BMR question

MFP as a rule won't allow you to eat below 1200 calories, regardless of your BMR it sort of uses that number as a baseline. So, if you need to lose 1 pound a week and MFP calculates that number at 1400 calories, then it will tell you to eat that even if you should be eating more.

If you calculate your BMR to be higher than 1200, then definitely eat at least your BMR. This is important to keep your body running effectively and to not enter into starvation mode.

Hope that helps!

Not sure why it said you should NEVER do that because that is how you lose weight. however you don't want to starve yourself, that is a recipe for bad health and doesn't work for permanent weight loss.

Eating just under what your body needs to maintain it's current weight (your BMR) you begin to lose a at a safe and healthy clip. If you go too far below your BMR, your body's Metabolic Rate slows down to protect itself (aka starvation mode), then you begin to lose muscle but your weight loss slows to a crawl.

Finding your personal BMR is very tricky and takes a while. The tools here just give you a place to start because it is different for every person, every body type and activity level.

So the answer is I am not sure why it said that, but that is how weight loss is achieved...eating JUST under your BMR>

BMR is what you burn if you are doing nothing all day (laying in bed, sleeping).

It is important to NEVER eat below this number.

You lose weight by creating a calorie deficit through activity. If your BMR is 1500, let's say, you burn additional calories through the day (eating, walking, talking, sitting, working, etc). This is how you create your deficit. I'm sure if your BMR is 1500 you are in all actuality burning over 2000 calories a day. This creates a 500/day deficit which allows you to lose a pound a week. Make sense? Eat at least your BMR because you are definitely still creating a deficit. Again it is important not to go below or your body can enter starvation mode. You did not misread the topics... hope this helps to explain more!!

So if MFP calculates through living and activity you burn 1900 a day, it would tell you to create a 500 deficit (eat 1400). Make sense?

I agree with Sweetrn, her answer was much more accurate than mine. You can raise that number through activity and you should. First however its good to try to find out what that number is for you. The tool on this site (and any other) are just a guess. Everyone is different.

the best way is to eat as much or more than your BMR which has been raised by activity. So in a sense your first question is correct you should not eat less unless you are having a NO ACTIVITY day. The BMR is supposedly a number that is iiif you stayed in bed all day. But I have found that most tools like the one on this site are a great place to start but are very innacurate.

My body is very efficient and if I sat around all day, I'd burn a lot less than the tool says. So I try to do some activity every day even if it's my off workout day that raises my number.

The BMR calculator on this site has always seemed to overestimate and not line up well with reality to me. I have a feeling it somehow has some activity in there other than laying at rest.

Try this one http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

you'll probably find that its more sane and falls more in line with your observed weightloss than the one here.

Actually, the one you posted says my BMR is about 70 calories a day higher than MFP's BMR calculator.

Edit: The BMR calc you posted: 1682
MFP's BMR calc: 1610

In some of the sticky links above, I read that you should never eat below your BMR.

According to the calculator in the tools section of this site, my BMR is 1,508 calories per day. Yet my calorie target for just one pound of weight loss per week is 1,400.

What am I not understanding here? Help?

Your base metabolic rate - BMR is what you need to sustain yourself should you not move all day, just sit and vegetate in the armchair.

I don't know about the sticky link, however, in my own case, my BMR is around 1400 calories, if I were to eat 1400 calories and consume all the exercise calories that I am supposed to, how the hell could I lose any weight - answer, I wouldn't.

To lose weight you need to be in a deficit, and if you are in a deficit of 3500 calories per week, you will lose 1lb, if you were in a deficit of 7000 calories per week, you would lose 2lb etc etc.

Just remember you need to be in a deficit, don't put too many scientific restrictions on yourself, you will go crazy.

If you use up more calories than you take in you will lose weight and if you exercise too, it will tone you up as you shed the lbs