Weight Loss/Math Scholars...Help!

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mrscjwilson
mrscjwilson Posts: 252
in Health and Weight Loss
Im at a stall and need a little help trying to figure things out mathmatically....
So,
if 1lbs equal 3,500 Calories and my BMR is 1,560 and my Daily calories allowance calorie intake is 1,200
Does this mean that I need to burn a total of 1480 calories a week while eating 1200 calories a day to lose 2 lbs a week???

Im back in elementary school...and I need to cheat off someones paper!

Replies

  • ricnrac
    ricnrac Posts: 95 Member
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    2lbs a week would require you to burn 4480 calories during exercise/normal activity in addition to the 1200 calorie diet.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Ignore your BMR. Go to your goals page, on the top right "caloires burned from normal daily activity" What ever this number is is your maintenance calories. the difference between that number and 1200 is your daily deficit. So if your "caloires burned from normal daily activity" is 1950 then your deficit is 750 (1950-700) and at that rate you will lose 1.5lbs/week. 750*7/3500=1.5

    MFP will not allow you to go below 1200 calories so if the numbers above are correct, the most you should lose in a week is 1.5lbs. Slow and steady wins the race.
  • MakingAChoice
    MakingAChoice Posts: 481 Member
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    2lbs a week would require you to burn 4480 calories during exercise in addition to the 1200 calorie diet.

    She nailed it, 4480 for 2 lbs a week in addition to the 1200 calorie a day intake. If you only wanted to lose 1 lb a week than you would only need to burn an additional 980 calories. Anywhere in between those two will keep you progressing nicely.
  • shamubegone
    shamubegone Posts: 14 Member
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    Hey girl,

    So here is how it works. You burn 1560 per day at rest. Thats a given. If you eat 1200 calories a day and burn 1560, 1560 - 1200 = 360 net calories burned everyday. Multiply that by 7 days and you get 2520. That's 2520 net calories you would be burning every week. You know you have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat. Thats 7000 calories to burn two pounds of fat. 7000- 2520 (what you burn each week) = 4480.

    That means you need to burn 4480 calories through exercise every week in order to lose 2 pounds per week. Hope this helps!
  • sassyg
    sassyg Posts: 393
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    Remember the BMR figure isn't your maintenence figure - its what you'd burn if you did nothing but survive all day. Your maintenence figure is probably somewhere around 2000-2100 calories is 'average'
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    Depending how much you have left to lose, 2 lbs / week might be a bit too aggressive. But let's take 2 lbs of week for the example anyway. 2 lbs is 7000 calories. Seven days to a week, so that's 1000 calories per day that you need in DEFICIT of what your body is burning.

    What is your body burning? Let's assume you are "moderately active". You say your BMR is 1560. We multiply that by 1.55 to get your daily calorie burn (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation). 1560 * 1.55 = 2418. So your estimated daily burn from regular daily life is 2418. That means your daily caloric intake should be 1000 less per day, so 1418. At that rate you should be losing around 2 lbs per week.

    If you wanted to go for a more conservative (and IMO healthier rate), your daily deficit should be 500 calories per day. 2418 - 500 = 1918. So around 1918 calories per day eaten would give you around a 1lb/week loss.

    Hope that helps somewhat.


    Edit: Hmm, upon thinking about this, your BMR seems oddly high to me. Are you sure that's your BMR you quoted at 1560 and not your daily maintenance calories? Plug your info into here to get your BMR http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator, and if it comes out different, you may need to redo my math with your correct BMR. Or just cut to the chase and use a calculator like this http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-metabolism-calculator
  • ricnrac
    ricnrac Posts: 95 Member
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    But remember BMR is the calories needed at rest and does not include the calories needed for daily activity (work, etc)
  • danmullen
    danmullen Posts: 94
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    Depending how much you have left to lose, 2 lbs / week might be a bit too aggressive. But let's take 2 lbs of week for the example anyway. 2 lbs is 7000 calories. Seven days to a week, so that's 1000 calories per day that you need in DEFICIT of what your body is burning.

    What is your body burning? Let's assume you are "moderately active". You say your BMR is 1560. We multiply that by 1.55 to get your daily calorie burn (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris-Benedict_equation). 1560 * 1.55 = 2418. So your estimated daily burn from regular daily life is 2418. That means your daily caloric intake should be 1000 less per day, so 1418. At that rate you should be losing around 2 lbs per week.

    If you wanted to go for a more conservative (and IMO healthier rate), your daily deficit should be 500 calories per day. 2418 - 500 = 1918. So around 1918 calories per day eaten would give you around a 1lb/week loss.

    Hope that helps somewhat.

    Great post!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Hey girl,

    So here is how it works. You burn 1560 per day at rest. Thats a given. If you eat 1200 calories a day and burn 1560, 1560 - 1200 = 360 net calories burned everyday. Multiply that by 7 days and you get 2520. That's 2520 net calories you would be burning every week. You know you have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat. Thats 7000 calories to burn two pounds of fat. 7000- 2520 (what you burn each week) = 4480.

    That means you need to burn 4480 calories through exercise every week in order to lose 2 pounds per week. Hope this helps!

    This is wrong, if 1560 is the BMR maintenance would be 1872 (1.2*1560) set at sedentary so the daily deficit would be 672 (1872-1200) so it would take her 3500/672 = 5 days to lose 1lb, or 10 days to lose 2. It would not be safe to lose faster than this as you don't want your net calories to go below 1200.
  • Liatush
    Liatush Posts: 627 Member
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    bump
  • sassyg
    sassyg Posts: 393
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    Edit: Hmm, upon thinking about this, your BMR seems oddly high to me. Are you sure that's your BMR you quoted at 1560 and not your daily maintenance calories? Plug your info into here to get your BMR http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator, and if it comes out different, you may need to redo my math with your correct BMR. Or just cut to the chase and use a calculator like this http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-metabolism-calculator

    looking at her age and weight it probably about right
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    Edit: Hmm, upon thinking about this, your BMR seems oddly high to me. Are you sure that's your BMR you quoted at 1560 and not your daily maintenance calories? Plug your info into here to get your BMR http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator, and if it comes out different, you may need to redo my math with your correct BMR. Or just cut to the chase and use a calculator like this http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-metabolism-calculator

    looking at her age and weight it probably about right

    Ok just covering my bases :smile: I have a hard time guesstimating the numbers for women since our stats tend to be so different.
  • mrsjcmyles
    mrsjcmyles Posts: 119 Member
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    Bump

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