bmr and tdee, what calorie intake?

eveliengerards
eveliengerards Posts: 7 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello!
I need a bit of guidance. My BMR is1494kcal and my tdee is 1569kcal. As far as I understood your BMR is your minimum calorie-intake to normally function and your TDEE is your calorie intake to stay on the same weight. I am trying to loose waight and I'm making progress. I was 79 kilograms at the beginning of juli and now 69.5 kilograms. I want to go to 65 kg and then 60 kg. But I'm losing my guidance in how much my calorie-intake should be. My goal is1200 kcal on myfitnesspall but i found out that it took a minimum of 1000 kcal to say how much i would weigh in 5 weeks. A bit below those calories it would tell me i didn't eat enough. I don't want to undo my weight loss but i also dont want to eat insufficient to my body. of course i want the weight to drop as quick as can be, but rather do it on a healthy way.

thanks a lot!

Replies

  • Hannahwalksfar
    Hannahwalksfar Posts: 572 Member
    Wow, you need to scale back on the weight loss. I’m 76 and aiming for 65 by end of nov. 9kg in 6 weeks is dangerously fast
  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
    I don't think it is a good idea to consume less than your BMR on a regular basis.
  • eveliengerards
    eveliengerards Posts: 7 Member
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    You’ve lost 9.5kg in 6ish weeks (roughly 20lbs) - for your goals that is too aggressive (3.5lb/week max recommended in 2lbs)

    Thank you for your response/info!
  • eveliengerards
    eveliengerards Posts: 7 Member
    lgfrie wrote: »
    ^ Agree. 3.5 lbs / week is way too aggressive.

    There is no way for your TDEE to be 1569 if your BMR is 1494, so it's time to recheck/rework the numbers. BMR is what your body would burn if you were in a coma, like unconscious on life support - to keep your heart pumping, etc. Even an extremely sedentary, small person would have a TDEE 300+ calories higher than BMR from moving around, doing stuff, and digesting food. For instance my BMR is 2143 and my TDEE as a fairly sedentary person is 2571, for a difference of 468 calories.

    I put your weight into a TDEE calculator, and since you didn't provide age, gender, or height, I put in typical values and got a BMR of 1721 and a TDEE of 2163.

    You are basically eating nowhere near enough food and are pushing your weight loss way too hard. You should increase your food intake before something goes wrong, i.e. a medical event.

    Eating under 1,000 calories is irresponsible and dangerous, and that is why MFP gives you the warning. You should listen to MFP on this.

    Hello Igfrie!

    I agree with you. I just typed in the formulas and got those numbers. do you have a totally correct website to check? maybe i was on a crooked website haha. de TDEE and BMR make sence now thanks for taking your time to comment! Our difference in BMR and TDEE is huge, so i think mine couldn't be. My age is 27, gender female, height 165 and weight the same; 69,5! I'm totally gonna up my calorie intake. i was just wondering how much it would become to still make progress

    I am not a sporty person at all, unless im working, then its heavy (stage building, a lot of lifting placing dragging etc). In those days i eat way more.

    I am not searching for something irresponsible but just a bit lost with the new style of eating.

    Gr Evelien
  • eveliengerards
    eveliengerards Posts: 7 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Your numbers don't look correct at all - your estimated TDEE is far too close to your BMR number unless you are laying in bed all day.

    Why not just use this site the way it's designed to set a reasonable goal rather than complicate things?

    And no - dropping to 1,000 cals is not healthy. The minimum on here for a female is 1200 +exercise calories.

    yeah i thought so too. im just a bit new in this. I just learned a week ago about having a TDEE and a BMR. i dont know what i did wrong. i typed in the formula with my own height weight age and activity level etc and got the numbers. maybe a default website. i am gonna up my calories! at least to 1200 calories if i have a lazy day. i got a bit confused with the 'in 5 weeks your weight is gonna be ... ' so i pushed till it said the lowest but its not healthy, now i know. thanks for your comment!
  • eveliengerards
    eveliengerards Posts: 7 Member
    Hannahwalksfar wrote: »
    Wow, you need to scale back on the weight loss. I’m 76 and aiming for 65 by end of nov. 9kg in 6 weeks is dangerously fast

    Hi thanks for responding! yes well i got lost a bit in how the progress should be. i can attest that i havent fellt the best the last weeks( a cold for over 2 weeks and a cough now for 5 weeks ) so that should say something, or just a heavy cold. but im gonna up my calories. the only question is to what. i saw a few comments above that it should be at least 1200 kcal so thats a start till i find out how many it should be. Your goal seems a lot more healthy!
  • eveliengerards
    eveliengerards Posts: 7 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    I think you have gotten most of the answers you need. However, I am not sure anyone covered the MFP 5 week projection. DO NOT USE THIS AS A GUIDE. It is a poorly designed function that would only be accurate in very specific conditions. It should probably have a disclaimer that it is for entertainment purposes only.

    Yes im very glad with all the responses. i think that had driven me to lower the kcal everytime. i took the MFP 5 week projection as a guideline. like; okay i see i can lose more weight with that many calories, not understanding the risks clearly. i just want to hit my goalweight at a safe tempo and keep it the weight the same after hitting my goal. i totally agree with you on the disclaimer. it could have gone wrong thanks to the projection. glad im hearing your responses!
  • eveliengerards
    eveliengerards Posts: 7 Member
    SnifterPug wrote: »
    I don't think it is a good idea to consume less than your BMR on a regular basis.

    It was that i took the MFP 5 week projection as a truth and kept dropping the numbers. after dropping i found out about my BMR. i dont want any health risks, i just want to work to my goal weight on a normal tempo and keep it there. its the first time i am really dropping weight. All my attempts before were not succesfull. i dont mean like shakes and stuff. but just avoiding the basic stuff like dont eat to much cheese, processed foods, snacks, no large plates, no butter on a sandwich, cooking with just a spoon olive oil, no overeating, regular times to eat etc. but it really wasn't helping. But thank you for your response!
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,454 Member
    edited August 2019
    eveliengerards wrote: »
    lgfrie wrote: »
    ^ Agree. 3.5 lbs / week is way too aggressive.

    There is no way for your TDEE to be 1569 if your BMR is 1494, so it's time to recheck/rework the numbers. BMR is what your body would burn if you were in a coma, like unconscious on life support - to keep your heart pumping, etc. Even an extremely sedentary, small person would have a TDEE 300+ calories higher than BMR from moving around, doing stuff, and digesting food. For instance my BMR is 2143 and my TDEE as a fairly sedentary person is 2571, for a difference of 468 calories.

    I put your weight into a TDEE calculator, and since you didn't provide age, gender, or height, I put in typical values and got a BMR of 1721 and a TDEE of 2163.

    You are basically eating nowhere near enough food and are pushing your weight loss way too hard. You should increase your food intake before something goes wrong, i.e. a medical event.

    Eating under 1,000 calories is irresponsible and dangerous, and that is why MFP gives you the warning. You should listen to MFP on this.

    Hello Igfrie!

    I agree with you. I just typed in the formulas and got those numbers. do you have a totally correct website to check? maybe i was on a crooked website haha. de TDEE and BMR make sence now thanks for taking your time to comment! Our difference in BMR and TDEE is huge, so i think mine couldn't be. My age is 27, gender female, height 165 and weight the same; 69,5! I'm totally gonna up my calorie intake. i was just wondering how much it would become to still make progress

    I am not a sporty person at all, unless im working, then its heavy (stage building, a lot of lifting placing dragging etc). In those days i eat way more.

    I am not searching for something irresponsible but just a bit lost with the new style of eating.

    Gr Evelien

    Hi - sure. Here is a link to a simple TDEE calculator: https://tdeecalculator.net/

    The common (and important) question is whether to categorize oneself as "sedentary" or "lightly active". Having done some stage and set work in my day, it sounds like you should start with "lightly active". You can always backtrack to sedentary later if you want. Sedentary will give you less calories to work with each day, but will be harder.

    I put your info in there are got BMR 1430, sedentary 1716, lightly active 1966. You'll have to figure out what's best for you, but personally, I would go with lightly active and set a 1 lb/week goal from here on out, which'd give you 1466 cals/day to eat, since 1 lb/week is always 500 cals a day less than maintenance. If you find yourself losing 1 lb/week over a month or two, well, there ya go, the analytical work is done and you can just plow forward. If you lose a lot more than 1 lb/week, then you shoulda been in a more active category; if you lose less, than you shoulda been in the Sedentary category. But my guess, just based on the info you've provided, is that at 1466 you will lose just about a lb a week, give or take 10-15 %.

    You're getting closer to your goal weight and that's why the calories have come down. When you started your diet, according to this calculator you were BMR 1525, sedentary 1830, lightly active 2097. Your reward for losing all that weight is 131 less calories worth of food every day LOL

    You should eat all of those calories everyday. No point in working out these numbers to then just undereat them. Live it up and enjoy every one of those 1466 calories each day!

    Good luck.

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