Should I eat less than my BMR?

I do. I've heard that you shouldn't, but that's usually from people who tend to binge when they get hungry. My BMR is 1600-something, and I usually eat between 1200 and 1400 a day and work off about 500 (which I also don't eat back). I've lost 99.6 pounds so far (just .4 more!), and I'm still going strong. I'm confident that I'll be able to keep it off, too, since I do have that discipline with food. It just feels good to eat vegetables, and I feel as though I've educated myself on nutrition to the point at which I'd be able to continue making smart choices in the future. The self-discipline comes with time. Eventually, a salad sounds more appetizing than french fries. Promise.

bump for later

Just listen to your body and eat the right foods. How much you eat will depend on how you feel.

I only eat around 1200 when my BMR is somewhere around 1900. I've been losing weight consistently for a good few months with no plateau. There is a lot of scaremongering on here which, quite frankly, is ridiculous and, at times, hilarious. But at the end of the day, you have to remember this is an internet forum quoting Wikipedia and other non-scientific sites and not a respected biological community.

No.

Your BMR is the amount of calories your body needs if you do nothing but lie in bed all day. I would not recommend eating less than that, unless under the direction and supervision of your doctor.

This.

Which isn't "scaremongering", by the way.

i'm sorry if this has been posted before, but just want to clear up a couple of points, mainly about my BMR. I have about 40lbs I want to lose and was wondering if I should keep my daily calorie intake at my BMR which is 1540? Will it matter if I burn enough calories to put me below 1200 (I usually do with all the walking, etc) or should there be as much deficit as possible?
I still have alot of work to do regarding self discipline around food.

Each person is different. What works for one person may or may not work for another. You have to take a little time to figure out what feels right for your body and helps you lose weight.

Keep in mind that your BMR, while very approximate as calculated, is your caloric needs for one day while completely at rest. Eating significantly below what your body needs to function will eventually make your body kind of freak out and try to hold onto everything that goes into it (the much talked about starvation mode). Where that threshold is is different for everyone. What MFP basically does is take your BMR and your declared activity level and calculates an approximate daily energy usage (sometimes referred to as TDEE). Your goal loss for the week (1/2 lb, 1 lb, 2 lb, etc.) gets broken down into calories by 3500 calories for 1 lb. Say your goal is 1 lb per week, 3500 / 7 = 500 calories per day deficit needed. TDEE - deficit = calorie goal MFP gives you.

This is why a) unless you don't ever get off the couch it's highly recommended you eat at least your BMR every day and b) why it's perfectly fine (even good) to eat some or all of your exercise burned calories.

All I can tell you is what worked for me I ate 1600-2000 calories a day did not eat my excersice calories back and I lost about 80lbs pretty easily i might add. Almost feel guilty on how quickly it came off my excersice of choice is running, run, run, run then I ran somemore. Ok usually about 1 hour to 1.5 hours 3-5 days a week. And i stayed very active at work walking, up and down stairs ect ect

AWESOME LOSS ;0) You must feel GREAT!!!!!!!

My BMR on this site lists 1425. When I went to the linked site (above), it lists my BMR at 1800. So, I am very, very confused. that's a lot of difference! Very confused now. Help?

Only you can decide calories, base it on how you feel and what the scale trend is doing, not what anyone here tells you to do. You can always gradually notch your calories up or down by 100 and see how you do. It takes some experimentation to find what works for YOU. What worked for the next person may not work for you just because it did for them. For the most part, if you have fat reserves eating more to lose weight is just plain silly, think about it.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale though: water retention, digestion, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for women over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I am a living breathing example of that. I went from obese to now under 12% BF and I've maintained for one year and built muscle the whole time. You don't BUILD muscle in starvation mode, so I proved everyone wrong.

According to "The Reverse Taper Diet " :

The Theory of Fat Availability:
•There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.
•The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you
may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit
you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is
when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to
as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in
men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].

Oddly enough, it seems as though some obese people have an unbelievable amount of fat available as a fuel, but a lower ability to burn that fat, whereas as they get leaner, they have less and less fat available as a fuel, but a greater and greater ability to burn the fat they do have. So at extreme levels of leanness, it is the fat availability that limits a persons ability to lose fat.

I won't say you should NEVER eat below your BMR because honestly, you're not going to starve to death if you do it sometimes.

But in terms of having a goal calorie allocation, you should make your BMR the minimum. Some days you'll go over. If you go under once in a while, it isn't a big deal. But if your BMR is 1500 and you're regularly consuming 1200 as your goal, you're really not doing your metabolism any favors, and you're probably going to see a big stall in your weight loss.

Bump