Calorie deficit

I just had my first InBody Test today and my Basal Metabolic Rate is 1306 kcal. My trainer suggests an additional 200-250 calories on days I workout. To lose weight, though, I need to create a calorie deficit. Would it be accurate to assume that on my days off, I would only be taking in 1106 calories?
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Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    Your BMR is the amount of calories your body burns just to live. It doesn't include either exercise or general activity.

    How much does MFP give you? You should start by eating that plus the 200 exercise calories.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,023 Member
    You need a deficit from your TDEE, not your BMR. Your TDEE is your BMR + the calories your body burns taking you through your day + your exercise calories.
  • Find your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) it should be more than your BMR. Eat to that for maintenance and take your deficit from that. Plug all your stats into MFP and it should give you an appropriate calorie goal.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    No. Because your BMR is if you're laying in bed all day, and doesn't include *any* activity. Even a sedentary TDEE multiples that BMR by 1.2.

    You'd be better served figuring out your activity factor -- I like this spreadsheet that @heybales created (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit#gid=0) -- multiplying it by your BMR, and subtracting a reasonable (no more than 25 percent) deficit from that.

    If your trainer thinks that you only need a 200-250 calories more on your training days, when your sedentary rate is already 261 calories more than your BMR, you need a new trainer because they know nothing about nutrition and are giving you bad advice.
  • katiej6568
    katiej6568 Posts: 2 Member
    I calculated my TDEE at 1567. If I’m figuring this correctly, on the days I’m working out, I’ll need to be at 1767 and my off day at 1367?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,394 Member
    edited February 2018
    What is your age/height/weight, target weight?

    Have you tried doing the MFP guided setup with a 0.5lb a week deficit (=250 Cal a day deficit)?

    Guided setup envisions that you will also record your exercise separately AND eat back your *actual* calories expended during your exercise.

    Guided setup uses as your BMR the value found using: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

    If you want to substitute your own "in-body" derived value, you can use the following multipliers for a quick calculation of your own: 1.25, 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8. These correspond to sedentary/lightly active/active/very active respectively.

    Regardless, all you would do is pick a level of activity and a reasonable goal, log as accurately as you can, train as well as you can, and monitor your weight trend results over a period of 4 to 6 weeks before considering any adjustments.

    Given that you are aiming for a very small change and that based on what your trainer is suggesting (-250) you are probably already lean and aiming for a recomp, you will need an extremely high dose of patience as it is unlikely that you will see clear cut scale results fast, especially in conjunction with the water retention that is often associated with new types of training and exercise.


    On re reading I see that I misinterpreted part of your original post and that we have no idea what deficit you're aiming for.

    Usually a moderate deficit not exceeding 20% of TDEE (25% while having fat reserves such that you would be correctly classified as obese) is what people should aim for. This often translates into a 500 Cal a day deficit. Smaller deficits are ok too. Creating a smaller deficit is better than making things so hard that you fail to comply.

    The 250 Cal eat back seems designed to have you eat back some of your exercise calories.

    I am assuming that it is your error and not the trainer's suggesting that you create a deficit off BMR instead of off TDEE. If they did suggest creating a deficit off BMR I would have a serious rethink about employing their services.
  • Mslmesq
    Mslmesq Posts: 1,001 Member
    My bmr is under 1200. 11something, of which I pay no attention to. I’ve been losing weight on about 1500-1700 a day. I actually was set to a half pound a week, but have averaged a pound somehow.

    I think you need a new trainer that has a better understanding of bmr, etc.
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
    edited February 2018
    katiej6568 wrote: »
    I calculated my TDEE at 1567. If I’m figuring this correctly, on the days I’m working out, I’ll need to be at 1767 and my off day at 1367?

    It's probably best to check with the trainer what their intentions are, but I would expect your daily intake to be a baseline of around 1330 cals (a 15% deficit from your expected TDEE and a good moderate deficit to start at). On your training days you add another 200-250 calories to this number, to make it somewhere around 1530.

    Depending on the intensity of your training, the 200 extra cals is likely there to offset around half of the energy you expended on your workout (assuming some kind of cardio/metabolic training is part of the routine). This should give you a weekly deficit somewhere in the order of 2000 cals per week, and an average weightloss of a bit under 1 lb per week.

    Play around with the deficit a bit depending on how you feel, your hunger and energy levels, but try not to go by the number on the scale for the first few weeks. New training stimuli will play havoc with your water retention etc.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
    I hope you didn't pay for that InBody test. BMR is a simple calculation using your gender, age, height, and weight. There's even a button on one of these myfitnesspal pages you can press and it will tell you your BMR.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    That was a body composition test, commonly called BIA, using 4 points.
    My scale does that method too.

    It doesn't measure BMR - it measures (or attempts to) the amount of fat mass, and non-fat mass (called Lean Body Mass LBM). That scale then dose some extra calcs based on averages to break LBM into water weight and muscle weight.

    Then it uses a different formula for BMR based on BF% rather than gender, age, weight, height.
    And TDEE can come from that.
    But 250 calories above BMR isn't even sedentary level - I'm assuming since you have a trainer, and so are attempting to not be very sedentary.

    If the BF% is decently accurate measurement - the calculated BMR can be better accuracy - so that could be better if you are way off avg for BF% level.
    Some people using normal BMR calcs, and the resulting TDEE, could be 200-300 over a better estimate.
    And could take a while to discover the reason for no weight loss.

    But - did trainer do this before a workout?
    Had you been drinking a lot of water in prep for workout?
    You just increased your LBM (non-fat mass).
    And threw off any calcs.

    Did you eat Chinese the night before?
    Same issue.

    It can be very difficult to present the exactly same hydrated body to the scale for best measurement results, to even see a trend line from multiple measurements.
  • sflano1271
    sflano1271 Posts: 121 Member

    How do I use the mfp NEAT method?
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,455 Member
    sflano1271 wrote: »
    How do I use the mfp NEAT method?

    That’s what this site does. You just enter your stats, goal weight and choose a rate of loss (if25-50 lbs to lose, 1 lb/week is reasonable). MFP will calculate a calorie target that doesn’t include exercise. When you do exercise, you’re meant to eat back those calories or at least a portion of them.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,455 Member
    sflano1271 wrote: »
    I know a lad who eats his bmr calories each day and worksout 6 days a week and he went from 95kg down to 65kg in 8months he got his bodyfat down to 6 or 7percent bodyfat thats how he got into a calorie deficit.

    And likely wasted all his muscle mass in the meantime. A calorie deficit isn’t that hard to achieve and it needs to be appropriate for the amount one has to lose. A deficit of 250-500 cals from TDEE is sufficient and appropriate for most people, those with more to lose can support a bigger deficit and faster rate of loss.
  • sflano1271
    sflano1271 Posts: 121 Member
    He didn't lose any muscle hes ripped now. So how do I get in a calorie deficit with my tdee calories??
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    sflano1271 wrote: »
    He didn't lose any muscle hes ripped now. So how do I get in a calorie deficit with my tdee calories??

    You lose a combination of fat and muscle while you lose. And unless he was doing the greatest lifting program in the world there’s no way he lost that quickly without sacrificing a ton of muscle.
  • sflano1271
    sflano1271 Posts: 121 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    sflano1271 wrote: »
    He didn't lose any muscle hes ripped now. So how do I get in a calorie deficit with my tdee calories??

    You lose a combination of fat and muscle while you lose. And unless he was doing the greatest lifting program in the world there’s no way he lost that quickly without sacrificing a ton of muscle.

    Haha he didn't lose any muscle mass he actually gained a small amount of muscle cause he got his macros right plus he had plenty of protein in his diet he is doing a 30 day challenge on Facebook to help people lose weight the same way he done it hes just a guy who is in a calorie deficit..!!
  • BitofaState
    BitofaState Posts: 75 Member
    sflano1271 wrote: »
    He didn't lose any muscle hes ripped now. So how do I get in a calorie deficit with my tdee calories??

    You can lose muscle and get ripped - in fact it's expected with most body builders who are cutting as below 12% your body starts to tray and hold onto the essential fats and you get metabolic adaptation, the question is how you minimize that.

    Eating at least at your BMR and taking all your energy expenditure as deficit will work, but probably doesn't minimise loss. Eating closer to RMR (approx BMR*1,2) would help.