1 yr. anniversary - 90 lbs lost

Thank you all so much for the kind words! I am so glad some of you are inspired by my post and I am glad to hear that for some of you this was just what you needed to either get back on the wagon or know that it is possible to accomplish the goals you set.

A few of you asked for more details about the 1,200 calories a day and I decided to post what I learned this past year, here you go:

BMR
You use energy no matter what you're doing, even when sleeping. Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day. Since this number is calculated using your age and current weight, it is important to update this on a regular basis if planning on losing a lot of weight.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

TDEE
A formula that uses your BMR and then applies an activity factor to determine your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). The only factor omitted in this equation is lean body mass. Leaner bodies need more calories than less leaner ones. Therefore, this equation will be very accurate in all but the very muscular (will under-estimate calorie needs) and the very fat (will over-estimate calorie needs). Your TDEE is the amount of calories you need to MAINTAIN your body weight.

- If you exercise regularly and routinely do the same workouts, you can choose a higher activity level. This means that you would not log your workouts in MFP as you already included them in your TDEE number.
- If you set your activity level to “sedentary” but you work out at the gym, log your work outs

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

Setting a daily calorie goal for MFP
You will get a lot of different answers here as to what number is the best number, here are two methods:
- When setting up MFP, it automatically calculates your TDEE. When you then select the amount of weight you want to lose per week, it subtracts the calories it takes to burn those pounds from your TDEE and thus provides you with a suggested number.
o Example: I am 5’4”, weighed 236 pounds and was 30 years old when I started. My BMR at that point was 1,841. With a desk job, my activity level is sedentary so you multiply your BMR by 1.2. This gives me a TDEE of 2,209. I wanted to lose 2 pounds a week. It takes your body 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat so I would need to create a weekly deficit of 7,000 calories. My daily TDEE x 7 days a week= 15,464 calories a week. 15,464 calories minus a 7,000 deficit = 8,464 calories a week which comes out to 1,209 a day. That’s what MFP automatically calculated for me.
- Another common method is to use your TDEE number and set your goal as a percentage of the TDEE. If you are starting with a BMI (Body Mass Index http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/) of “obese” with a lot of weight to lose, you might use your TDEE – 30%, once your BMI changes to “overweight”, make sure to update your numbers and possibly adjust to TDEE-20%.

*Please note that it is not recommend to go below 1,200 a day for females (1,800 for males). MFP’s default settings will not go below 1,200 when you set up your account.

Workout Calories
If you picked an “active” activity level on MFP when you first set up your account or when you calculated your TDEE, the workout calories are already figured into you daily calorie allotment. Picking “active” it assumes you will be working out consistently. This means you do not log your workouts and you don’t eat back any “extra” calories.

If you are using a calorie goal that doesn’t have workouts figured into the number and you end up logging your workouts separately, eat the calories back.

*A personal note; no machine at the gym or presets in MFP will give you a 100% accurate reading on how many calories you burned, neither will an HRM (Heart Rate Monitor). I decided to only eat 60% of my workout calories back.*