Eating all of your calories/BMR

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  • shelly384
    shelly384 Posts: 6 Member
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    bump
  • chris_welliver
    chris_welliver Posts: 1 Member
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    Agree
  • CherryOnionKiss
    CherryOnionKiss Posts: 376 Member
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    bump
  • earthquick
    earthquick Posts: 20 Member
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    OMG people, you are driving yourself crazy with all these numbers! MFP already calculates it correctly... and if you have a big workout, you can eat a little more. Simple as that
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    BMR shouldn't really enter the equation guys. BMR is NOT your TDEE and it's NOT what you should be basing your deficit off.

    :heart: :flowerforyou: :heart:
  • Sizethree4Ever
    Sizethree4Ever Posts: 120 Member
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    Gosh - that BMR seems kind of high! 1600 or more?? Sounds more like maintenance calories to me :laugh: (although for me right now, that is my LOSING weight calories :laugh: ) Don't know what to tell you at this point! You seem to be doing o.k. where your at and losing weight consistantly. If you stall out for a longer period of time - 2-3 weeks - maybe you should re-evaluate what your doing, but I guess for now if it ain't broke, don't fix it!! Unless something is off in how you are putting in your information, that is the only other thing I can think of!

    Hallusmc - you need to be above your BMR calories to keep your body functioning. You want to be less than the calories you need to maintain your current weight to lose weight.

    Took the words right out of my mouth :smile:

    My BMR is 1670 which is the amount of calories I eat every day no matter how much or how little I exercise. I do this for two reason

    1. I totally agree you should not eat below your BMR, your body needs to keep functioning
    2. I calulated my TDEE, TDEE is the total number of calories that your body expends in 24 hours, including all activities. TDEE is also known as your "maintenance level". I based this on my current weight. Here is a rough way to calculate your TDEE. Take your BMR and multiply it according to your activity level

    Activity Multiplier
    Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
    Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
    Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
    Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
    Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)

    With my numbers I consider myself between Mod and very active so I multiply my BMR by 1.6, this gives me a TDEE of 2672. So if I wanted to maitain my current weight of 211(which I don't) at my current activity level I would eat 2,672 calories a day. But I want to lose weight. So I am reducing my caloric intake for a 2lb a week weight loss, which is 1,000 calories a day. So, to lose 2lbs a week I eat 1,672 calories a day and wouldn't you know it, that's right where my BMR is! When I actually did all these calculations I was very happy to see the numbers were supported both ways. This is also why I don't adjust my food intake for exercise, I've already worked my activity level into my calculations on my TDEE, now if I really do an extra long workout that's more than my average I'll certainly add some more calories in.

    So, that's just my two cents. :smile:

    Bump. Thanks for the info.
  • CloverCreeper
    CloverCreeper Posts: 178 Member
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    Zombie thread.
  • carolineire
    carolineire Posts: 65 Member
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    bump to keep an eye on this!
  • SB2100
    SB2100 Posts: 4
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    Bump for later :happy:
  • chidori_nep
    chidori_nep Posts: 32 Member
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    Wow this is a very informative thread!! My BMR is 1435, with maintenance of lightly active need 2000....aim lose 1.5 to 2 pounds a week so a week need cut ou 5250 to 7000 a week...so my nett calories should be 1000 to 1250 / day. Means if I exercise then I can eat back the amount of calories I lost via exercise! Such an eye opener as I had targeted 1000 kcal/day but trying to keep under calorie goal, sumtimes nett of bout 700-800 after exercise. Next day I'll feel abit faint n jittery.

    from now on I will follow all the experts here and aim to achieve a nett of 1000-1250kcal/day, and not trying to aim less than that!!

    Thanks so much for the eye opener. Im sure by this way I wont hit a plateau or yoyo from starving myself.
  • paintlisapurple
    paintlisapurple Posts: 982 Member
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    Bump for a later read. Too sleepy.
  • cccranchmom
    cccranchmom Posts: 4
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    Bump
  • mkuijt
    mkuijt Posts: 7
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    So, just to be sure I understand what I have been reading...

    MFP tells me to eat 1760 calories
    my BMR according to MFP is 1702

    And the last few weeks I was eating 1500 calories and excercising for 200-300 which makes a netto 1200.

    I have been starving my body ??!! I should eat way more ?
  • 1Lightstep
    1Lightstep Posts: 64 Member
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    This link may shed some light. http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
  • mkuijt
    mkuijt Posts: 7
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    I am sorry but it doesnt help out.

    I understand the way MFP works, but I dont get the BMR part...

    I just really want to know I I understood correctly what I previously posted:
    MFP tells me to eat 1760 calories
    my BMR according to MFP is 1702
    And the last few weeks I was eating 1500 calories and excercising for 200-300 which makes a netto 1200.
    I have been starving my body ??!! I should eat way more ?

    Edit: According to MFP I understand that I dont, but what of the BMR part?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,081 Member
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    I am sorry but it doesnt help out.

    I understand the way MFP works, but I dont get the BMR part...

    I just really want to know I I understood correctly what I previously posted:
    MFP tells me to eat 1760 calories
    my BMR according to MFP is 1702
    And the last few weeks I was eating 1500 calories and excercising for 200-300 which makes a netto 1200.
    I have been starving my body ??!! I should eat way more ?

    Edit: According to MFP I understand that I dont, but what of the BMR part?

    Your BMR may not be 1702. If you're trying to lose weight, all of your above text doesn't make any sense.

    Read this.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • jraymond
    jraymond Posts: 25 Member
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    After reading this, I am wondering what the point is of eating all your calories that MFP suggests, or eating back your exercise calories? BMR (the calories your body burns while laying in bed), needs to be adjusted for your body composition. For most people, a good quality BMR calculator can estimate pretty well, but if you have a lot of fat--it burns little or no calories--whereas if you are very lean and muscular, your muscles will burn more calories. The BMR calculators don't take this into account. If you are carrying a lot of fat, some medical professions suggest lowering your BMR calculation by 500 calories or more. If you are very lean, adding calories. These are all different than Total Daily Energy Expended. It is my understanding, that a true TDEE, does not include you BMR, but many of them do seem to try to do this. TDEE helps you calculate your average daily activity. I could see an argument for eating calories for your adjusted BMR+TDEE, but not calories expended during exercise. Two highly credible medical doctors, specialized in weight loss (NIH researchers, etc) have told me specifically to NOT eat back my calories, if I want to lose weight. I am saving you thousands of dollars here. If overweight, most of us were probably eating well beyond our BMR/TDEE. Of course, as you lose weight, you need fewer calories and need to adjust your caloric intake down. If you build muscle through exercise, your BMR will go up. So, you have to keep tweaking. The healthiest way to create a calorie deficit is to eat just what your body needs to function at its relatively sedentary American existence (would that our genes would keep up with our new existence) and exercise to burn a deficit while building muscle--which will increase your BMR. Cannot understand why anyone would suggest eating those calories to lose weight--but only to maintain. So, I say--recognize that all of this is very approximate--and eat in a close range of your adjusted BMR on MFP, not the suggested calories you earn through additional exercise or if you happen to be a little more active that day--which MFP doesn't know about. This issue is really a concern for users of Fitbit Flex which interfaces with MFP.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    BMR (the calories your body burns while laying in bed), needs to be adjusted for your body composition. For most people, a good quality BMR calculator can estimate pretty well, but if you have a lot of fat--it burns little or no calories--whereas if you are very lean and muscular, your muscles will burn more calories.
    BMR estimates are based on averages of people your gender, age, height AND WEIGHT. Most of us can use the averages.
  • carrie_lou
    carrie_lou Posts: 44
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    I noticed that this post is for newbies, which I am....so therefore- what is a BMR- LOL

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