Calorie Goal
nicolepenney2015
Posts: 8 Member
Hi, I have just sat and read page upon page of posts and I need guidance. I am 35 years of age,5 ft 8.5 inches and179 pounds. I work in an office and exercise 3 times a week at fitness classes - Insanity, Body Pump and Spinning and have therefore put my lifetstyle as sedentary and then I will input my exercise and probably eat a proportion of it back (not all as I know calories burned is not accurate unless I use something like a fitbit).
Using external calculators I have establised that my approx TDEE is 2162 and my BMR is approx 1572. When I tell MFP that I wish to lose 1lb a week (I'm trying to be sensible) it gives me a goal of 1440 a day. My question is this. I have read that you should always try and stick at or above your BMR as this is what your body would need just to survive in a comatosed state. I have also learnt that 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 cals and that for every 500 deficit I should lose approx 1 pound? Which makes sense! So why is MFP not suggesting approx 1662 a day (TDEE - 500 cals (equivalent of a pound). And why is it suggesting I go below my BMR?
For me to be successful on my weight loss journey I need to be confident that I am eating the right calories. Can anyone help?
Using external calculators I have establised that my approx TDEE is 2162 and my BMR is approx 1572. When I tell MFP that I wish to lose 1lb a week (I'm trying to be sensible) it gives me a goal of 1440 a day. My question is this. I have read that you should always try and stick at or above your BMR as this is what your body would need just to survive in a comatosed state. I have also learnt that 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 cals and that for every 500 deficit I should lose approx 1 pound? Which makes sense! So why is MFP not suggesting approx 1662 a day (TDEE - 500 cals (equivalent of a pound). And why is it suggesting I go below my BMR?
For me to be successful on my weight loss journey I need to be confident that I am eating the right calories. Can anyone help?
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Replies
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I don't know where the "don't eat below BMR" advice comes from, but it doesn't make sense.0
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nicolepenney2015 wrote: »Hi, I have just sat and read page upon page of posts and I need guidance. I am 35 years of age,5 ft 8.5 inches and179 pounds. I work in an office and exercise 3 times a week at fitness classes - Insanity, Body Pump and Spinning and have therefore put my lifetstyle as sedentary and then I will input my exercise and probably eat a proportion of it back (not all as I know calories burned is not accurate unless I use something like a fitbit).
Using external calculators I have establised that my approx TDEE is 2162 and my BMR is approx 1572. When I tell MFP that I wish to lose 1lb a week (I'm trying to be sensible) it gives me a goal of 1440 a day. My question is this. I have read that you should always try and stick at or above your BMR as this is what your body would need just to survive in a comatosed state. I have also learnt that 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 cals and that for every 500 deficit I should lose approx 1 pound? Which makes sense! So why is MFP not suggesting approx 1662 a day (TDEE - 500 cals (equivalent of a pound). And why is it suggesting I go below my BMR?
For me to be successful on my weight loss journey I need to be confident that I am eating the right calories. Can anyone help?
IIFYM.com calculated this as your sedentary TDEE, using a different formula:
The calculations are all just estimates, but I would personally use what MFP gave you and eat back all of your exercise calories. However, if you're really hungrier on non-exercise days, don't beat yourself if you go over your goal a bit. You will still be in a deficit, it will just be a bit smaller. I'd also be willing to bet that you are closer to lightly active. Do you clean your house? Do you cook? Do you buy groceries? Do you move around your office to make copies? Run around like crazy getting ready for work? All of those activities count towards your activity level.
Also, it's not ideal to eat below your BMR, but starvation mode isn't real and eating a bit below it will not hurt you as long as you are getting adequate nutrition. Your BMR goes down as you lose weight anyway, just like your TDEE.0 -
Hi Timothy - how can eating below the basic calories that your body needs to survive make sense? I'm not being rude I'm just trying to understand where you are coming from?
Alyssa - although I have a desk job I always select 1-3 a week of exercise which is accurate and then gives me the TDEE of 2162. I never select no exercise on the TDEE calculator. I do select sedentary on the MFP calculator though as I have read on forums this does not include your daily exercise and is based on your day without it. If I go by what MFP gives me (1440 cals) and I eat my exercise cals back I'm still netting 1440 or less if I don't eat them all back which takes me back to my point that either way I am below my BMR?
Is BMR even relevant? If I take it out of the equation at the moment if my TDEE is 2162 (which it is if I am exercising 1-3 times a week) then surely MFP if I select 1 pound a week loss should be stating that my daily calories should approx. be around the 1662 mark?0 -
Because your body can have fat stores to make up the difference.nicolepenney2015 wrote: »Hi Timothy - how can eating below the basic calories that your body needs to survive make sense? I'm not being rude I'm just trying to understand where you are coming from?
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nicolepenney2015 wrote: »Hi Timothy - how can eating below the basic calories that your body needs to survive make sense? I'm not being rude I'm just trying to understand where you are coming from?
Alyssa - although I have a desk job I always select 1-3 a week of exercise which is accurate and then gives me the TDEE of 2162. I never select no exercise on the TDEE calculator. I do select sedentary on the MFP calculator though as I have read on forums this does not include your daily exercise and is based on your day without it. If I go by what MFP gives me (1440 cals) and I eat my exercise cals back I'm still netting 1440 or less if I don't eat them all back which takes me back to my point that either way I am below my BMR?
Is BMR even relevant? If I take it out of the equation at the moment if my TDEE is 2162 (which it is if I am exercising 1-3 times a week) then surely MFP if I select 1 pound a week loss should be stating that my daily calories should approx. be around the 1662 mark?
MFP uses the NEAT method (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), so when you select sedentary on MFP, it really assumes that you are sedentary and doesn't bring your exercise into the equation at all, which is why you get extra calories to eat when you exercise.
Calculating your TDEE while selecting exercise 3 days/week on a website like IIFYM.com is basically the same as selecting "lightly active" on MFP. TDEE takes both regular activity and exercise into account when calculating your daily calories. I hope that makes sense - I'm only one cup of coffee into my morning and I may not be capable of forming coherent sentences.0 -
Lol Alyssa - I am the same without coffee although I am in the UK so it's mid afternoon here so I have had plenty.
I understand what you have said which is what I thought. I guess I'm just confused now whether to keep the activity to sedentary or whether to change it to lightly active. I've changed it temporarily to see and its now saying 1680 which is pretty much the calculation for the TDEE. Do you think I should stick with that? I always presumed that you need to be on 1200 cals a day to lose weight but maybe that's why I've not been successful!
Also - how many should I have on days I don't exercise??0 -
Thank you Deguello0
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nicolepenney2015 wrote: »Lol Alyssa - I am the same without coffee although I am in the UK so it's mid afternoon here so I have had plenty.
I understand what you have said which is what I thought. I guess I'm just confused now whether to keep the activity to sedentary or whether to change it to lightly active. I've changed it temporarily to see and its now saying 1680 which is pretty much the calculation for the TDEE. Do you think I should stick with that? I always presumed that you need to be on 1200 cals a day to lose weight but maybe that's why I've not been successful! Lol
As I said before, you are probably closer to lightly active. I'd change it to that and eat more on exercise days if you feel like you need to. If, after a month or so of precise logging your food, you haven't lost weight at the rate that you expected, you can then adjust your calories up or down.
It really is all just a guessing game.
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I am being so thick and I apologise! 1680 is a basic day no exercise ...right?
If I exercise and have to eat more does that mean eat back everything I have burned? If so does this not equate to 1680 anyway? So what do you mean eat more on exercise days? I am sooo sorry. Have you had another coffee yet? Lol0 -
You seem to be trying to mix two different methods here...TDEE and NEAT. Two roads that will lead to the same destination but you can't take both at the same time. You will first need to choose which you want to follow.
BMR is irrelevant. Think of it this way...you are not comatose. According to the calculators you actually need 2162 calories a day to maintain and you are obviously going to eat under that to lose weight.
Try not to overthink this. If you want to, you can set MFP at 1662 and eat that every day. Don't log any exercise calories and you should lose 1/2 lb per week. If after a few weeks you aren't getting the results you hoped for you can readjust your plan.
Good luck!0 -
nicolepenney2015 wrote: »Hi Timothy - how can eating below the basic calories that your body needs to survive make sense? I'm not being rude I'm just trying to understand where you are coming from?
Alyssa - although I have a desk job I always select 1-3 a week of exercise which is accurate and then gives me the TDEE of 2162. I never select no exercise on the TDEE calculator. I do select sedentary on the MFP calculator though as I have read on forums this does not include your daily exercise and is based on your day without it. If I go by what MFP gives me (1440 cals) and I eat my exercise cals back I'm still netting 1440 or less if I don't eat them all back which takes me back to my point that either way I am below my BMR?
Is BMR even relevant? If I take it out of the equation at the moment if my TDEE is 2162 (which it is if I am exercising 1-3 times a week) then surely MFP if I select 1 pound a week loss should be stating that my daily calories should approx. be around the 1662 mark?
Whether you burn the calories through normal activities, through exercise, or through BMR activities, your body will get the energy required from either stored fat or from food that is in your gut. To say that we shouldn't eat below BMR is to say that only food in our gut is sufficient for BMR activities. This doesn't make sense, because whether it comes from fat or from the gut, it all goes into the blood stream and the cells that use it don't have a clue where it came from. That being said, we do have some basic requirements for nutrition. We don't get all our vitamins and minerals from stored fat, which is why there are guidelines about women not eating less than 1200 calories and men eating more than 1500 calories. There are also limitations on how quickly fat can be converted into usable energy, so that is why losing more than 1% of one's body weight in a week isn't advisable, but none of that has anything to do with BMR. BMR is just one of the ways we burn calories.0 -
nicolepenney2015 wrote: »I am being so thick and I apologise! 1680 is a basic day no exercise ...right?
If I exercise and have to eat more does that mean eat back everything I have burned? If so does this not equate to 1680 anyway? So what do you mean eat more on exercise days? I am sooo sorry. Have you had another coffee yet? Lol
It's okay - I'm not being very clear. If you're lightly active on a normal day with no exercise (cleaning house, walking around at the office, walking a dog, getting ready for work, cooking), then yes, shoot for the 1680 a day. On days that you exercise, I would eat back around 50-75% of those calories that you earn, since MFP overestimates calories burned during exercise. If you feel like you're losing weight too slowly in a month, then adjust your calories down a bit or make sure you're weighing/measuring everything that you eat as accurately as possible.0 -
Amerielle - I think you're right. I'm overthinking everything and trying to be too precise. Time will tell and if I need to adjust then so be it.
Timothy - thank for you that explanation. It has helped immensely.
Alyssa - Again, as I said to Amerielle above I guess it's all trial and error. I am just so desperate to lose weight I wanted to get the calories right straight away.
Thank you all so much for taking time to help me. And good luck to everyone with their weight loss journey xx0 -
nicolepenney2015 wrote: »Hi Timothy - how can eating below the basic calories that your body needs to survive make sense? I'm not being rude I'm just trying to understand where you are coming from?
Ok- so that way of interpreting BMR is thrown around these forums a lot: "It's what your body needs JUST TO SURVIVE!!" Well no, the more correct way of looking at it would be that BMR is the amount of calories your body would need to MAINTAIN your current weight if you were in a coma. Say a hypothetical 6ft, 250lb man with a BMR of 2100 calories was in a coma, and the dietitian at the hospital miscalculated his size and accidentally prescribed him a daily intake of 1900 calories. He wouldn't die, but he would lose weight just lying there until either his BMR lowers to 1900 or someone corrects the mistake. The whole point of weight loss is to take in less calories than you burn, and your body makes up the difference from fat stores. As long as you have a reasonable deficit set for your current weight you'll be fine.0 -
Thank you lemonlionheart x0
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nicolepenney2015 wrote: »Hi, I have just sat and read page upon page of posts and I need guidance. I am 35 years of age,5 ft 8.5 inches and179 pounds. I work in an office and exercise 3 times a week at fitness classes - Insanity, Body Pump and Spinning and have therefore put my lifetstyle as sedentary and then I will input my exercise and probably eat a proportion of it back (not all as I know calories burned is not accurate unless I use something like a fitbit).
Using external calculators I have establised that my approx TDEE is 2162 and my BMR is approx 1572. When I tell MFP that I wish to lose 1lb a week (I'm trying to be sensible) it gives me a goal of 1440 a day. My question is this. I have read that you should always try and stick at or above your BMR as this is what your body would need just to survive in a comatosed state. I have also learnt that 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 cals and that for every 500 deficit I should lose approx 1 pound? Which makes sense! So why is MFP not suggesting approx 1662 a day (TDEE - 500 cals (equivalent of a pound). And why is it suggesting I go below my BMR?
For me to be successful on my weight loss journey I need to be confident that I am eating the right calories. Can anyone help?
Re: BMR thing.......you can eat too little. Yes your body will make up the difference in fat stores AND existing lean muscle.
This is why a sensible weekly goal is good. Sensible goals (adequate protein, and strength training) help to minimize lean muscle loss.0 -
You're right TeaBea. I'm going with what MFP says and then whatever I log in exercise I'm going to eat approx 50% back and see how that goes x0
This discussion has been closed.
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