Bmr of ~1800 yet MFP says 1490 daily?

This might become my standard response because it makes so much sense to me... Here is how I think of weight loss, eating the right amount of calories and how that relates to BMR and TDEE.

I want to lose 12 lbs, which at 3500 calories/lb I have 42,000 calories in storage that I want my body to use up and get rid of.

I use 1600 calories a day just pumping blood, breathing, organ function (BMR) and another 1000 calories a day in exercise and moving around (walking to my car, cooking dinner, etc), so I burn a total of 2600 calories (TDEE).

If I want my body to use some of the calories from my storage of 42,000, I have to feed it less calories than I burn in a day. So when I eat about 2200 calories a day, then my body uses 400 calories a day from my storage to cover all of my activity of 2600 calories. That means my 'storage' or extra 12 lbs is being whittled away at 400 calories a day.

I am 5 ft 3 and weight 117kg (over 260 pounds) and have found I need to eat close to my BMR (I eat 1600 cals per day) in order to lose weight as I have yo'yo dieted in the past and can be a couch potato at times.

I always eats back as many of my exercise calories as I can to protect my BMR

There is also a group here 'Eat for the Future You' whereby if you are quite active (I have tried this regime but need to up my exercise I think) whereby you eat based on the TDEE of your GOAL weight (but never below your current BMR) and in this way when you reach your goal weight you don't need to change your diet.

With this regime you have one goal calorie count per day and DON'T eat back any exercise calories.

My feeling is I will go back to this when I have lost a bit more weight and can be consistently burning 500 cals per workout at least 2-3 times a week as the beauty of it is that you have the exact same calorie goal every day regardless of exercise (mine was 1900 cals)

You are misunderstanding BMR.

BMR is the amount of calories you burn EXISTING (not the amount you need to exist) each day- which means, if you were to lie in bed all day, you would burn the 1700-1800 calories each day that you were mentioning.

However, like the rest of us here, you want to lose weight. So what the site is doing is.... They are taking your BMR, and reducing it by 500 calories, to ASSURE that you will lose the weight, even if you just sit around all day.

If you have excess fat to burn, that is what your body would use for calories. If you don't have enough excess fat, then you need to eat AT LEAST the amount of calories you would burn laying in bed all day (BMR) and preferably more, because your body cant make up for the lack of calories, and will start to dissolve its protein and amino acid stores in your muscles.

If you google "Don't eat below BMR" you'll find other sites that say the same thing,

Not many, and certainly nothing too credible. The first page of hits was mainly MFP, then a few broscience sites, and a handful of rebuttal postings.

Again, I don't know if it's just members heresay, or whether there's any actual science behind it, bit it's not just MFP members that advocate this.

It is member's hearsay, without a doubt, and concentrated herein. There is no science that I can find, nor this guy - http://www.musclepyramid.com/if-you-don’t-learn-about-these-myths-you’ll-hate-yourself-later

Many of the scientific studies put people on diets well below their BMR and often in the 400 - 800 calorie range (these are medically supervised trials, not the twinkie diet) and they don't discuss the margin below BMR *at all*. They use the lower calories to get a bigger result faster, before the trial budget expires or the volunteer subjects quit.