Help needed on caloric advice VS starvation mode!

funghoney
funghoney Posts: 28
edited October 4 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm a small build Asian of 159cm having reached a goal weight of 44.5kg after 3 months of dieting.

There are numerous different calculators and formulas out there for basal metabolic rates, and apparently my BMR can be as low as 12xx kcals a day according to some formulas e.g. for females =665+[9.6x weight in kg]+[1.7x height in cm]-(4.7x age) = 1240kcal but I am aware that some other formulas might churn out a BMR of as much as 14xx kcal / day.

In the past few months, I have been taking 800 - 1000 kcals a day and have lost just under 1.5 pounds a week on average.
However, I think I might be in starvation mode as I suffer from some but not all of the captioned symptoms.

I would now like to just maintain my weight, but have trouble breaking out from the starvation mode (if indeed I am in it) and desperately need some advice.
Thanks!

Replies

  • daydream58
    daydream58 Posts: 572 Member
    If I were you, I'd continue to eat sensibly and as cleanly (natural) as possible and up my exercise to a couple of hundred more calories a day than I need just to have that buffer while your body settles in to it's new position. You can always adjust as needed after giving any change a week or two to show itself as successful or not. But fit and strong muscles are like insurance, so I'd definitely be working out with weights.
  • Meowbear
    Meowbear Posts: 10
    I totally agree with daydream58.

    Instead of shooting for that magical number, the best idea is to eat your maximum suggested "14XX" and just exercise about 200 calories worth more each day = half mile jog.

    This way, you can be sure you're getting nutrition and increasing your metabolism!

    Good luck,
    Mike
  • agthorn
    agthorn Posts: 1,844 Member
    I'm a small build Asian of 159cm having reached a goal weight of 44.5kg after 3 months of dieting.

    There are numerous different calculators and formulas out there for basal metabolic rates, and apparently my BMR can be as low as 12xx kcals a day according to some formulas e.g. for females =665+[9.6x weight in kg]+[1.7x height in cm]-(4.7x age) = 1240kcal but I am aware that some other formulas might churn out a BMR of as much as 14xx kcal / day.

    In the past few months, I have been taking 800 - 1000 kcals a day and have lost just under 1.5 pounds a week on average.
    However, I think I might be in starvation mode as I suffer from some but not all of the captioned symptoms.

    I would now like to just maintain my weight, but have trouble breaking out from the starvation mode (if indeed I am in it) and desperately need some advice.
    Thanks!

    Your BMR is not the number of calories needed to maintain your current weight. In order to get your maintenance calories, MFP will multiply your BMR by 1.25 if you are sedentary day-to-day outside of formal exercise.
  • funghoney
    funghoney Posts: 28
    Thanks guys for the above advice.
    The 'problem' is I don't really have time for exercise seriously (and have not really exercised in the past few months for the ~20 pounds of weight loss I've achieved so far!) and want to rely on diet control. I am barely sleeping enough, and can't spare any exercise time currently.
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