HELP! Am confused re: BMR vs NET Calories

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Purple_Orchid_87
Purple_Orchid_87 Posts: 517 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
OK, so first off, my BMR according to MFP is:

Your estimated BMR is: 2,153 calories/day*

For me to lose 2lbs a week, MFP told me to eat 1600calories a day plus exercise , and that my maintenance to lose 0lbs a week is 2600calories

I see a lot of people saying 'eat your BMR to lose weight' but I am confused.

Surely if I eat 2153calories a day, I wont lose my 2lbs a week..... I know if I eat my BMR, I will be -450calories a day, which is approx 1lb a week, but at 1600calories i dont feel starving because:

I had a make a choice:

Small portions of old food - burgers, chips, pizza, 12 slices of white bread a day etc
OR
Large portions of new food - salads, veg, fruit, low sodium salt, wholegrain breads and pasta etc

I KNOW if I chose the first, i'd always be hungry, and fail

Questions:

Does eating your BMR help you lose weight 'healthier' and slower?
Am I trying to lose too much too quickly?

Replies

  • MrsM1ggins
    MrsM1ggins Posts: 724 Member
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    When you've got a lot to lose you can afford to be more aggressive with your diet.

    When I started I was allowed about 1600 a day and I lost 2lbs a week. As I got closer to goal losing 2lbs a week became very difficult - MFP was recommending 1200 cals a day and I was not happy restricting myself that much. I upped my calories and reduced my targeted loss per week and it's been much easier to manage.

    I think for now if you stick to the MFP recommendation you'll do ok. Make sure you recalculate your goals regularly. Although MFP recalculates occasionally I found that manually doing it still caused a change in the calorie limit I was allotted.
  • rachellprice89
    rachellprice89 Posts: 9 Member
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    hello,
    Ive been keeping to the 1600 calories MFP gives for the day, but as you burn calories through exercise it gives them you back.

    Im finding it really helpful and a lot easier than i thought to stick to the calories!

    If you need any further support feel free to add me.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    Your BMR is what you burn lying in bed all day doing absolutely nothing.

    Even if you've got a completely sedentary lifestyle, just moving about will burn more - the usual calculation is *1.2. This figure plus any exercise you do is your TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure. So therefore by eating your BMR, you're eating 20% less than you need to fuel yourself going about your daily business, so you lose weight.

    Another simple calorie goal people recommend is to eat your what your maintenance would be AT GOAL WEIGHT. Your current maintenance will keep you at your current weight.

    Hope that explains it! :flowerforyou:
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    Like everything else in life there are a range of opinions on the subject of safe weight loss.

    The eat your BMR theory is a safe and conservative approach and, as you correctly observed, will result is a somewhat slower weight loss - which is perfectly fine.

    The 1600 + exercise cals is also a safe and conservative approach but should result in a somewhat faster fat loss.

    If you're feeling satisfied at 1600 cal and are able to eat a nutritionally balanced diet then I'd say stay with the 1600 + exercise cals.

    Both approaches work and both are designed to change your eating habits in a healthy sustainable way rather than some of the more extreme "diets" (90% of all diets are doomed to failure because they don't focus on a sustainable approach - you can lose a pile of pounds very quickly and the put them right back on again when you go back to your old ways........been there, done that, got the size XL t-shirt :laugh: )
  • Purple_Orchid_87
    Purple_Orchid_87 Posts: 517 Member
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    When you've got a lot to lose you can afford to be more aggressive with your diet.
    I have over 100lbs to lose and so I dont think i'm going to starve anytime soon lol
    hello,
    Ive been keeping to the 1600 calories MFP gives for the day, but as you burn calories through exercise it gives them you back.
    Im finding it really helpful and a lot easier than i thought to stick to the calories!
    If you need any further support feel free to add me.
    I'm not a big one for exercise at the moment, but I know that will come with time :)
    will add you
    Your BMR is what you burn lying in bed all day doing absolutely nothing.

    Even if you've got a completely sedentary lifestyle, just moving about will burn more - the usual calculation is *1.2. This figure plus any exercise you do is your TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure. So therefore by eating your BMR, you're eating 20% less than you need to fuel yourself going about your daily business, so you lose weight.

    Another simple calorie goal people recommend is to eat your what your maintenance would be AT GOAL WEIGHT. Your current maintenance will keep you at your current weight.

    Hope that explains it! :flowerforyou:
    How do i find out what my maitnenance would be? My goal weight is 184lbs....
    If you're feeling satisfied at 1600 cal and are able to eat a nutritionally balanced diet then I'd say stay with the 1600 + exercise cals.
    because i'm eating healthier, i sometimes find it hard to eat my 1600 - i do give myself a treat now and again, but i try and keep the rest of the time healthy :)
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    How do i find out what my maitnenance would be? My goal weight is 184lbs....
    There's several calculators out there, try this one:
    http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

    Remember, these include exercise in their calculations, so if you want to continue to calculate exercise separately like MFP, set it to sedentary (little/no exercise on this one).

    You should find it's around 1,900 - 2,100.
  • DistortedButterfly
    DistortedButterfly Posts: 44 Member
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    why would u eat 12 slices of bread a day?
  • Witchmoo
    Witchmoo Posts: 261 Member
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    why would u eat 12 slices of bread a day?

    If we all knew the answer to that there's a large amount of us that wouldn't be fat!
  • Purple_Orchid_87
    Purple_Orchid_87 Posts: 517 Member
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    How do i find out what my maitnenance would be? My goal weight is 184lbs....
    There's several calculators out there, try this one:
    http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

    Remember, these include exercise in their calculations, so if you want to continue to calculate exercise separately like MFP, set it to sedentary (little/no exercise on this one).

    You should find it's around 1,900 - 2,100.
    thank you!
    it;'s giving me:
    maintenance 2038
    Fat Loss 1630 (close to MFP gives me now to lose 2lb a week)
    Extreme Fat Loss 1472 - i tend to be between 1400 and 1600 now :)
  • Purple_Orchid_87
    Purple_Orchid_87 Posts: 517 Member
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    why would u eat 12 slices of bread a day?

    If we all knew the answer to that there's a large amount of us that wouldn't be fat!
    i used to eat 2 sandwiches = 4 slices
    and 2 pieces of toast with breakfast
    and 4 pieces of bread and butter with soup
    and bread and butter folded over as a random quick snack - sometimes with jam or peanut butter
  • MrsM1ggins
    MrsM1ggins Posts: 724 Member
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    I used to eat quite a lot of bread too. I now use Warburton's thins when I want a sandwich. I find they satisfy the desire for bread, but they're low cal enough that I can work it into my daily allowance quite easily.

    I buy a pack of 6, split it down and put it in the freezer. If I'm planning on having a sandwich any day I just take one out in the morning and it's defrosted in a couple of hours - this has the added advantage of stopping me having a moment of weakness and making 2 sandwiches when I get around to putting it together!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    thank you!
    it;'s giving me:
    maintenance 2038
    Fat Loss 1630 (close to MFP gives me now to lose 2lb a week)
    Extreme Fat Loss 1472 - i tend to be between 1400 and 1600 now :)

    Here's the rub you should be aware of. This is why you should do it sustain-ably, and keep your BMR burning at full blast.

    BMR is the functions of taking care of the body, mainly dealing with fluid levels in ALL the cells, hence higher BMR the bigger and taller you are.
    Since this is energy used and given to the cells, it can NOT get it from the cells in the end, that would be a little perpetual motion machine in the body, and that is not the case.

    So while you will not starve, if your BMR does NOT get what it needs, it will slow down.

    If you force your body to 1600, you may have anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks before it drops, depending on previous yo-yo dieting and bodies ability to drop quickly, how big a difference to previous eating levels, and how big a dip below your healthy BMR.

    For a healthy BMR around 2200, that's a loss of 600 calories of free burn each day.

    The real kicker, all you other daily activity on a slower metabolism no longer burns what it could, it's all slower now. That include exercise if you do that too.

    So pretending that the daily maintenance figure for sedentary really applies:
    2200 * 1.25 = 2750

    You eat at 1600 and after some period of time with diminishing weight loss, that is your new BMR:
    1600 * 1.25 = 2000

    So 2750 - 1600 = 1150 daily deficit or 2.3 lbs week, until that BMR value is no longer true. So that applies and slowly moves to:
    2000 - 1600 = 400 daily deficit or 0.8 lbs week.

    Now what do you do at that point. Eat even less? Wrong direction.

    But if you eat at BMR.
    2750 - 2200 = 550 or 1.1 lb weekly.

    And here's the great thing, you daily maintenance isn't truly 2750, it's more than that. ALL your daily activity outside exercise becomes your deficit, always burning fat, and you do not feed that activity.

    If you start working out, you feed that so the body can get stronger and better able to burn fat better.

    If you really want to know TRUE maintenance level - enter several days of what you used to eat before you decided to make this great change. That level of eating, if you were not gaining weight, was your true maintenance level. That minus 2200 is your true deficit.

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