Eating at least BMR, but not eating too much

How many pounds have you lost in the previous 2 weeks? What was your caloric intake?

If your BMR is 1550 and maintenance is 2600 then yes you will lose 2 lbs per week.

You want to lose?

ftsolk wrote: »

After looking through old weight loss records on this and other sites, I've realized that one of the things that leads to my downfall is eating too little- as is the case with Weight Watchers at times.

Based on my average Fitbit calorie burn LAST week (which includes a day spent sick in bed) I burn around 2,600 calories on average (with my lowest day being under 2,000 calories and my highest being over 3,000). This means if I eat at LEAST my estimated BMR of around 1,550 calories, I'll be on track for losing around 2 pounds a week.

I wanted to set my profile up to allow me to create a range from my BMR to at least a 500 calorie deficit (unless I'm sick in bed, I at LEAST make that 500 calorie deficit). How would I go about doing this?

I have my Fitbit synced to my profile, and I turned off negative adjustments because I do have a minimum calorie goal. I definitely plan on eating back activity calories, but I want to try to keep at least a 500 deficit most days.

I'm not quite sure how to explain what I want to do.

With weight loss goals, you decrease from your TDEE to lose weight, not your BMR.

I'm confused by your posting.

2600 TDEE x 25% = 650 approximate max deficit that would be recommended.

MFP estimates Sedentary at BMR x 1.2, lightly active at BMR x 1.4, active BMR x 1.6, very active BMR x 1.8 --> these estimates are NOT identical to many TDEE calculators because exercise is expected to be added and eaten back.

Options to setup

MFP activity level closest to what you believe yours to be (probably active)
Weight loss to -500 (1lb a week).
When your daily TDEE exceeds 2500, leave a few calories on the table.

Enable negative adjustments, eat back your Fitbit adjustment as per the provision (of leaving a few calories on the table once your TDEE is above 2500 and you can afford to increase your deficit above 500).

OR:

Set MFP to maintain at a custom goal of BMR + 200 to BMR +500 to be cautious (BMR + 100 to live more dangerously and go for bigger deficits that may be too big at times).

Eat that + all of your Fitbit adjustment on top. Do NOT enable negative adjustments and accept that on days you are less active you will lose less or not lose since negative adjustments could throw you below BMR as Fitbit does not have a limit at 1200 like MFP does.

(Or enable negative adjustments but keep in mind that you will eat at least 1550=BMR regardless of whether you are going over after adjustment or not)

Makes sense?

rabbitjb wrote: »

2600 - you must be tall, heavy and extremely active to hit that much
jealous

OP said her BMR is 1550 and TDEE is 2600
Implied activity factor is ~1.68, so she falls between MFP Active (x1.6) and MFP Very Active (x1.8)

I would suspect that she is active; doing lots of cardio.

Hence suggestion number 1 which is to set MFP to Active, connect Fitbit, set 1lb a week goal = 500Cal (which is already above 20% through most of OP's TDEE range, thus about as fast as she can go) and take it from there.

Optionally, on high TDEE days (f.e. her 3000 days), and if she feels the need to do so, she can increase her deficit by leaving 100 or so Cal uneaten. Up to an extra 250 on a 3000 Cal day (i.e. deficits of up to 25% of TDEE while obese, up to 20% when mid overweight/normal weight, while netting above BMR!)

On low TDEE days (2000), she should be prepared to go slightly over, or she can disable negative adjustments and accept the smaller deficit, taking a hit on the speed of weight-loss to maintain herself above BMR. <- which BTW is a smashingly good idea!!!

As always I would extremely strongly suggest that the OP immediately starts using a weight trend tracking program that may help her sort out temporary water weight variations from her underlying weight level changes.

She can connect her fitbit.com account for free to both www.trendweight.com (which is the one both @rabbitjb and I, use) and www.weightgrapher.com.

She could also use Libra for Android, or Happy Scale for iPhone, however weight information data transfer is automatic from Fitbit.com to trendweight/weightgrapher and to MFP too.

You can't do a range. If you want the max to be a 500 calorie deficit, set it up for a 1 lb loss, sync with Fitbit, and enable negative adjustments. Put yourself down as sedentary or lightly active (the latter is likely better since it won't bottom you out at 1200 and negative adjustments will take care of any unusually sedentary days). Log exercise that Fitbit doesn't pick up (like swimming), if any, but cut those exercise calories some.

That gives you your max.

Then know for yourself that you will eat at least 1550, and aim for somewhere in the middle, depending on how hungry you feel a particular day or other circumstances.

And, most important, once you decide on a method do it consistently for a while, like say a month, and then evaluate.