Anyone with a lower than average BMR/TDEE?

JAT74
JAT74 Posts: 1,081 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm curious to see if any others out there have had similar experiences to me (ie. unable to lose weight even after calculating BMR/TDEE and subtracting what SHOULD be enough)?

I'm not in a position to get this tested at the moment but have seen one or two posts from others who have on MFP and was curious to find out if there are many others with this problem.

I am now convinced after trying and failing using many different calculators/calculations that either I have a much lower than average BMR/TDEE and this didn't increase after a reset, or that I need to switch to cutting out food groups in order to see results which I don't want to have to do.

I really don't want to be one of these people who restricts their diet, but if I discovered I had a low BMR (say 1000 or just above at a guess) I could live with that once I knew it was the case. That would also put me at a much lower TDEE and it would finally make sense as to why I'm not losing the weight I want to.

Anybody out there in the same boat? What finally worked for you?

Replies

  • daniellemm1
    daniellemm1 Posts: 465 Member
    bump
  • da_bears10089
    da_bears10089 Posts: 1,791 Member
    how long of a reset did you do?
  • NJL13500
    NJL13500 Posts: 433 Member
    Is it at all possible for you to get a BodyMedia or FitBit or other device that measures calorie output? I have a BM and it has helped me get a real sense of what I burn each day.

    I was surprised that MFP overestimated calories burned for me, but also pleasantly surprised at how much I burn just doing normal activity during the day. It's really hard to pin down numbers without an accurate way to collect data.

    Good luck!
  • sunnyside1213
    sunnyside1213 Posts: 1,205 Member
    My bmr is below 1000. I eat TDEE - 20% = 1038 c per day. It is the only thing that works. If I go over, I start gaining weight immediately.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    I had my RMR testing through my wellness program. It came back at 1480, when the math suggested it should be 1696. Not good.

    I went and got tested in part because the first two months that I tracked, my weight loss followed predictions pretty well. I put my goal at a pound a week, I met my calorie goals most days but was always under my TDEE, and I lost about 5 pounds each of the first two months.

    And then I added more activity to my days, and I tried to stay consistently under goal rather than *at* my goal, and .... nothing changed. Plateau.

    The woman who gave me my test results suggested eating in a calorie range about where I had been eating to continue to lose weight. Instead, for various reasons, I relaxed on my goals somewhat. There have been a number of important food-related days around here, and I gave myself a pass to enjoy them. I went on vacation over Easter, and while I didn't have a lot of candy or dessert, I indulged in some good restaurant meals. I pretty much decided I was fine with eating much closer to the TDEE calculated by the person who tested my RMR, so I've frequently been 200+ calories above my MFP goal..

    and the scale is moving again... so? I don't know what exactly this means. Other than metabolisms are tricky things and we don't understand them nearly as well as some people would wish.
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
    I don't know if mine is "lower than average" but my BMR is 1370 and my TDEE is 1660 - from this I deduct 15% giving me a daily net intake of 1400 calories.

    I calculate based on sedentary activity and then eat back my exercise calories based on my HRM.

    This has been working pretty well for me for a while.

    I see females on here saying they lose weight eating 2000 calories a day but I know that 1400 net is my perfect weight loss formula.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    Yes, I have had my RMR professionally tested and it came up as 400 calories or so less than the predicted numbers using Miflin St Joer which is supposedly the most accurate formula.

    You know some people are said to have slow metabolisms?

    Yeah, that's me.

    Come the apocalypse it will only be me and the cockroaches left as I don't need much food to stay alive....
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,081 Member
    Sounds like this could indeed be my problem unfortunately. I am currently doing 5:2 and eating around 1000 calories net. I've worked out my weekly calories based on a sedentary TDEE of 1750 (which is probably way too high) plus my exercise calories being around 400 per day (based on my HRM figure -20%). I am then subtracting 750 from the total (allowing me to lose 1.5lbs per week).

    This isn't working and before I've tried to do a reset and eaten at an active maintenance level for at least 4-5 weeks which did nothing but prevent both weight loss and inch loss and mean I put back on the 4lbs I'd lost when I joined MFP.

    When I reduced calories again to an amount to firstly lose 0.5 lbs per week and then slowly to 1lb and now 1.5lbs per week it wasn't until I got to the last figure that the scale started moving again, although it's moving very very slowly. I'm definitely not however losing 1.5lbs per week which leads me to believe that my BMR and TDEE are wrong. I've also lost a few inches but 3.5 inches from my whole body & 1% body fat (if that) in nearly 4 months is nothing at all so something isn't right with the figures.
  • williamsge
    williamsge Posts: 70 Member
    I think I'm in the same boat. I really want to get my RMR tested professionally. But I'm thinking just based on my lack of success with losing weight that its much lower than I think.
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,081 Member
    I will stick with my current net of 1000 calories and gross 1350 and see what happens over the coming weeks. If I'm still not losing much I might have to drop by a few more. I'll probably discover that my actual TDEE with exercise is 1300 or something stupid and BMR 900!

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