BMR

BMR is the amount of calories needed to keep you alive.

MFP tells you to eat 1,200 because you are wanting to lose 2lbs per week.

your MFP is just telling you how much you should be eating to lose the amount of weight per week you wish determined by your BMR, or the amount of calories you need when you just want to stay the same.

yes, your BMR is 1290. MFP only gives you an est. When I found out I just manually changed it.

EXACTLY WHAT I SAID!!!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/157447-mfp-goals-bmr-sounds-unsafe

For me for example;
MFP goal: 1260 calories w/o exercise
BMR: 1400 (calories needed for my organs to function properly)
Daily Burn: 1885 burnt daily just by living (that’s where the deficit comes in for MFP 1885 - 1260 = 625 cal deficit so 1 lb lost every 6 days)

It seemed unsafe that the caloric goal was set lower than my BMR (I'm 138 lbs, 5'8) and I got the answer I wanted and believe to be the most correct.

It was from Tony, a trainer and she's awesome. To sum up, basically the 1200 minimum is 1st year nutrition information but in the later years you learn that you need to eat 80% so I got the answer that I wanted;

DEFICITS ON MFP ARE ALREAYDY TOO LOW, YOU ARE ALREADY STARVING !!

~

Tony's response in my thread;

According to everything I've been taught in Sports Nutrition, you should be eating a minimum of your BMR and no less then 80% of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (which is BMR + activity level + planned exercise) But the problem is that a lot of places use the activity level calories as the BMR, which is incorrect, so if you just get your BMR from a website, you don't know if it is truly accurate. MFP gives you a calorie goal based on activity level minus a calorie estimate to lose your goal. So, if you want to lose 1 pound a week, then it will subtract 500 calories from your BMR + activity level calories per day. It uses that as your goal giving you a deficit so that you can eat all of your exercise calories and still be in a deficit. This is fine for the general public, who unfortunately tend to have a lot to lose, but not so hot for athletes or people who exercise regularly. The body has to have a minimum number of calories in relation to what you are burning in order to continue losing body fat and maintaining muscle mass. If it doesn't have a calorie intake close to what it is burning, then it will go into that starvation mode everyone is always talking about. From basic nutrition classes, we're taught 1200 for women and 1500 for men, which is where MFP gets that minimum intake of 1200. But once we go on to more advanced nutrition classes for athletes and exercisers, we learn the 80% rule. So, if you have a BMR of 1400 with an activity of 1800 and exercise 200, you get a Total Daily Energy Expenditure of 2000 calories. (Activity includes the BMR, so you only add the activity and exercise amounts) 80% of 2000 is 1600, so you shouldn't eat less then 1600 on that day to prevent starvation mode. That number changes however on days when you don't exercise because the TDEE is only 1800. 80% of that is 1440. Notice that both of those are above the BMR. I tell all my clients to never eat below the BMR, specifically because the body needs fuel for the activity we're doing. Even sedentary individuals get an activity addition of 20% (Standard multiplication factor for determining activity calories from BMR), so that if they cut 20% to lose weight they are still eating the BMR. Unfortunately, while I love MFP, it's just too much for computer programmers to put in all the possible combinations of numbers in their programs so they have to set a standard number. Sometimes that standard doesn't work because you are setting goals higher then what your body is really willing to work with. This is why I set up my own numbers on MFP.

EXACTLY WHAT I SAID!!!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/157447-mfp-goals-bmr-sounds-unsafe

For me for example;
MFP goal: 1260 calories w/o exercise
BMR: 1400 (calories needed for my organs to function properly)
Daily Burn: 1885 burnt daily just by living (that’s where the deficit comes in for MFP 1885 - 1260 = 625 cal deficit so 1 lb lost every 6 days)

It seemed unsafe that the caloric goal was set lower than my BMR (I'm 138 lbs, 5'8) and I got the answer I wanted and believe to be the most correct.

It was from Tony, a trainer and she's awesome. To sum up, basically the 1200 minimum is 1st year nutrition information but in the later years you learn that you need to eat 80% so I got the answer that I wanted;

DEFICITS ON MFP ARE ALREAYDY TOO LOW, YOU ARE ALREADY STARVING !!

~

Tony's response in my thread;

According to everything I've been taught in Sports Nutrition, you should be eating a minimum of your BMR and no less then 80% of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (which is BMR + activity level + planned exercise) But the problem is that a lot of places use the activity level calories as the BMR, which is incorrect, so if you just get your BMR from a website, you don't know if it is truly accurate. MFP gives you a calorie goal based on activity level minus a calorie estimate to lose your goal. So, if you want to lose 1 pound a week, then it will subtract 500 calories from your BMR + activity level calories per day. It uses that as your goal giving you a deficit so that you can eat all of your exercise calories and still be in a deficit. This is fine for the general public, who unfortunately tend to have a lot to lose, but not so hot for athletes or people who exercise regularly. The body has to have a minimum number of calories in relation to what you are burning in order to continue losing body fat and maintaining muscle mass. If it doesn't have a calorie intake close to what it is burning, then it will go into that starvation mode everyone is always talking about. From basic nutrition classes, we're taught 1200 for women and 1500 for men, which is where MFP gets that minimum intake of 1200. But once we go on to more advanced nutrition classes for athletes and exercisers, we learn the 80% rule. So, if you have a BMR of 1400 with an activity of 1800 and exercise 200, you get a Total Daily Energy Expenditure of 2000 calories. (Activity includes the BMR, so you only add the activity and exercise amounts) 80% of 2000 is 1600, so you shouldn't eat less then 1600 on that day to prevent starvation mode. That number changes however on days when you don't exercise because the TDEE is only 1800. 80% of that is 1440. Notice that both of those are above the BMR. I tell all my clients to never eat below the BMR, specifically because the body needs fuel for the activity we're doing. Even sedentary individuals get an activity addition of 20% (Standard multiplication factor for determining activity calories from BMR), so that if they cut 20% to lose weight they are still eating the BMR. Unfortunately, while I love MFP, it's just too much for computer programmers to put in all the possible combinations of numbers in their programs so they have to set a standard number. Sometimes that standard doesn't work because you are setting goals higher then what your body is really willing to work with. This is why I set up my own numbers on MFP.

FYI, her name's Tonya, the name is cut off for length.

Tony's response in my thread;

According to everything I've been taught in Sports Nutrition, you should be eating a minimum of your BMR and no less then 80% of your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (which is BMR + activity level + planned exercise) But the problem is that a lot of places use the activity level calories as the BMR, which is incorrect, so if you just get your BMR from a website, you don't know if it is truly accurate. MFP gives you a calorie goal based on activity level minus a calorie estimate to lose your goal. So, if you want to lose 1 pound a week, then it will subtract 500 calories from your BMR + activity level calories per day. It uses that as your goal giving you a deficit so that you can eat all of your exercise calories and still be in a deficit. This is fine for the general public, who unfortunately tend to have a lot to lose, but not so hot for athletes or people who exercise regularly. The body has to have a minimum number of calories in relation to what you are burning in order to continue losing body fat and maintaining muscle mass. If it doesn't have a calorie intake close to what it is burning, then it will go into that starvation mode everyone is always talking about. From basic nutrition classes, we're taught 1200 for women and 1500 for men, which is where MFP gets that minimum intake of 1200. But once we go on to more advanced nutrition classes for athletes and exercisers, we learn the 80% rule. So, if you have a BMR of 1400 with an activity of 1800 and exercise 200, you get a Total Daily Energy Expenditure of 2000 calories. (Activity includes the BMR, so you only add the activity and exercise amounts) 80% of 2000 is 1600, so you shouldn't eat less then 1600 on that day to prevent starvation mode. That number changes however on days when you don't exercise because the TDEE is only 1800. 80% of that is 1440. Notice that both of those are above the BMR. I tell all my clients to never eat below the BMR, specifically because the body needs fuel for the activity we're doing. Even sedentary individuals get an activity addition of 20% (Standard multiplication factor for determining activity calories from BMR), so that if they cut 20% to lose weight they are still eating the BMR. Unfortunately, while I love MFP, it's just too much for computer programmers to put in all the possible combinations of numbers in their programs so they have to set a standard number. Sometimes that standard doesn't work because you are setting goals higher then what your body is really willing to work with. This is why I set up my own numbers on MFP.

Excellent post. Couple the information from Tonya with this from Trainer Robin:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/153704-myth-or-fact-simple-math-3500-calories-one-pound-eat

and you will have a good idea where you need to be.

Like Tonya I have manually set up my own numbers on MFP. It is an excellent tool in many respects but it is a blunt instrument when it comes to setting up an individual's maintenance / calorie deficit level.

BMR is your basic metabolic rate. It's the amount of calories your body consumes naturally to keep your body functioning. If you do not eat your daily BMR, your body has to pull from its energy storage (fat) in order to to meet its standards for the day.

If you eat under your BMR (as I do every day), you lose what you don't eat in fat. Exercise adds to this deficit.

Actually, you lose a combination of muscle and fat. And the muscle loss will cause the metabolism to slow down so that you actually have a lower BMR after the loss. Then if you ever go back to eating more, you will gain back what you lost and then some, all in body fat.

The above quotes are from me, BTW. My screen name is TrainingWithTonya, but the a is cut off on the side of message board posts because it is too long. I also don't use the BMR calculations from MFP. I prefer the lab estimates I get at school, but if that isn't available, I use a formula that bases it on the actual lean body mass and not total body weight like MFP and most websites. The reason for this is because fat is mostly metabolically inactive so you can often get an inaccurately high BMR with those calculations. If you know your body fat %, I can break it all down for you with my formulas. Just send me a PM, but know that I'm super swamped during the week and may not respond until the weekend.

Well, you can claim that you lose fat and muscle, but since I've been eating under my BMR I lost 90 pounds and have very clearly gained muscle.

Also, when I gain my muscle, my BMR isn't dropping. It's raising because it takes more calories to keep muscle alive than fat. Lean muscle (that stuff I've been gaining while eating under my BMR for about 8 months straight) is increasing my metabolism, not decreasing it.

I'd love to hear your examples of how to lose weight if you eat your BMR. Giving your body all the food it needs for the day makes it ignore its storage facilities.

I understand that your body can eat at muscle, too. That's why you don't over train, and you don't eat too little food. If I was eating 500 calories a day and running a half marathon everyday, then we might have something to talk about. However, I'm eating 1,500 calories a day and just working out 1-2 hours, 5-6 days a week.

You can say this won't work, but I've lost 90 pounds and gained muscle.

Bump to read later.