Net Calories and BMR

honeylissabee
honeylissabee Posts: 217 Member
edited February 8 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm working on trying to find an eating plan that actually works for me. Something that I'm able to maintain. I've cleaned up my diet significantly, though that's only eating at home. I've realized that I'm not hungry as often, and I feel a lot more in control. However, I haven't really paid attention to calorie counts, etc. I've managed to lose close to 6 pounds in 2 weeks, but I know I need to keep an eye on calories to keep losing weight.

I am leaning towards focusing more on just eating below my TDEE (I have Fitbit and MFP linked up), but not necessarily focusing on staying in a specific range.

MFP says I burn approximately 2,000 calories being sedentary. Most calculators state my BMR is between 1,500 and 1,700 calories. If I were to eat my BMR, I'd lose 1 pound per week or less. But since I'm NOT comatose, my net calories would be below my BMR.

Even eating my TDEE-20% starts getting in/around my BMR range, and that's assuming I stay sedentary. Even spending a day out shopping can get my TDEE into the "lightly active" range. Plus, I plan on starting a 28 Day Leslie Sansone walking challenge which will have me doing approximately 3 hours a week of exercise (1.5 hours of primarily cardio and 1.5 hours of primarily light strength training).

Plus, even without the lightly active vs sedentary differences (there are plenty of days where I barely get out of bed, so sedentary is pretty accurate most days), I'm still looking at a 400 calorie deficit per day or so. It seems almost painful when most plans have me looking at a greater weight loss.

So, how do I make sure my net calories aren't too low? Should I make sure I don't net below my approximate BMR? How do I determine what my activity level and TDEE are? Should I set myself up for sedentary, and then eat a little more if I'm more active? My TDEE varies a lot from day to day and week to week, so I'm nervous about sticking to a single number- even though doing that would also be easier to manage.

Replies

  • trudijoy
    trudijoy Posts: 1,685 Member
    personally I ignore net cals and just make sure my intake is above BMR and as close to goal as poss. i don't trust the MFP burn calculator, and I'm on TDEE - 20%. It works for me.
  • 89nunu
    89nunu Posts: 1,082 Member
    Well, the tdee -20% method really only works properly for people that follow a proper workout plan that doesn't change all the time. IMO when you are changing your workouts and general activity level a lot the mfp way works a lot better.

    But knowing your bmr is definitely a good thing, and yes I would try not to eat below your bmr. So why don't you just put your bmr or bmr+50 to 100 as your goal and then log and eat back your exercise calories?
    This way you can eat more on days you are more active but not overeat while your not... as you have a fitbit you should be able to know quite correctly whether you move more or less
  • honeylissabee
    honeylissabee Posts: 217 Member
    Part of me thinks that doing something like that (or simply setting myself up for Sedentary TDEE-20% and eating back exercise calories) would be best, but I'm also nervous. My projected calorie burn varies throughout the day which makes things difficult. If I work out at noon, but don't do much for the rest of the day, my projected burn can drop. In the past, I've gone to bed at 11pm and woken up to see that I was over my goal because I lost calories overnight because I slept for that hour. I know that having a single goal is best in cases like this, but I still worry about overeating days when I'm sedentary or under-eating if I'm active.
  • trudijoy
    trudijoy Posts: 1,685 Member
    Part of me thinks that doing something like that (or simply setting myself up for Sedentary TDEE-20% and eating back exercise calories) would be best, but I'm also nervous. My projected calorie burn varies throughout the day which makes things difficult. If I work out at noon, but don't do much for the rest of the day, my projected burn can drop. In the past, I've gone to bed at 11pm and woken up to see that I was over my goal because I lost calories overnight because I slept for that hour. I know that having a single goal is best in cases like this, but I still worry about overeating days when I'm sedentary or under-eating if I'm active.

    i'm hypothyroid and eating randomly varying amounts ( aburn for me could be 100 - 2000 esp when i was bigger) was horrible for my metabolism, but eating the same and burning off varying amounts seems to work :)
  • _EndGame_
    _EndGame_ Posts: 770 Member
    personally I ignore net cals and just make sure my intake is above BMR and as close to goal as poss. i don't trust the MFP burn calculator, and I'm on TDEE - 20%. It works for me.

    Yeah, the MFP burn estimation is grossly overestimated.
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