Who knows about BMR?

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I have been losing weight pretty consistently since January 26th, 2013. I have lost 48lbs so far. Here's the thing. I have been working out 3-5 days a week. Not lately, but I will be stepping my game up starting tomorrow. I have serious issue with making it over 1200 calories for intake and I'm sure that's why my weight loss has come to a significant slow down. I just tried to calculate my BMR and it came out to 1906.5 and so I multiplied it by the 1.55 for exercising 3-5 days a week and it came out to 2955. Is this the amount of calories I should be consuming? I have a hard enough time taking in calories as it is, so I am lost. If I increase my caloric intake will my weight start coming off again? Or will I gain?

Help!

Replies

  • ladynocturne
    ladynocturne Posts: 865 Member
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    BMR is the calculation of calories your body requires to run if it were in a coma. It is recommend to eat at least your BMR + exercise calories to maintain a safe weight loss deficit. You cannot gain fat eating at your BMR (provided you don't have any medical conditions).

    It is safe for some obese people to have a lower than BMR calorie intake but its really something you'd need to confirm with a dietitian.

    You will "gain" some water weight and some waste weight that will be temporary from upping your calories from 1200 to your BMR. This is not "fat". It's possible that you will see slightly slower weight loss over time, but it will be healthier as you'll be limiting how much lean muscle mass is lost while losing weight. This will also help prevent plateauing.
  • kbornman21
    kbornman21 Posts: 26 Member
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    Okay, so if MFP is telling me to eat 1520 calories a day? lol BMR is telling me to eat 1400 more calories a day.. lol This whole thing is so confusing.
    BMR is the calculation of calories your body requires to run if it were in a coma. It is recommend to eat at least your BMR + exercise calories to maintain a safe weight loss deficit. You cannot gain fat eating at your BMR (provided you don't have any medical conditions).

    It is safe for some obese people to have a lower than BMR calorie intake but its really something you'd need to confirm with a dietitian.

    You will "gain" some water weight and some waste weight that will be temporary from upping your calories from 1200 to your BMR. This is not "fat". It's possible that you will see slightly slower weight loss over time, but it will be healthier as you'll be limiting how much lean muscle mass is lost while losing weight. This will also help prevent plateauing.
  • MzManiak
    MzManiak Posts: 1,361 Member
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    You may be confusing BMR with TDEE, or are mistakenly entering something wrong in the calculations.

    Try Fat2FitRadio.com and enter your info. They will give you your BMR, as well as how many calories you should eat for each level of activity.

    If you still have trouble, you can post your age, height, weight, and goal weight and someone can help you figure out where it's wrong.
  • ladynocturne
    ladynocturne Posts: 865 Member
    Options
    Okay, so if MFP is telling me to eat 1520 calories a day? lol BMR is telling me to eat 1400 more calories a day.. lol This whole thing is so confusing.
    BMR is the calculation of calories your body requires to run if it were in a coma. It is recommend to eat at least your BMR + exercise calories to maintain a safe weight loss deficit. You cannot gain fat eating at your BMR (provided you don't have any medical conditions).

    It is safe for some obese people to have a lower than BMR calorie intake but its really something you'd need to confirm with a dietitian.

    You will "gain" some water weight and some waste weight that will be temporary from upping your calories from 1200 to your BMR. This is not "fat". It's possible that you will see slightly slower weight loss over time, but it will be healthier as you'll be limiting how much lean muscle mass is lost while losing weight. This will also help prevent plateauing.

    You may have it set to losing 2lbs a week, which may be slightly too high of a deficit for you. If you change the setting to 1.5lbs and 1lb a week how many calories for MFP give you to eat?
  • kbornman21
    kbornman21 Posts: 26 Member
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    Okay Fat 2 Fit said originally when I put in my goal weight of 152 that my calorie intake would be below my current BMR and to revise the goal weight and then once to that goal weight to revise then. So my current caloric intake should be 2262 calories a day if I want to lose weight to get to 180 from the 239 I'm at now. I'm going to give it a shot. Thank you everyone. :)
    You may be confusing BMR with TDEE, or are mistakenly entering something wrong in the calculations.

    Try Fat2FitRadio.com and enter your info. They will give you your BMR, as well as how many calories you should eat for each level of activity.

    If you still have trouble, you can post your age, height, weight, and goal weight and someone can help you figure out where it's wrong.