BMR and Goal Calorie Target

gemlouisejean
gemlouisejean Posts: 9
edited September 21 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on this.
My BMR tells me I need to be eating 1,400 calories a day, I've updated my goals on this but its still telling me I need to be eating 1,250 on this. I know it's not much of a difference but I'm finding my energy levels to be quite low sticking to 1,250 as most days I can't fit in excercise as I have days in college, travelling to and from work etc. Should I go by my reccommended BMR or stick to my goal calorie target on MFP??

Gemma
xx

Replies

  • becca2006
    becca2006 Posts: 26
    I would like to know the same thing - there's a 570 calorie difference between my current goal for calories and my BMR (which I'm assuming means that if we need that many calories to "live and breathe" than that's how many I should be eating....so I want to make sure that I'm on the right track
  • Amarillo_NDN
    Amarillo_NDN Posts: 1,018 Member
    Change from 2 pounds a week to 1 pound, or you can manually change the settings to what you want it to be.
  • gemlouisejean
    gemlouisejean Posts: 9
    I know you can change it, but I'm just wondering if I should be on 1,200 or 1,400? Because I know its harder to loose weight when your not having enough calories :)
  • Mirabilis
    Mirabilis Posts: 312 Member
    MFP sets your calorie limit to (BMR minus 500), with a hard lower limit of 1200. That should get you 1 pound loss per week if your BMR is 1700 or more. When your BMR is lower, your weight loss becomes slower unless you add in exercise because of that lower limit.

    Exercise is good and helps tone you and build muscle but not everyone can do it to the same degree, so the program doesn't really factor that in (much, except in the calculation of your BMR).
  • johnnya2
    johnnya2 Posts: 40
    BMR will change as your weight goes down. Your BMR is what you will burn by doing nothing. The BMR calculates if you did nothing all day, and wanted to stay at that weight, you could eat that amount. If you do not want to lose any weight; then you MUST eat at least the BMR number. The program is designed to never go 500 calories below your BMR for health reasons, and to prevent your body going into starvation mode. The way I think of it, once I get to my goal, then BMR will be the minimum I need to eat, and I will need to eat more based on my activity level, or I will continue to lose.
    As for the hunger, my advice would be to lower your goal per week slightly. I think the reason many people give up, is once they feel so hungry, they just say to hell with it. Steady healthy progress is the goal.
  • gemlouisejean
    gemlouisejean Posts: 9
    Thanks for the help guys! :smile:
    I understand now :) Xxxxx
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