Net Calories set lower than my BMR?

I was just wondering this too.

I'm guessing because, if you don't do any exercise at all, to lose weight you'd just have to eat a little bit less every day? Which is probably why we're meant to eat back our exercise calories or we end up wayyyyyy calorie deficit.

That's your deficit...isn't it? 250 per day=1/2 pound per week:huh:

So that you can lose weight... right?

Because it can't calculate the exact amount of calories you would need to maintain just walking from the couch to the bathroom, from the bathroom to the car, from the car into work, from work to the car, from the car to the couch??? Did I win?

Because you told the very simple program that you want to lose 1 pound per week, and it subtracted 500 from your TDEE.

They a assuming that you want to lose weight. The deficit should be about 250 calories less per day than what you burn in order to do this and lose about 1-2 pounds per week. If you eat what your BMR is then you won't lose weight with diet alone and you would have to exercise to burn the calories.

Total Daily Expenditure is not the same as BMR (FYI, just want to point this out). BMR is what you would need to eat if you literally laid in bed all day. TDEE is what you burn through daily activity.

For instance, my BMR is around 1675 but my TDEE is around 2050 and that is for a Sedentary lifestyle setting,

Does anyone have any idea why MFP has my daily calories set lower than my BMR? If my BMR is what I would need to sit on my couch and breath, consuming just enough to stay alive, why set the net for 250 calories lower than that?

MFP sets your goals based on your stated deficit which is a function of how many pounds per week you seek to lose.

And they set it BELOW your maintenance level which is 1.3 times BMR or as follows

Harris Benedict Formula
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
Here is a BMR calculator if you just want to make sure all is as it should be.

BMR Calculator
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Thanks for all the "smart" answers. I was questioning because it is WAY below my BMR and I have it set to lose .5 lbs a week and have lost 7 this past week doing nothing but eating the calories it has set. And I mistyped earlier when I said 250, it is 750 below my BMR.

You may have a BMR that would be better calculated with a different formula than just age, weight, height.

If you know your body fat % you can go here and get a better estimate of healthy BMR. Just change the height option to BF% option, and you won't use the same formula as MFP and others.

Site is nice too because you can better tune your daily activity outside exercise, just in case you don't fall in to 4 broad categories.

But as mentioned by others, too aggressive a goal for being close to desired weight causes the problem you mention of goal being lower than BMR.
And the problem of eating below you BMR by too much is just getting a lower BMR, because you body will readily slow metabolism down to match the energy you are giving it, if it's not enough.

So you want the deficit to come out of the activity calories you would normally be eating, not your calories for basic life functions.

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

And feed that exercise, as accurate as you can get it, when you enter it into MFP.

Does anyone have any idea why MFP has my daily calories set lower than my BMR? If my BMR is what I would need to sit on my couch and breath, consuming just enough to stay alive, why set the net for 250 calories lower than that?

MFP sets your goals based on your stated deficit which is a function of how many pounds per week you seek to lose.

And they set it BELOW your maintenance level which is 1.3 times BMR or as follows

Harris Benedict Formula
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
Here is a BMR calculator if you just want to make sure all is as it should be.

BMR Calculator
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

So to lose 2lbs a week I need to take in 800 calories a day and eat back my exercise calories.

No.
Go into settings to Update diet/fitness profile.
Set your goals for 1 lb weight loss per week.
NO MORE! It should be somewhere around 1300 or so - whatever.
And eat lean meats, low fat dairy, nuts, whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies.
Do both cardio and resistance exercise.
AND EAT BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES~!
That's it.
Again, quite simple.
The easy part is the what to do; the hard part is the doing.

Good Luck!

But I want to lose 2lbs a week. AND at 1200 calories it says I will lose 1.3lbs a week.

Does anyone have any idea why MFP has my daily calories set lower than my BMR? If my BMR is what I would need to sit on my couch and breath, consuming just enough to stay alive, why set the net for 250 calories lower than that?

MFP sets your goals based on your stated deficit which is a function of how many pounds per week you seek to lose.

And they set it BELOW your maintenance level which is 1.3 times BMR or as follows

Harris Benedict Formula
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
Here is a BMR calculator if you just want to make sure all is as it should be.

BMR Calculator
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

So to lose 2lbs a week I need to take in 800 calories a day and eat back my exercise calories.

No.
Go into settings to Update diet/fitness profile.
Set your goals for 1 lb weight loss per week.
NO MORE! It should be somewhere around 1300 or so - whatever.
And eat lean meats, low fat dairy, nuts, whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies.
Do both cardio and resistance exercise.
AND EAT BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES~!
That's it.
Again, quite simple.
The easy part is the what to do; the hard part is the doing.

Good Luck!

But I want to lose 2lbs a week. AND at 1200 calories it says I will lose 1.3lbs a week.

That's because what you seek to do is unhealthy.
1 lb per week.
This is not a race.
MFP just won't enable us to harm ourselves with starvation diets.