Please help me understand BMR?

TeaBea wrote: »

No - BMR is what your body uses if you never got out of bed.

But even sedentary people move during the day, so you are burning more than BMR.

Maintenance = TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Include exercise & take 500 calories away from that. Take 250 away if you are close to goal. Not everyone can lose 1 pound a week.

900 - 1000 is dangerously low. It's very hard to get adequate nutrition with those numbers. Be careful or your hair will start to fall out. As it is, you are likely burning thru lean muscle mass. That's not a good look.

diannethegeek wrote: »

Your BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate. It's roughly the number of calories your body needs just keeping all of your organs and things running all day. It's about what you'd burn in a coma. It is not what you'd eat to maintain your current weight.

What you want for your maintenance number is your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). This number includes your BMR but it also takes into all of the movement you do during the day (going to work, brushing your teeth, cooking, finding the remote, etc). There are a ton of different online calculators for this number, but keep in mind that these numbers are all just estimates. No one fits into the formulae 100% as expected. You may need to play around a bit to see what works best for you.

If you've plateaued (by which I assume you mean no loss and no significant changes to your routine) for more than a few weeks at 1000 calories a day, then something else is likely going on. These are my really general tips for a plateau, so maybe something here will stand out for you:

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so since you last saw a drop on the scale, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.


Whatever you do, do not drop down to 600 calories a day without being medically supervised. That's a very dangerous calorie level.

Tomk652015 wrote: »

No, your still missing it. you need a TDEE calculator. you can't eat below your BMR..well you can but you shouldn't. What is your TDEE? TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure. that is your BMR PLUS what you burn based upon the fact you are NOT in a coma! you subtract your desired deficit from TDEE.

rileysowner wrote: »

nocull wrote: »

Okay, so I used a BMR calculator and my BMR is 1128 calories.

Does this mean that that's what I would need to eat to maintain my weight? And thus if I wanted to lose weight I would need to eat at a deficit of that number? So for example, one pound a week would be 628 calories a day? I've been eating around 900-1000 calories a day and my weight loss has plateaued in the last couple of months. Do I need to drop down to 628 calories to see actual changes?

That seems like a really small number to me, so I'm not sure I'm understanding properly.

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps!

No to the bolded part. First look at how accurately you are logging, and how realistic your goals are?

What are your stats, age, height, weight; and what is your goal?

MommyMeggo wrote: »

nocull wrote: »

TeaBea wrote: »

nocull wrote: »

MommyMeggo wrote: »

BMR is what your body burns by being alive
TDEE is your BMR PLUS any day - to day movement AND exercise.
You eat a deficit of TDEE not BMR. Find a TDEE Calculator

That makes a bit more sense, thank you! My numbers are still really low though. For example, to lose one pound a week, I would need to be eating 855 calories a day, which is below mfp's recommended daily value. Can my caloric intake really be that low and I'd still be healthy?

Okay - 1 of 3 things are happening here

1. You are very petite (because if your avatar picture is you, you're not a senior) - AND you are sedentary (and never exercise) so your TDEE is only 1,355 calories.

OR

2. You are very close to goal (very petite) and 1 pound a week is inappropriate. In which case you take away 250 calories. You still only get 1,105 calories.

OR

3. You have something plugged in wrong (maybe you do exercise).

And no.......855 is NOT healthy. Not for an adult anyway.

I made up some numbers......5' tall, 20 years old, 120 pounds, sedentary.......TDEE = 1630. Subtract 250 and you eat 1,380 without any exercise.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

It's pretty much #1, I'm small already but still have a stocky build I want to slim down and I'm sedentary while at school.. I imagine I'll have to recalculate my TDEE once I'm finished for the year because I'm much more active during holidays. So I should only be subtracting 250 from my TDEE? I still have pretty far left to go on my goal though, I didn't think I'd be close enough yet. Plus subtracting 250 calories is really close to what I'm eating right now and my weight loss has stalled.

Try moving a bit more see if that helps. And log as tightly as possible so you know where your errors are. Get a digital food scale.

Cynsonya wrote: »

With only 18lbs to go you should definitely only be shooting for .5ppw. So a 250 calorie a day deficit. If you want to eat more then get more exercise and eat back 50% of those calories.

rileysowner wrote: »

Due to your height, BMI is not going to be much help, for that matter, I am guessing that the calorie calculators will have issues as well simply because you are further from the average area of height thus limiting the data they would have available. Having said that your current BMI is just into the healthy weight area and your goal is near the bottom of it. In light of that, I would suggest that maybe you would be well served by eating at a small deficit with a goal of half a pound a week, one pound a week is too aggressive for you. Second, I would suggest starting a weight training program, and no, it will not make you bulky http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky
It will, however, help change the look of your body taking off fat and putting on a little muscle. In other words, your weight may not change much at all, but your measurements and look will.