Calorie confusion

slimmingfairy
slimmingfairy Posts: 58 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am new here and wanted to work out my calories properly but just feel confused
I calc my body fat at 55%, then went on to use the BMR and TDEE calc and got this

Custom BMR Calculation
Entered information: 30 year old female, 68 inches tall, weighing 250 pounds.

From the information that you entered, you'd like to weigh 150 lbs. (SEE WARNING BELOW)

Harris-Benedict Formula
There are a few different methods to calculating yourbasal metabolic rate (BMR). One of the most popular, developed in the early 1900's is called the Harris-Benedict formula. Based on this formula, your current BMR is 1922 calories.

Katch-McArdle Forumla
The numbers above are fairly accurate, however they don't take into account your lean body mass. A more accurate formula that does take your lean body mass into account is the Katch-McArdle formula. Since many of us have scales that will tell us our current body fat, this formula may yield more accurate results. Based on the information you provided, body fat percentage of 55%, you have a lean body mass of 113 lbs., and your BMR is 1479 calories.

How Many Calories Should I Eat?
Based on your goal weight, the following chart was generated. The chart shows the number of calories that you should eat on a daily basis to reach your goal weight. At Fat 2 Fit Tools we advocate eating like the thin, healthy person that you want to become. The calorie levels you see in the chart are not extreme, but they do create that all important caloric deficit that is required to get you to your goal weight in a safe manner. Once you reach your goal weight, you will continue eating the same number of calories for the rest of your life to maintain that weight. You'll never be on a diet again.

Based on how much activity you do on an average day, the calories in the right column will be the number of calories that you will be able to eat at your goal weight. If you start eating those calories right now (eating like the thinner you), you will eventually become that thinner person. As you get closer to your goal weight, your weight loss will start to slow down. It is OK to eat a few hundred calories less per day (200-300) to speed up your weight loss at this point.

Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1784
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2045
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2305
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2565
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2825
WARNING: Your goal calorie level is below your current BMR. Consider revising your goal weight to an intermediate weight. That way you are never eating below your BMR. When you reach that intermediate goal weight, readjust your calories and head for your ultimate goal.

This was for my BMR, I worked my TDEE out at 2306 so if I take the sedentary figure that's seems ok with a rough 500 difference from my BMR - so this would give me a 2lb a week loss (hopefully!)
But the warning at the bottom confused me so I did the calc again with a target of 200lb rather than 150 and get 2045 as my calories but if that is only 300 diff from my BMR will I still loose weight? Totally confused now!

Replies

  • Booda101
    Booda101 Posts: 161 Member
    tl:dr

    What do you consider as your activity level?

    Using IIFYM.com calculator (which does have 3 different formulas), I just plugged in sedentary. BMR 1475 TDEE 1769.
    This is regardless of what your goal weight is.

    In any case, you don't want to eat below your BMR. Even if you start out slowly, say at a 200 calorie deficit, you'll still lose weight.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    What site is that from? You can forget worrying about eating below your BMR. It's not going to hurt you, plus yours is probably that lower number, not the higher one. There's no reason for you to put 200 as your goal.

    Consider using MFP's plan, maybe, if you're going to be logging here.

    Good luck!
  • slimmingfairy
    slimmingfairy Posts: 58 Member
    That's even more confusing!
    I consider my self sedentary
  • slimmingfairy
    slimmingfairy Posts: 58 Member
    I was using fattofittools.com
  • abear007
    abear007 Posts: 84 Member
    I can only offer the advice that worked for me. After trying calorie counting many times and failing every time, I don't even bother now. I cut out all refined sugar and refined wheat products and just eat real healthy food WHEN I'm actually hungry. This can be harder than it sounds because much of (my) overeating is out of boredom or using food as a reward. So far, I've gone down 15 lbs in a little over a month.

    My view is that this has to be a lifestyle change, not a diet, and there's no way I'm going to count calories for the rest of my life.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    I'm not sure where that warning is coming from, but I think you are getting your terms mixed up too, which is totally understandable :wink:

    BMR - base metabolic rate - is the lowest amount of calories your body needs - like if you just laid in bed all day.
    TDEE - total daily energy expenditure - is the amount of daily calories that would keep you at your current weight, neither gaining nor losing, based on your reported activity level.

    According to what you posted, your BMR is 1479, so you have to eat more than this.
    According to what you posted, your TDEE is 2300, so you need to eat less than this to lose weight.

    How much less, I will leave to those with more experience here. Good luck - you can do this!
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,029 Member
    Here you go:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1390710-the-basic-weight-loss-strategy-no-gimmicks

    A.C.E. Certified Group Fitness and Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • Mirichan
    Mirichan Posts: 6 Member
    While I like the fat2fit.com tool, it does get complicated for nothing. But I used it when I switched from an old WW method (where I had lost around 80 pounds) and lost another 30 pounds using the TDEE method so I got pretty familiar with it (I too started at 250ish).

    I crunched your numbers and because the difference is over 100 pounds (and with it, we are talking a much higher body fat at 250 than you would have at 150) I would suggest you do it by bunches of 25 pounds and recalculate your BF% and rerun the numbers at each goals. It works fine and your food allocation will go lower as you approach your final goal weight and the difference from going from diet to maintenance level will be very easy.

    So...

    250 pounds. Sedentary. To maintain at 250 pounds, you must eat 2,306 cals.
    You have 2 choices here:
    Reduce that number by 20% : 1,845 calories/day (until you reach 225 pounds, then redo the calculations at fit2fat).
    OR
    Run the tool with a goal weight of 225. You will get a sedentary number of 2,176 cals/day (eat at this level until you reach 225 pounds).

    Both ways will be a deficit (when compared to your BMR). One bigger deficit (first choice) one smaller (2nd choice). I prefer having a smaller deficit as you still lose (a lot in the beginning) but you do not get frustrated and it is easier to continue to the final goal and to maintenance afterwards.

    Once you reach 225 pounds, recalculate the numbers after having done the numbers to get your new body fat %. This means your BMR will have gone down (less mass) and your TDEE numbers will also get lower.

    My advice: once you reach 175 pounds, use the 2nd method... at some point you will get to 150 pounds and you will have very little difference in calories to add to reach maintenance and you will not get into the "omg, I'm supposed to go into maintenance but I'm scared to increase my daily calories!!!"...

    Good luck,

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