BMR or MFP? Conflicting numbers

I know it feels nitpicky, but it really can make a difference. I recently logged a day of my food by measurement and then logged the same food by weight to compare. These were the exact same portions of food measured different ways and the day logged with cups/spoons measurements was over 200 calories less than the one logged by weight. Weighing your food really can make a big difference.

^^^^This makes a huge difference
checking that the entry on mfp is actually the same as on the packet in your hands also makes a huge difference
keep in mind that in most jurisdictions the weight of food on the packet has to legally be the minimum content, so if you eat the packet you will be eating more than what it says it contains and in some countries the nutritional data is allowed to be +/- 20% accurate!

Net = food in - exercise
Net < 1200 is not safe or healthy - there is a resaon that mfp does not let you go below 1200

many people try it and struggle but find that they lose a lot better on closer to 1400

FYI: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100105100021.htm

If MFP gave you 1200 it's probably because you put in a 2lb a week weight loss goal....

With Under 50lbs it should be set at 1lb a week for sufficent calories.

TDEE is used when you include your exercise ....NEAT is when you don't include exercise.

So you're saying if you put in a 2lb. weight loss it will automatically put you at a 1200 calorie limit? I did put in 2 lbs. but you would think it would still calculate it accurately.

If you say you are sedentary and want a 2 lbs a week loss and are a woman who is neither extremely obese or very tall otherwise, you will almost certainly get 1200 just because of math. If you exclude exercise and just figure NEAT for someone in those categories, it's not terribly high. If you then deduct 1000 calories per day from food intake alone, it's going to be under 1200 most of the time, and 1200 is the lowest it can give you.

A few things to keep in mind (which others have also said):

(1) Your real goal isn't 1200. It's 1200 + exercise. If you try to get half your deduction from exercise, even for 2 lbs a week, that adds 500 more to the daily goal. Even if you do more like 300 calories, that's still 1500 vs. 1200. That's why if you put consistent information in the TDEE and MFP calculations the numbers you get should be consistent over a week. The difference is that MFP would have you at 1200 (or whatever low goal you get) on exercise off days, and higher when you do exercise, whereas TDEE evens out that so you have the same every day.

(2) Are you really sedentary, even ignoring exercise? MFP explains this badly. According to its explanation I am sedentary (because of my job), but according to my fitbit and my own math after a month, I am not--I'm at least lightly active, just based on daily walking.

(3) Is 2 lbs a week too aggressive given the amount you have to lose?

Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

All your answers are in there.

Question from a different perspective. When you exercise, do you maintain your target heart rate ((220-age)*80%)?

Question from a different perspective. When you exercise, do you maintain your target heart rate ((220-age)*80%)?

Irrelevant. It is food which is critical in weight loss.

As far as the logging, I've been frustrated myself about losing. I finally purchased a food scale and yep - what I thought I was eating and logging as one serving was in most cases double that. I was really surprised myself. I had been measuring, cups and spoons, but not weighing. And that was just what I weighed when I was home eating dinner - so I'm sure that what I've been eating at lunch during work from restaurants and such has also been more than I have estimated. Sad, but true.

The other part of this equation is the entry as well...you have to choose the correct entry from the database.

I have seen people log 386grams of chicken at 149 calories...no no no...

But what if my BMR is 1400 and I plug in to lose two lbs a week...that would take my caloric goal to 400 and if I exercise I can add in those calories...so if I really bust my butt and burn between 700-800 calories a day that would still keep me netting around 1200 though right? Is it dangerous to do it that way?

I think I get what you are saying. You are asking if your BMR is 1400 and you want to lose 2 lbs a week (so minus 1000 per day) can you do so by eating 1200 and exercising 800 so as to have a net of 400 (1400-400)?

If so, no, that's not how net works, and it wouldn't be healthy or the MFP way. BMR really has nothing to do with anything, except to calculate your NEAT and TDEE. Some people here say you shouldn't eat less than it, but I've yet to see a source for that (vs. the sensible idea that you don't want too extreme a deficit, especially as you get closer to a healthy weight).

To lose, you want 500 calories/ day per lb off your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), which is your maintenance calories. The calculators are a way to estimate it, but you don't actually know what it is--they are estimates. After doing this for a while you can calculate it for yourself.

So assuming your current TDEE is 2200 (I just made this up, don't recall what you said upthread), to lose 2 lbs per week you'd want 1000 off that, but it can be made up of extra exercise (which increases the TDEE going forward) or cutting calories. You don't want to be netting less than 1200, and in this scenario you'd be losing around 2 lbs per week with that net.

Your suggestion that you eat 1200 and exercise 800 is a net of 400, and a gross of 1200. You want a net of 1200, at least. MFP gives you that by saying you should eat 1200 plus exercise calories. It should also tell you what it claims you will lose if you do that (either 2 lbs or something less, if it has your NEAT at less than 1200).

The problem is that you want to do this in a sustainable way and keep your metabolism up and as you get closer to goal it's just harder to get the pounds off, which is why everyone is telling you to try and reset your expectations. (This is consistent with my experience in losing lots of weight about 10 years ago, although I'm not close to goal currently. I just like the math part of this.)

Does that make sense?

I looked at your diary and it doesn't appear that you weigh your food so chances are you are eating more than you think.

Then you weren't looking at my diary. With the exception of Easter, I've been pretty religious about weighing everything (except prepackaged stuff that's already weighed).

The two eggs from today don't appear to be logged by weight. Yesterday's log shows oatmeal, sugar, strawberries, cool whip, eggs, and a clementine all logged by cups/spoons (and qty for the clementine) rather than weight.

I know it feels nitpicky, but it really can make a difference. I recently logged a day of my food by measurement and then logged the same food by weight to compare. These were the exact same portions of food measured different ways and the day logged with cups/spoons measurements was over 200 calories less than the one logged by weight. Weighing your food really can make a big difference.

I'm not sure why weighing vs. measuring would make a difference as long as I'm logging it with the correct method used. So if I measure it with a measuring cup I should log that it was measured that way...which is what I'm doing. The two eggs from today are logged by their size (large eggs). Clementines are again all roughly the same size. I also only eat back half my exercise calories for this very reason. It is utterly impossible to completely log everything EXACTLY correctly.

It makes a big difference. Everyone who uses a food scale discovers they were not logging accurately before that.

I looked at your diary and it doesn't appear that you weigh your food so chances are you are eating more than you think.

Then you weren't looking at my diary. With the exception of Easter, I've been pretty religious about weighing everything (except prepackaged stuff that's already weighed).

The two eggs from today don't appear to be logged by weight. Yesterday's log shows oatmeal, sugar, strawberries, cool whip, eggs, and a clementine all logged by cups/spoons (and qty for the clementine) rather than weight.

I know it feels nitpicky, but it really can make a difference. I recently logged a day of my food by measurement and then logged the same food by weight to compare. These were the exact same portions of food measured different ways and the day logged with cups/spoons measurements was over 200 calories less than the one logged by weight. Weighing your food really can make a big difference.

I'm not sure why weighing vs. measuring would make a difference as long as I'm logging it with the correct method used. So if I measure it with a measuring cup I should log that it was measured that way...which is what I'm doing. The two eggs from today are logged by their size (large eggs). Clementines are again all roughly the same size. I also only eat back half my exercise calories for this very reason. It is utterly impossible to completely log everything EXACTLY correctly.

Yep - you are correct - it is almost impossible to log everything exactly correct. As the above poster mentioned too - make sure the MFP entry is correct. I started double checking everything and I found several entries that I was using on MFP that were way off on calories and protein. So I started googling and researching on my own and then found the MFP entry that was correct and saved that to My Foods so I use the same one all the time. It is not going to be exact no matter how hard you try so I say do the best you can and give yourself some time. You are not that far from your healthy weight so it will take you longer to lose to your goal. Set goals that are not so frustrating to you (stepping on the scale every day can be very frustrating!). Set an inch loss goal instead. I can lose inches way more than I can lose actual weight.

deksgrl

While extremely important, caloric intake should not be the only item considered in weight loss. Effective cardio (i.e. heart rate) type exercise, is a effective tool in weight loss. Therefore heart rate would be relevant in her exercise, if she is not raising her heart rate to a proper level. The exercise being performed may or may not be effective as currently being performed, thus the question.