Help with calorie needs confusion!

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How often do you workout?! If it is 3-5 times a day then you are moderately active, to be sedentary you would work an office desk job and not workout at all, not even a walk, it is just every day stuff you would do! I would go for moderately active minus 20% 1720 then aim to eat that every day. the only reason you will need to eat back any calories is if your NET goes below your BMR x

Thanks! You are starting to convince me this is the right thing to do.....what is your rate of weight loss using this method? I ideally want to lose another 10lbs before my summer hols which is 21st July!

Sorry - meant to say that I work out 5-6 times a week - running/kettlebell classes/weights at the gym etc

Your def moderately active then (I am too and I workout 5/6 times aweek) I have lost 2.6lbs in about 4 weeks BUT before anybody goes "that's not a lot" I have also lost nearly 15 inches!!! (my ticker is my side loss during those 4 weeks) And only we see the scale number, everybody else sees the body! Every 10lbs you do lose you readjust your daily allowance if you stop losing! I think 10lbs in just under 2 months is pretty doable! I woud like to lose 8-14lbs between now and August 7th BUT if I don't as long as my muscle defintion is even better and inches are decreasing I don't care if I stay this weight lol x

Give upping your cals to what I said a go for a month, take measurements at the start and end. And just see how you get on x

Conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't eat below your bmr. So in your case, you could just set mfp to your bmr and let your deficit be made from daily activity. If that low leaves you hungry, listen to your body and up it 100-200

You shouldn't eat below your BMR! Your BMR is what your body needs just to function without adding in any exercise etc... You need to FUEL your body to make it function properly, it is better and healthier to eat just below your maintainance and lose weight slow and steady than to lose quickly from going hungry x

That is a fine example of bro science. Just because people say it a lot, doesn't mean that it is true. Peer reviewed literature that I've read says that pretty much if you cut calories really low, you lose more muscle than a less drastic cut and your metabolism temporarily slows. The whole point of a calorie deficit is that you are giving your body too few calories from food and forcing it to metabolize fatty acids for energy. If anyone can find research that says bmr is a magic number you can't eat below, I'd love to read it.

That said, I told the op to eat at bmr, not below it. So please read my post before you freak out.

There's a thread called in place of a road map plus a group called women who eat more or something like that! That can explain it better! May of read your post wrong, my opinion is to NET at or above your BMR not just eat it, if that makes sense?!