BMR/Calorie Clarification

Here was my thread when I thought it was odd MFP wanted me to eat less than my BMR and your BMR is the minimum calories your body requires to function. Sounded like instant starvation mode to me.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/157447-mfp-goals-bmr-sounds-unsafe?hl=bmr+#posts-2111819

The best answer on here was from Tonya (the trainer.... so great

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.

BMR is the amount your body would need to maintain itself in a coma. BMR is used to calculate your maintenance calories by adding an activity multiplier. For sedentary it is about 1.2 so if your BMR is 1497 then your maintenance would be 1796, from this number comes your caloric deficit. 1lb/wek goal would be 1296, assuming you are sedentary, MFP's calculation is slightly different but it uses these numbers to come up with your daily caloric goal.

Here was my thread when I thought it was odd MFP wanted me to eat less than my BMR and your BMR is the minimum calories your body requires to function. Sounded like instant starvation mode to me.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/157447-mfp-goals-bmr-sounds-unsafe?hl=bmr+#posts-2111819

The best answer on here was from Tonya (the trainer.... so great

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.

Oh thanks Heather! SO MFP already pretty much calculates that for me, so I don't need to increase my calories, right? I'll just keep doing what I'm doing then & since I eat back the majority of my exercise calories anyway, I should be fine then, right?