Not loosing very quick - how many cals?

You're complaining about losing 6 pounds in a month? Would you rather have gained 6 pounds? This isn't the Biggest Loser, you aren't going to lose 80 pounds in 3 months. Keep doing what you're doing and it will keep coming off.

This is in reply to the person who said you should not eat below your BMR. While that may work well for you, this is concrete information available from any reputable website (I happened to use Mayo Clinic and WebMD for the details but I haven't found a site yet that says differently) and should be taken into consideration when determining how many calories you need to consume. Everyone is different and adjustments are often necessary, but this information applies to the VAST majority of us.

First of all, for those who don't already know, it stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. It is the number of calories required to run your body. Any weight loss will ONLY occur below your BMR. If you are eating above your BMR, you will not lose weight. Now, mind you, the BMR calculator is only a guess. If you have a slow metabolism, you do not use as many calories to function, so you will find your progress slower than average. If you have a fast metabolism, you will enjoy more progress. That much most people know.

Ok, so your BMR is the number of calories your body uses to function if you expend zero calories (lay on the sofa all day). To determine the number of calories you are actually using in a normal day (not laying on the sofa), you need to determine your activity level (sedentary, lightly active, very active, etc.) That shows how many MORE calories you need in a day to 1. run your body and 2. perform your daily functions. Once you know this, you can then SUBTRACT for your weight loss.

This information is from BOTH WebMD and the Mayo Clinic. It is the forumula used to show your daily caloric NEEDS based on your BMR and activity level.
If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (easy exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): BMR x 1.375
If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): BMR x 1.725
If you are extremely active (very hard exercise/sports and physical job): BMR x 1.9

My BMR is 2000. My activity level is "lightly active" because I go to the gym 3x a week. So my daily caloric needs are about 2750 (2000 x 1.375). So, in order for me to achieve weight LOSS (using my fat as fuel instead of caloric INTAKE) I must reduce my caloric intake. I can't eat 2750 and lose weight.

Most of us use a calculator (like the on in MFP) to determine how much to knock off to lose 1 or 2 lbs a week. But its a fairly simple formula. It's takes a 3,500 calorie deficit to burn 1 lb of fat. So take your daily caloric needs (2,750 for me) and multiply that by 7 (19,250). That's your weekly caloric needs. Reduce that number by either 3,500 calories for 1 lb a week of weight loss, or 7,000 for 2 lbs a week of weight loss (12,250). Then divide that number by 7 to get the number of calories needed per day to lose weight at the rate you chose (1750).

So to recap, my BMR is 2000, but my target calories per day to lose weight is 1750.

Now, your BMR will be different, of course, because it is based on current weight and age, which is different for everyone. So you can either use the MFP calculator in the Settings tab to do the work for you, or you can go to one of several BMR calculators on the internet to get your actual BMR, then go from there.

I realize this may be confusing, but mostly I just wanted to put this out there because of the gal who said you should never eat less than your BMR. In reality, you should not be eating MORE than your BMR if you want to lose weight. Simply put, you want your body to go to your fat stores to fuel your body, so you must take in LESS calories than your body needs to function. That is the basic idea behind dieting. In fact, if you eat above you BMR, you MUST expend those extra calories or it will result in a weight GAIN.

Hope that wasn't too confusing. I'm new to MFP (doing it with a friend) and I haven't lost much yet, but this isn't my first trip on the dieting pony. Unfortunately knowing how it works doesn't help when I'm faced with a chocolate cupcake I wish you the best of luck Picabo!

You have it partially right. There is BMR (which you described correctly) and then there is total daily energy expended (TDEE) which is actually the number of calories you burn throughout a normal course of the day. So my BMR is 2080. I have a sedentary job, so my TDEE multiplier is 1.2 based on Katch McArdle. I workout 6 days a week and burn 700 calories per session. So my TDEE is:

2080*1.2+700 = 3196


Now, there are several ways you can do a deficit. You can do the standard number based on the parameters below. Or you can do based on body fat percentage. So a person with 20% body fat, would use a 20% deficit, a person with 10% would take a 10% body fat... etc...

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.


For me, I have 12% body fat so I use about a 10% deficit.

3196 * .9 = 2876


This means, that I would eat around 2876 calories to lose weight. I eat 3000 calories in a day. I am losing inches, body fat and weight while maintaining lean body mass (the controller for your metabolic rate) based on body fat readings (with body calipers). So this alone disproves your analysis/theory that you can't lose weight while eating above. Now if you said, you can't lose weight by eating above your TDEE, i would agree. Maybe you confused it, maybe you did. Either way.....


Also, lets look at this from a logical standpoint. You just stated BMR is "It is the number of calories required to run your body", then why would you eat below the calories for your body to function?


Also, below are some good links (even with some of the information you were referring to) that explains the difference between the two.

:drinker:


http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

http://www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate.html