to lose only 0.5 per week so that I can keep as much of my lean body mass as possible.

Elleinnz · March 2013

With only 11lb to get to your goal you should not actually be setting your loss to 2lb a week - more like half a lb a week - which means you should eat even more.....

It is a weird concept - but it is proven over and over on here that when you stall eating more normally gets the scales moving again....

How does one do it - not by eating more "bulk", but by adding back healthy fats - nuts, nut butters, salmon, olives, olive oil, full fat dairy iso low fat, coconut milk, cream etc......and in my special case - some butter on my steamed veges as I am a believer that saturated fat ain't gonna kill me.

I resisted putting up my calories for a long time (way to long) - eventually decided I am not going to NET under my BMR, so been eating around 2000 to 2400 calories (and I am a 52 year old woman - 210lbs) - and guess what - the scale is dropping faster than my "half a pound a week" goal...

jonzo21 · March 2013

My reflex action is to eat LESS and that is what my plan was until I started researching this BMR thing tonight and so now I'm getting ready to do the opposite and I guess I'm worried if I'm wrong here then I'm going to just put all my weight back on, help!

It does seem like an odd concept doesnt it? I've been researching this for about a week now too, I think I've finally got the understanding down. Thing is, your BMR is just what your body needs for its organs to function (I'm sure you know this already from all the other posts you've read) and if you are exercising, and only eating your BMR, you're not giving your body enough fuel. What you need to figure out is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). If you're now able to walk 17,000 steps I'd say thats pretty good. You can find all kinds of TDEE formulas, the one I used allows you to put in how many minutes a day you sleep, do light activity etc and it calculates your TDEE for you. http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

Now, your TDEE is basically what you can eat in a day and just maintain your current weight. This means this is how much calories your metabolism can process under normal conditions (meaning if you've been "starving" your body by not eating at your BMR, eating back enough exercise calories, eating at a really high deficit) than your body will want to hold onto the calories you consume for storage because its thinking "I'm getting food right now, but tomorrow and the next day I probably won't because thats what I'm used too" so you have to let your body know you are going to consistently give it the right amount of food so it doesn't freak out and hang onto the fat.

This does mean you will probably gain weight unfortunately. At least for a few weeks until your body realizes it doesn't have to hold onto the fat. After a few weeks (some recommend 6-8 weeks of eating the TDEE calories) then you start cutting down into a deficit... about 15-20% of your TDEE. And you eat at this level and you will see the weight drop again.

You just have to not let the scale discourage you. There's actually a group on here that I just found, called Eat More to Weigh Less. Theres a LOT of information there and helpful members. Check it out

cfiiman · March 2013

Due to a lot of misinformation, eating in a scientifically healthy way is actually a scary and foreign concept to most people.

I know I felt that way at first, too, and so have many people here, but it truly does work. The best way to do this is to gradually adjust your calories up by 100 per week, so that you can get used to it and not see a big movement on the scale as you're doing that.

You will either gain a very small amount of weight during your weekly weigh-ins or you will (more likely) maintain your current weight as you adjust. About a week after you have completed the transition, you will probably see several pounds come off all at once.

Good luck! I know it's scary, but trust the process.

Thanks for all of your responses, hmmm, maybe I should adjust that I'm just so sick of looking at the damn scale and seeing the same number! I truly do not understand it at all, how is it that I was doing nothing b/c of my back injury and lost weight and then when I start moving again to the tune of 17K steps in which 4-5 miles is spent at a moderate pace outside for exercise that it won't move. That just seems wrong on so many levels. I think I'm going to just trust what my calculated goal is now on myfitnesspal. Based on all my numbers it says I should eat the 1637 net so I'll be eating about 2000 now with all the walking and just see how that goes. I'm trying to get back to racing superbikes and have a new 1 pc leather suit I want to make sure I fit in when the doc clears me lol

I don't understand, why can't I keep it at 2lbs a week? Not sure I understand the concept behind switching it as you get closer, seems like when you near the end you want to really hit the gas?

cfiiman · March 2013

One other thing, I checked your profile and noticed that you want to lose about 20 lbs. Your body cannot oxidize 2 lbs of fat per week with only 20 lbs to lose. You would be better off putting your goal at 0.5 to 1 lb lost per week, because that would make your entire loss body fat. If you lose more than that, you are losing lean muscle mass as well, which will 1) affect your body composition post-weight loss, 2) slow down you weight loss in the long run and 3) potentially damage your metabolism.

I have about 17 to lose and I purposefully try to lose only 0.5 per week so that I can keep as much of my lean body mass as possible.

BTW, I'm new to the "community" part of this but looking at your profile how in the world do you have 17 lbs to go!?!?

jonzo21 · March 2013

Due to a lot of misinformation, eating in a scientifically healthy way is actually a scary and foreign concept to most people.

I know I felt that way at first, too, and so have many people here, but it truly does work. The best way to do this is to gradually adjust your calories up by 100 per week, so that you can get used to it and not see a big movement on the scale as you're doing that.

You will either gain a very small amount of weight during your weekly weigh-ins or you will (more likely) maintain your current weight as you adjust. About a week after you have completed the transition, you will probably see several pounds come off all at once.

Good luck! I know it's scary, but trust the process.

Thanks for all of your responses, hmmm, maybe I should adjust that I'm just so sick of looking at the damn scale and seeing the same number! I truly do not understand it at all, how is it that I was doing nothing b/c of my back injury and lost weight and then when I start moving again to the tune of 17K steps in which 4-5 miles is spent at a moderate pace outside for exercise that it won't move. That just seems wrong on so many levels. I think I'm going to just trust what my calculated goal is now on myfitnesspal. Based on all my numbers it says I should eat the 1637 net so I'll be eating about 2000 now with all the walking and just see how that goes. I'm trying to get back to racing superbikes and have a new 1 pc leather suit I want to make sure I fit in when the doc clears me lol I don't understand, why can't I keep it at 2lbs a week? Not sure I understand the concept behind switching it as you get closer, seems like when you near the end you want to really hit the gas?

2000 seems like a safe starting point. Give it a few weeks and see what happens, if nothing, try adjusting it higher or lower if that doesnt work.

My guess is that while you were inactive, you were eating just enough calories for your sedentary level. Then when you started walking your body realized it needed more energy that it wasn't receiving, so began holding onto calories for fat because it wasn't getting enough.

As for "hitting the gas" at the end, unfortunately our bodies don't work like that. The less you have to lose, the longer it takes. If you try to do it too fast you're just going to lose lean muscle mass, so you may weigh less but you won't look like you wanted too. Also, if you take it at that slow pace, you will keep that weight off long term, as opposed to people who lose weight extremely fast and then put it all back on after thinking they were in the clear and could get off their "diet".

deksgrl · March 2013

Food = Fuel. If you don't have enough to get where you are going, you run out of gas. Unlike a car, it doesn't just stop working all together, but your body does have to compensate for this lack of fuel to keep your body going minimally on a sub-par amount of calories. One of the ways it does this is it releases a stress hormone called cortisol. Excess of this hormone prevents you from losing weight. Does this make the concept more clear?

So, this number you figured out, was it really BMR, or you calculated your TDEE including your exercise activity? And deducted 20% for weight loss? If so, you would not eat back exercise calories because you included them in your calculation.

So pick one method or another, you can set MFP to lose half a pound a week, and then eat your exercise cals, OR, calculate your TDEE -% and do not eat exercise calories. With only 11 lbs to lose you should probably do -10% or 15% instead of 20.

cfiiman · March 2013

Yes, the number was my actual BMR. I adjusted everything in my settings, I dropped to 1.5/lb a week, which I guess is still too much, but anymore and I was having to eat over 2000 calories which I just think is too much for me. I also adjusted down my activity level one notch to lightly active instead of active b/c I think I mis-understood what it was. I'm still recovering from surgery and I get up and walk every 10 minutes or so plus the 4 walks of a mile to a 1.5 miles (which are the only ones I log as exercise) but I still think that probably only puts me in the lightly active category. Right now it says my goal is 1730/day and I'm going to hit that which means I'll eat my exercise calories too. This will be a large change from what I'm doing so I'd rather start here than going way up over 2000. Hopefully I'll see the results I'm looking for and make changes accordingly. It has been so frustrating being hungry all the time and seeing no change on the scale, and every other week I actually went UP a pound!!!! I've been going back and forth between 7/8 lb loss. I only once about a month ago saw a 9lb loss, but it was fleeting

BMR and its effect on losing weight???

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