BMR Help

first you need to understand what BMR is.

BMR is the amount of calories burned daily from organ function, brain function, and nervous system function. It does NOT include, daily activity, and thermogenesys (the calories needed to convert fuel to energy and heat). NOBODY who is alive and walking around is burning just their BMR. Only someone IN A COMA who has had their body temperature lowered to the absolute minimum sustainable level would be close to their BMR. BMR does NOT mean sedentary, I.E. if you sit on the couch all day, or sleep all day, you STILL burn more then your BMR.

Now, that being said, BMR is an estimate, the human body is far to complicated to calculate an exact calorie number based on any formula, there are thousands of variables that you would need to plug in. Only direct measurement by a laboratory would be able to find out exact numbers.

That is why every site is slightly different.

As to you specifically. How much do you weigh now? What is your goal weight? I know your age and height, but what do you do on a normal day not including exercise? I need those to even see if you are in the ballpark for calories.

Why would you eat something you don't like? If you want to keep this up for the rest of your life, you have to find foods you like! If you want some cream cheese on your bagel, have some. Just measure it and count it in your food journal. Try some peanut butter. Whatever it is, it should be something you actually enjoy eating. If you're eating a bagel, there's your starch. There's no need to eat rice, too.

My personal feeling on calories: If you're starving at 1200 there's a reason. You need more than that. When you take into account exercise, you should have a net of 1200 calories or more. Example: You consume 1300 calories. You exercise and burn 200 calories. 1300-200=1100. Eat back half your calories so that you will have a net total of 1200. Just make sure what you're eating is more like fuel for your body and not a bunch of crap.

If nothing else, listen to Boss. He'll steer you in the right direction and has more factual evidence than I do.

This drives me crazy.......it don't take much these days:ohwell: How come different sites give me different numbers for my BMR. I enter in the same info???? On MFPwhich does not take into account my activity level I am afforded 1244. I have also entered it into freedieting.com which asks how active you are etc. etc and like many of the other sites I am told that to STAY AS FAT as I am now I need=1495
for FAT LOSS=1195 who is correct???? This is so confusing. I am starving at under 1200 calories, hell most days 1200 calories isn't enough for me. Should I eat smaller breakfast or SKIP breakfast???

breakfast usually = mini bagel 100% whole wheat w/ scrambled egg (1 medium)= 185 calories between bagel and egg
no butter used to cook either

1 cup of Whole Grain brown rice=240 calories(don't even really like rice but its a starch and is on the food pyramid)
1/2 an orange or grapefruit=62 calories
Crystal Light sugar free lemonade= 0 calories
Total =487 calories which does seem a bit high for breakfast

I too, would ditch the bagel. Instead of a whole scrambled egg- how about 3 scrambled egg whites? 3 egg whites = 51 calories. 0 mg of cholesterol and 11 grams of protein. 1 scrambled egg = 101 calories, 7 grams of protein and a whopping 215 mg of cholesterol!

Why eat brown rice for breakfast if you don't like it? I LIKE brown rice - but I don't think I'd like it for breakfast. How about Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal? Both of those have good carbs and good fiber to sustain you through the day.

I've found for myself that if I eat a lot of carbohydrates in the morning - it sets me up for cravings of sweet things all day. If however, I eat a good balance of protein, fiber and carbs - it sets me up for a great day of feeling good.

In general, I have to tell you - MFP has been RIGHT ON with what I should be eating... even when I thought it was giving me way too much to eat. Just pay attention to the info that you input... are you sedentary, are you active? The site will work for you.