Why does a fatter/larger person need more calories?

Putting in my stats when beginning on MFP and telling what my desired goal was, MFP assigned me 1200 calories. I started at 249, yet it still gave me 1200 as my intake amount. Since I've lost 30 lbs so far, in recalculating, it upped it to 1600, which I will not do. I will continue down the 1200 path, as I am pretty content with how my loss is going.

Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.

Why do I burn more calories? Because I'm carrying around so much weight? If so, then why bother building up muscle?

I know these are ridiculously stupid questions, but I'm sick wondering.

Because muscle will help you do those daily activities, while fat is just dead weight we are carrying around.

What MFP "system"? The site provides guidelines to be modified as necessary.

MFP does a lot of the work for you behind the scenes to make it easy for people, but at its core, it's still a system based on figuring out your BMR and estimating how many calories you burn beyond that (based on what you input for daily Activity Level, and what you put into your exercise diary).

In the OP, he says, "the minimum someone should eat is "bodyweight * 10" in calories. Multiply your weight by 10, if you're eating below that number, you're not eating enough."



I should be eating 2,200....If the above is true, then why doesn't MFP start me at the correct calories..??...It has me eating 1,200....

Never mind, just read the answer above.......

Mostly I'm very frustrated with myself for not understanding how all this math and ideas fit in with me losing weight. I've put on more muscle than I had 40 pounds ago, so why am I not burning more? If I burned more at 313 and doing nothing, why am I burning less at 267 and exercising 5-6 times a week, and why does the latter not lower my weight?

I'm eating more fruits and veggies, drinking enough water (about 80 ounces) that I have to get up and pee 3 times a night, exercising, and building muscles. I cut back on portions, measure and weight foods, and pushed out my delicious BBQ chips. Sadly, I can't forget what I've learned and go back to that stressless time when I didn't know about BMR, TDEE and Jillian Michaels.

TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure - This is basically the number of calories you burn in a day. It includes everything, the 200 calories on a treadmill you banged out, the 0.02 calories you burned having a bowel movement, the calories you're burning right now just by breathing.

BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate - This is essentially your TDEE minus the calories you burn through exercise. It's the energy your body needs just to survive.

A bigger person, for both TDEE and BMR, will burn more calories. Jog a 5k, gauge your exhaustion level. Now jog a 5k carrying a 50 lb ruck sack. It's much more difficult because your body needs to burn more calories to generate the additional energy required to move those 50 lbs. If you weighed 50 lbs more, your body would need to burn those additional calories at all times, for every step or breath or bite you take, and not just for exercise.

A good rule of thumb is to make sure you eat above your BMR, but below your TDEE. This is why a larger person needs more calories to lose weight in a safe and healthy fashion. Their BMR is higher than a smaller person, so that's a higher minimum calorie intake they need to consider. People with more weight to lose can sustain larger calorie deficits safely, but starting small and adding more stringent measures as necessary is, in my opinion, your best bet.

If you are eating less than your TDEE, you will lose weight. It won't be a linear process (I had a 3500 calorie deficit, why am I not 1 lb lighter?) because of bodily functions like water retention and such. You will, however, over time, lose weight.

The biggest problem that I think people have is that they don't accurately estimate calorie intake and/or expenditure. The formulas touted are just estimations, as are the numbers spewed out by your HRM or what have you. Eyeballing measurements for estimations of food intake is also notoriously inaccurate. Starting with the calculations given to you, and then adjusting from there to find what works for you, is a safe (albeit slightly longer) way to go.

Good luck.

I don't believe that calculation is right. If so I would be supposed to eat 1060 calories, which is frowned upon on here.

TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure - This is basically the number of calories you burn in a day. It includes everything, the 200 calories on a treadmill you banged out, the 0.02 calories you burned having a bowel movement, the calories you're burning right now just by breathing.

BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate - This is essentially your TDEE minus the calories you burn through exercise. It's the energy your body needs just to survive.

I know I'm nitpicking here, but just to avoid confusion, keep in mind that BMR is the calories you would burn if you were basically in a coma. You burn a certain amount of calories just moving around in a day that you probably wouldn't classify as "exercise", but are still not part of BMR.

I was reading some of these posts.. to lose weight, should I be eaating my body weight x10? beucase I have been using this program for three weeks and I have actuall GAINED weight, at 1200 calories a day (which is NOT my body weight x10, it is much less) could I be eatinf too little?

Because bigger people burn more calories doing simple daily activities.

Why do I burn more calories? Because I'm carrying around so much weight? If so, then why bother building up muscle?

I know these are ridiculously stupid questions, but I'm sick wondering.

Because bigger people have more muscle (and fat and overall body mass) and it simply takes more energy to maintain. You don't necessarily want to build up muscle, but you don't want to lose it. The idea is to minimize muscle loss (retain as much lean body mass as possible) while maximizing fat loss. The only way to do this is slowly--create a small calorie deficit over a longer period of time. Anytime you lose weight you will lose both muscle and fat--it can't be avoided, but you want to retain as much muscle as possible because 1) you need it!! to run, walk, take out the trash, work in the garden, pet the dog/cat etc; 2) people with more muscle mass look skinnier and leaner; and 3) it takes more calories to maintain it.

The big mistake people make when they want to lose weight is to drastically cut calories to the point where, yes, they're losing weight, but a lot of that weight is muscle. It's really hard to get that back. If you eat enough protein to fuel your muscles, your body will work to maintain (or build) the muscle and burn the fat.

TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure - This is basically the number of calories you burn in a day. It includes everything, the 200 calories on a treadmill you banged out, the 0.02 calories you burned having a bowel movement, the calories you're burning right now just by breathing.

BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate - This is essentially your TDEE minus the calories you burn through exercise. It's the energy your body needs just to survive.

I know I'm nitpicking here, but just to avoid confusion, keep in mind that BMR is the calories you would burn if you were basically in a coma. You burn a certain amount of calories just moving around in a day that you probably wouldn't classify as "exercise", but are still not part of BMR.

I figured it would make a little more sense, if not exactly accurate.