BMR vs. Calorie Intake

If you want to lose 1 lb/week, set your NET calorie intake to your BMR - 500. Then, if you exercise, make sure you eat all (or at least most) of those calories, too.

For example, for me, my BMR is 1700. I want to lose 1 lb per week. So my NET calorie intake is 1200. This is the number that I start with every day on MyFitnessPal.

But then I burn about 200 cal per day by walking and 350 per day by running. So I add 200 + 350 to the 1200 and aim to eat 1700-1750 per day.

Hope that helps!

okay, i've been reading about this on other threads but i still am confused...

My BMR is 1500. To maintain, I would have to eat 1800 a day. To lose 1lb a week i need to take off 500, which leaves me with 1300, which is what MFP tells me I should be eating a day in order to lose 1lb a week. This is all with no exercise. This all makes sense to me. I regularly exercise 3 times a week. On these days, MFP tells me to eat something like 1560, which I always do, and on non-exercise days I eat the 1300.

My problem is that when I enter all this info into other BMR calculators, they tell me to eat the 1560 EVERY DAY to lose the 1lb/week, based on the 90 min of exercise a week. Which am I supposed to do? Only the days I exercise or everyday (so long as I keep up the exercise)?

Thanks for any help, and I'm sorry if i missed the answer to this in another thread. i always miss the obvious!

I believe it goes against most health guidelines to eat less than 1200 calories per day, so I wouldn't do that!

I might be wrong about this, but my understanding is that BMR is the amount of calories that you will burn if you do NOTHING, basically lie in bed all day long. You don't want to calculate your deficit from your BMR, because that would be too low... :noway:

You want to figure out your 'maintenance' calorie amount and take your deficit from there. There are sticky posts on here from banks and others (under General Discussion) that mention how you should AT LEAST each your BMR calories each day.

For example, my BMR is right at 1500 (I'm 5' 7" and 173 pounds). But, with my lifestyle (without exercise) my maintenance calories are around 2000. Therefore, I try to stay at about 1500 calories a day (2000 - 500) - which should equate to a pound a week.

Hope this helps... :flowerforyou:

Okay, so if my maitenance is 2020, then I should be eating 1520 every day to loose 1lb a week??
That seems like an awful lot

It's really not very much. I average about 1700-1800 calories per day to lose, and more if my running mileage is higher. Calories are all relative. Micheal Phelps eats about 8,000-10,000 calories per day. My 6'0 200lb boyfriend needs about 2,500 calories per day. I need 1,800 a day. What's a lot?