Really frustrated and confused w/ my RMR test results!

honeybadgegirl
honeybadgegirl Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Please help me decipher this nonsense please:sad: . I am at a point where I might just bash my head in to the wall. :cry: :cry:

I tried the Eat More To Lose Weight diet for 4-5 months and didn't lose any weight/inches. I feel strong and healthy but no inches or pounds lost. So....I got my RMR tested because I thought maybe I hadn't been calculating it accurately online. However, my rest results have confused me even more.....

I'm 5'2
160 pounds
29 year old female
Eating currently around 1600 calories (40% carbs, 30 % fat and 30% protein) I believe I've been eating very healthy.
Working out 5 days a week both strenght training & cardio w/ a trainer

I've been aiming/eating aroung 1500-1700 calories based on (http://scoobysworkshop.com and http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/)
Surprisingly they were both fairly close : Fat2fit said around 1497 and suggested eating around 1800-1900. I tried that but gained more weight and it stayed so I went back down to 1600 where I am more or less staying around 157 pounds (her scale at the office said 162 but with all my clothese on and whatever).

My test results using Korr where I sat for 10 minutes said:
my RMR is 1440 cals
Lifestyle estimate: 432 cals
Exercise estimate if I work out 30 minutes a day: 150 calories
Total Energy Output = 2022

My confusion is that it suggested that for weightloss I should eat 1152 to 1440. Thats waay below my RMR w/ my fairly active life. Right? Is this crazy or have I lost my mind?

This literally goes against everything I have learned on here as well as the healthier thought-process I've been learning. The nutritionist even recommended I eat 1200 calories despite my explaining to her that I workout 5 days a week and workout with a trainer doing intense circuit training as well as weight training for around 60 minutes those days. She recommended I do not eat back my calories. Granted, this came about after I explained to her I have been on the worst 15 year nightmare with weight loss and I have tried every horrible unhealthy diet ever so I believe I have done complete damage to my body. But the results are really not as bad as I expected. I really did think it would be like 800 or something crazy. So I really don't blame her for her suggestion as we both suspect my thyroid might also be an issue (my doctors said it's not great but not an actual 'problem')

I was hoping there was someone that knows a lot about this or has experienced this themselves. :sad:

I would appreciate it :flowerforyou:

Replies

  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
    People here love to say you'll just die if you eat below your BMR. You won't. If I try the 'eat more to lose weight method', where you don't eat back exercise calories, I end up eating only 50 to 100 calories a day, on average, more than when I eat at a net 1250 a day eating my exercise calories back.

    If your RMR is 1440 (which sounds reasonable btw), you could probably eat anywhere from 1200 to 1500 a day, depending on your exercise, and lose weight in a healthy manor. I usually average a net 1350 a day (I always go over my goal of 1240 lol) but eat anywhere from 1350 on non workout days to 1850 (or more if I do a long run) in workout days. I am running a fairly small deficit so I'm only averaging about .5 to .75 lbs a week now.

    Eating 1200 a day and not eating back your workout calories (if you're really only burning 150 a day) would probably be absolutely fine medically. However, psychologically that's pretty difficult to maintain. I prefer to reward myself for being active by allowing myself more food. Some would argue its not healthy to reward yourself with food, but its worked well for me for over 2 years. I had my RMR tested a year ago and it was about 10% higher than the online calculators say it should be. I plan on having it tested again this fall.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    It doesn't sound way off honestly. I'm 35, 162 lbs, and on days when I don't exercise, my fitbit says I burn 1700--1900 depending on activity. I try to walk 5 miles a day and work out 2-3 times a week (fitbit gives me an average of 2150) and I've been losing fine at 1600-1700 a day. Scooby says my BMR is 1493. So yes maybe your BMR is a bit lower than it should be, but 1200 seems ridiculously low. If you haven't been losing at 1600, I'd try 1400-1500, but not 1200.
  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
    Interesting post, it's rare that people actually have their RMR measured so you are a step ahead in that regard. If it's accurate (I don't really know anything about that test) and your TDEE is 2000, then by eating at 1600 you should be losing just under 1 lb per week. How long have you been maintaining weight at that level? I would stick with it for a month before deciding to change anything to make sure water weight, glycogen, muscle swelling or hormonal changes are not masking the fat loss. If it's been over a month and you still aren't seeing a loss at 1600, personally I would go back to the nutritionist and see if they can help you figure out why.

    Losing 1.5lbs per week, which is probably the most you can hope for since you are closing in on your goal weight, would be a 750 cal deficit which would put you at 1250. Maybe that's where the nutritionist, etc were coming from. It seems much more pleasant to me to lose a bit more slowly but be able to eat more, so I like the 1500-1600 range (assuming you eventually start losing at that level, which you should if the test is accurate).

    Not sure if that really answered your question. In terms of eating below your BMR/RMR, it's not as big a deal as people here claim. In fact you will be hard pressed to find that rule espoused outside of this website. I wouldn't worry too much about your BMR, just eat at a moderate cut from your TDEE and you should start losing.

    ETA, just wanted to add exercise cals should not be eaten back since they are already factored in to your TDEE.
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,069 Member
    Much as I'd have liked it to, 'eat more to lose more' didn't work for me. 1200 works well for me, though I'll probably get shouted down for it - I DO eat back my exercise calories though so the only time i'm eating at 1200 is at the weekend when I don't workout.

    Maybe try reducing gradually to see if you can find your sweet spot.
  • honeybadgegirl
    honeybadgegirl Posts: 11 Member
    you guys are amazing! thanks so much for your response and just for ... being here! I really appreciate it!

    It's been exhausting to try to decipher all of this on my own...especially when my doctors & trainers seem to know less about this than you would expect. my doctor was not very motivated to help me with my weight issues. and my trainer literally told me to eat a jar of peanut butter for dinner and I'd lose weight like this (*snapped his fingers) because of our intense workouts. *sigh* I didn't throw a kettlebell at him but I wanted to. I was hoping someone would connect the dots for me but I guess there is no short-cut. ugh :-(

    I just have to experiment and learn through trial and error - because everyone is different, I think?

    I want to be healthy but I also want to lose at least 1 pound a week. so I think I'm going to do the 1200 calorie bit for a month and eat back half my workout calories. I really did try to eat 1600, 1700, 1800 calories each for a month and I gained with 1700 & 1800 and have plateau-ed 1600. I desperately wanted to lose at 1600 but I guess thats not happening just yet.

    my fear was that eating 1200 would cause even more damage in the long run and lower my metabolism...

    :ohwell:
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
    1200 with light exercise is pretty unlikely to damage your metabolism. I had been netting around 1250 for a year or so when I had my RMR tested. It can back at 1662 when online calculators said about 1500. And I am hypothyroid. Netting 1250 clearly did not damage my metabolism.
  • honeybadgegirl
    honeybadgegirl Posts: 11 Member
    good to know! i don't know if my workouts are 'light' as i always feel like i'm either going to passout or vomit but, i am glad to hear that your rmr was not effected by eating 1250. i would assume with your hypothyroidism that you would have really low metabolism but whatever you are doing seems to be working very well! thats awesome :happy:
  • sewingdiscontent
    sewingdiscontent Posts: 112
    Here's my theory- when I (or most others) think we eat x number of calories, we are probs off by about 200-300 cals. So we think we eat 1200, but really it is more like 1500. This is maybe why you are not losing at 1600.

    It is easy to be off. I am totally obsessive about weighing things and recording food I've eaten, yet I consistently find errors in my logging, usually due to incorrect calorie amounts in the database.
  • honeybadgegirl
    honeybadgegirl Posts: 11 Member
    THAT is so true! i always use a scale and measure everything but i know for sure when I go out to eat that it's literally a crapshoot and even when its my own cooking, there is a bite here, a bit there - a little more drizzle of oil here and so on and so on. Thanks for reminding me of this! i thought i knew it but i guess i didn't really ackowledge it!
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
    If your energy output is 2022, eating anything less than that will result in weightloss. As 500 cals a day gives you 1lb a week loss, what do you think you should do?

    Edit; to add - nutritionists are not necessarily all that well educated. I could take a course in holistic eating tomorrow and call myself a Nutritionist.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
    when I go out to eat that it's literally a crapshoot
    That sounds like a really disgusting meal.
  • honeybadgegirl
    honeybadgegirl Posts: 11 Member
    :laugh: crap shot!

    (I'm not just fat, I'm an idiot too!) hahaah!
  • honeybadgegirl
    honeybadgegirl Posts: 11 Member
    If your energy output is 2022, eating anything less than that will result in weightloss. As 500 cals a day gives you 1lb a week loss, what do you think you should do?

    Edit; to add - nutritionists are not necessarily all that well educated. I could take a course in holistic eating tomorrow and call myself a Nutritionist.

    I would totally be OK with 1 pound a week but I tried eating around -500 and nothing happened. at all.

    I'm finding that the so called experts I've gone to are disappointingly ignorant. One doctor last year put me on an 800-900 calorie diet. When that didnt work, he wanted to try going less than that. I'm the real dummie in the story though for even working with him. I see him getting press now on places like yahoo and msn giving health advice and I just want to hate mail him some crapshoot muffins.

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