Customization with BMR

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Motleybird
Motleybird Posts: 119 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I keep hearing that you should not go below your BMR. Right now my one pound a week setting falls below that number, but I'm still far enough away from my goal (20lbs) that half a pound a week doesn't sound like enough. So I went into the customized settings and set my calories at least to the BMR amount which puts me at .8 lbs per week. Does this sound right?

Oh look! This is also where you can change the percentages for carbs protein and fat! :)

Replies

  • mworld
    mworld Posts: 270
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    without getting into the specifics, you don't lose weight without consuming less calories than you expend. What you expend in a day is BMR+activity.....theres nothing saying that BMR+activity won't be less than BMR...so yes you can eat below your BMR but you should be calculating how much to be in deficit based on BMR + activity.


    there i went into specifics :S
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
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    I haven't seen anything concrete that says it's dangerous to eat below your BMR... though I have heard people say this. I do make sure and eat at least half of my exercise calories, so for the most part I'm keeping my deficit between 800 and 1200/day.

    My BMR is about 1700/day, I burn (with activities) about 2200/day. I want to lose about 2 lbs/week, so I have to eat a net of 1200/day, which is below my BMR. On exercise days, I might end up eating more than my BMR, but not always, and definitely not on non-exercise days. I've been eating below my BMR for about a year now (off and on... but I'm sticking to it and doing much better now), and I feel fine (not excessively tired/hungry/etc.).

    Personally, I think it's different for each person, and you have to go based on how you feel. Some people don't do well on 1200 cal/day and have to up it, but some people do just fine.

    I see no reason to up my consumption to my BMR- if I did and I wanted to keep losing 2 lbs/week, I'd have to seriously up my exercise, and realistically I just don't have time for that! Once I get closer to my goal weight and have less to lose, then I'll probably up my food intake some and change my goal to 1 lb/week, but until then, I'll keep doing what I'm doing because it works when I stick to it.

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