BMR QUESTION

It really depends on your muscle to fat ratio. It takes far more calories to maintain muscle.

With only eight pounds to lose? NO. Set your calorie goal at your TDEE minus 10%. And if you are using the outside calculators, you don't eat back exercise cals.


It will likely be between 1700-2200 depending on your activity level. But just keep it simple. So just stick with MFP's recommendations...you're at 1650? Is that with the setting at "Lose 1/2 pound per week?"


Just use MFP's settings for "Lose 1/2 pound per week" and do NOT use "Sedentary". Sedentary is set a little too low on this site. Use Lightly Active or more.


edit because I can't type.

When you include the activity in your TDEE category, it already figures in the exercise. So you wouldn't eat any additional cals. Since I have a desk job and my activity varies, I use the "sedentary" number and track exercise cals separately. The I try to eat back about 2/3 of the activity cals. It's only about 2/3 because you have to subtract the calories that would have been burned "sedentary" that were replaced by the activity cals and deduct the 20%, or whatever reduction from TDEE you are using.

ok, I'm so sorry but when you say add in the cals I earn with exercise......so if I'm set at 1810, and excercise and burn 450, then I should eat around 2200 cals/day?

Yes. That is the way this site is intended to be used. It worked for me. Other people may argue that point.

For now, try slowly getting your intake up to 1810. Hold there for a couple weeks...reevaluate. You don't want to just jump from 1650 to 2200 all at once. 1810 will likely be too low over time, but start with that.

Just to reiterate...yes

MFP is a NEAT method (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) calculator...exercise is extra activity.

The I try to eat back about 2/3 of the activity cals. It's only about 2/3 because you have to subtract the calories that would have been burned "sedentary" that were replaced by the activity cals and deduct the 20%, or whatever reduction from TDEE you are using.

I dunno what you're using, but the treadmill and ellipticals I use don't count a burn of you standing still. The number they give you is on top of the calories you would have burned standing still.

And even then, I burn 800 calories in an hour running, without getting out of breath, easy. What would I have burned, maybe 90 to 100 in an hour, sitting on the couch? 700 is hardly 2/3 of 800, lol. If I can burn 15 calories a minute exercising (well, I CAN burn more, but let's just keep it this way for reference) and I burn 1.5 calories a minute asleep... that's 10%. Not 67%.

simplified way to see it:

forget BMR...calculate TDEE. once you know that, eat at a 10% deficit for healthy fat loss and muscle retention.
do not do all that complicated stuff like eating back calories/tracking calories burned on treadmil and what not. all that is already integrated into the estimated tdee when its calculated. see if that works for a while.
i can always tell when TDEEs are wrong. if i follow em for a week and im completely flat and feeling weak, then i know i got my calories wrong. i just up it by a 100 for a week and see results and repeat the process until im at a state where i can burn fat and maintain muscle.
bottom line, dont complicate stuff with eating back and all that jazz....remember: you body DOES NOT count grams and calories the simple way we presume it does.

yes, I used MFP, and did 1/2 pound per week, and I did have it set at sedentary....because i have a desk job. I reset it to lightly active just now, and it gave me 1810 cals/day! so, using this, I don't have to eat back my exercise cals? this is where i get confused and feel stupid!

I did MFP's and it set me up at 1900 per day, which I brought down to 1800 for the just in case. If I work out, I do eat at least half of those calories back because let's say I burned 500 like you do, that will technically bring my number down to 1300 and my numbers at 1800 are already set to nourish yet still loose weight. So definitely just look at your net calories you take in after working out and go from there.

ok, I'm so sorry but when you say add in the cals I earn with exercise......so if I'm set at 1810, and excercise and burn 450, then I should eat around 2200 cals/day?

I know it looks scary to eat 2200 per day if you workout but this is how you have to look at it. If you're set at 1810 and you burn 500 today, you will technically only be eating 1310 if you don't eat back those you burned. Your calories here are set up for you to loose weight already even if you don't work out alot.