BMR, Maintenance Calories and their importance!!!!!

Ok...I DO feel better when I eat more, and have recently tried upping protein. (DONT look at today...lol) I FEEL better by eating more protein. No idea why. No scale for a month?? EEEEEEEK. Haha........I am so friggin scared to try something like this...if it works like it should, I should be willing to try, but I am one of those "good day/bad day" because of the scale people. Sigh....but you guys inspire the tar outta me!!!!:bigsmile:

Ok...I DO feel better when I eat more, and have recently tried upping protein. (DONT look at today...lol) I FEEL better by eating more protein. No idea why. No scale for a month?? EEEEEEEK. Haha........I am so friggin scared to try something like this...if it works like it should, I should be willing to try, but I am one of those "good day/bad day" because of the scale people. Sigh....but you guys inspire the tar outta me!!!!:bigsmile:

I know the whole 'good' day 'bad' day scale effect all too well. I used to live and die by the scale aargh! These days, because I've been at this so long, I step on it every day to see where I'm at - I love to see how my body reacts to sodium, TOM, heavy lifting, long cardio stints....I really love to track how my body reacts to stresses. I guess I'm a geek like that

See how you go xx

Thank you both. I am going to give this a shot, I think. That doesnt mean I am not scared poopless..........lol....once a month weight in.........GAH.....what is 4 weeks, right??:)

youll do great and you will feel great!

I was undereating for weeks because I wanted to lose 2lbs per week. Well I was basically starving myself. I finally got the hint several weeks ago and upped my calories to net my BMR of 1540, grossing anywhere from that up to 1900 with exercise. Always netting at least my BMR though! And viola, I started to lose weight steadily. Now seeing people seriously restricting themselves and netting below 1000 really saddens me.

I'm so confused about all of this. I've tried to look up what my BMR might be, but it seems that it's completely different depending on the website I use.

If it's true that I should be eating at least that, then I need to up mine - although I usually do end up eating more than that with exercise cals, anyway.. I also usually get upset at myself for eating more than 1200.
I've lowered it to 1130.. according to MFP, my BMR is 1359. I think I should seek advice from my doctor.

Wait, i'm still confused. Does this mean that your BMR is what your body burns while just laying in bed all day breathing?

yep.

So, how do we calculate how many calories we actually burn while moving around and doing stuff (in addition to our BMR value)?

Good question! I think those body media things do that? MFP guestimates based on what you tell it your activity level is, but thats obviously a really rough estimate.

awesome post! thanks so much!

I've used a bmr calculator that uses body fat % and lean body mass to find my BMR, but now I'm slightly confused. I've had trainers at the gym tell me I should be eating 1200-1300 calories to lose weight (I'm 5"2 and 136 lbs) but according to this BMR calculator (http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm) my BMR (under light exercise) is 1356, and my tdee is around the 1864.

I'm slightly confused as to what I should be doing to figure out how much to eat to lose weight? I had been undereating for quite some time, not realising that I needed to be eating back my exercise calories-so I was really taking in 800-900 calories instead of the 1200/1300 I thought i'd been aiming for.

I'm paying for it now trying to boost my metabolism again eating between 1300 and 1400 net calories. When my metabolism has stabilised, do I cut 500 calories from my tdee, or do I drop it by 20%?

the 20% is a suggested number used by dieticians to create a calorie deficit. its usually recommended either 10-20%, or alternatively cutting your calories by 500 a day.

This is awesome information..thanks a bunch!!!