BMR vs. Calories in

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So I checked my BMR on MFP and it is 1542. I am currently 174 lbs and trying to loose at 30 lbs. Let me know If I have this right....I take my BMR and subtract 500 calories for wieght loss which puts me at 1042 callories per day. If I exercise 300 calories then does this bring my alloted calories to 1342? Or should I keep my calories at 1042 and the calories that I exercise off are a bonus??

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  • aecryan
    aecryan Posts: 89
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    as i understand it, bmr is the minimum amount of calories that you should eat each day
  • DrBorkBork
    DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
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    as i understand it, bmr is the minimum amount of calories that you should eat each day

    Which is why it's important to eat back at least some of your exercise calories :)
  • elvb
    elvb Posts: 423 Member
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    So I checked my BMR on MFP and it is 1542. I am currently 174 lbs and trying to loose at 30 lbs. Let me know If I have this right....I take my BMR and subtract 500 calories for wieght loss which puts me at 1042 callories per day. If I exercise 300 calories then does this bring my alloted calories to 1342? Or should I keep my calories at 1042 and the calories that I exercise off are a bonus??
    Just go by what MFP tells you to eat in calories daily. I go by what calories MFP tells me plus any workout calories I burn. I don't ALWAYS eat back all my calories but I attempt to eat some or most of them. I almost lost my marbles trying to do all the math some people do to get the "correct" calories to eat.
  • italy1677
    italy1677 Posts: 26
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    actually it's how many calories you'd burn in a day if you just stayed in bed and did nothing, It's up to you whether or not you eat your exercise calories
  • EDBENAGLIO
    EDBENAGLIO Posts: 424
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    you should never eat under 1200 cal a day now to eat the work out cal back is up to you some say yes and some say no but if i was you i would eat 1200 to 1300 cal and get the deficit from workout. that is what i do but eat 1600 and i loss about 5-8 lbs per week

    hope this helps and feel free to friend me
  • EDBENAGLIO
    EDBENAGLIO Posts: 424
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    as i understand it, bmr is the minimum amount of calories that you should eat each day

    Which is why it's important to eat back at least some of your exercise calories :)

    you need so many about 1200 cal to prove to your body that everything is okay and it can release the fat storeage
  • fluffykitsune
    fluffykitsune Posts: 236 Member
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    if you burn 300 calories exercising and then eat them back, you're still at 1042 calories. if you dont eat them then you will be at 742 calories which is bad-bad
  • ChessRonin
    ChessRonin Posts: 160 Member
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    Your BMR is how many calories your body would use in 24 hours if you literally slept for all 24 hours. Needless to say, you burn far more calories than just your BMR unless you actually sleep all day, literally.

    If you're using MyFitnessPal, you should eat your "Daily Calorie Goal" each day.

    One of the great things about MFP is that it calculates your daily calorie budget automatically. First, it calculates how many calories it thinks you will use each day (your BMR plus how many calories it thinks you will burn based on your activity level), and then any time you exercise it adds the appropriate number of calories to your calorie budget.

    Your net calorie budget basically looks like this:

    1) BMR
    +
    2) Calories burned from routine daily activity ("activity level")
    +
    3) Exercise (anything you do that is above and beyond your "routine activity level."

    =Net Daily Calories

    MFP then takes that net daily calorie expenditure, and subtracts 500 calories (if, say, you tell it that you want to lose 1 pound per week). That final number is how many calories you should eat every day, and it is expressed as your "Daily Calorie Goal."

    So, again, you should eat your Daily Calorie Goal every day.

    However, you should also exercise EVERY day, at least a little bit. Walk for a half hour, jump rope, ride a bike, chase your kids around your back yard, it doesn't matter, just exercise at least a little every day.

    Good luck on your journey!
  • marisa_munches
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    BMR is how many calories your body would need to run (breathing, brain function) if you were to do LITERALLY NOTHING all day (i.e. lay in bed and sleep). Then you have to choose how active you are on an average day (MFP has multiple options for this: sedentary, lightly active, etc). That will give you how many calories you use on an average day. That's the number you then subtract from to get your daily goal (i.e. -500 calories per day to lose 1 lb per week). MFP will do all these calculations for you. And yes, you can/should eat back your exercise calories. Never eat less than 1200 calories per day.