BMR vs app calories

A totally sedentary day is a coma. Do you walk to the bathroom and your car, etc?

mandilamadrid wrote: »

Hi, I'm female 5'1" weighing 135 lbs. I've calculated the amount of calories I would burn in a totally sedentary day based on a formula and it was a little over 1300. However, to lose .5 pounds a week my calorie goal is set to 1410 a day. Where is the deficit there? Should I set my calories to 1200? I didn't want to go so low because i don't have much to lose, but I'm worried that im actually eating at a 100 calorie surplus every day (assuming i don't exercise, which i do 4 to 5 days a week). Am I eating at a surplus? Is there a deficit calculated within the app as I've been told and I'm just not seeing it?

You deficit comes off TDEE, not BMR. BMR are the calories you'd need if you were in a coma.

BMR is not sedentary. BMR is comma.
Sedentary is usually defined as BMR x 1.3.
Most "inactivity" that doesn't involve vegging in front of the TV, or sleeping, runs at BMR x 1.3 or higher.

MFP's sedentary is set at BMR x 1.25. Which agrees with what you posted and yields a calculated BMR of 1328 for you.

With only a little bit to lose before you're at a normal weight level and assuming you truly are at a sedentary activity level, you should limit your deficits to 250 Cal a day, in other words the 0.5lbs a week you picked! <-- good job on picking that rate of loss.

However, if you are actually planning to add additional activity, a deficit of 500 Cal a day may become appropriate once your total daily energy expenditure per day gets closer to 2000 (currently it is at 1660 before logged exercise).

Note that with a goal in the 0.5lb per week range and being female it is going to be very hard to judge progress by the scale. Kindly consider using a trending weight application or web site to better visualise your general weight level.

Note also that this site is geared to those over 18 and that nutritional requirements during the teenage years are different and generally speaking higher. I mention this because sometimes younger people who would be better served at Spark Teens put in a fake age in order to login to MFP.

Furthermore note that if you're a student you generally are NOT sedentary but either lightly active or active.

My personal recommendation to younger females is that instead of seeking to generate a deficit through restricted eating you might be better off stabilising your eating and increasing your general activity level and strength instead. This will result in both weight loss and improved aesthetics.