Clearing Some Things Up BMR And Weightloss

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  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    Correct, and I think that's where a lot of the confusion comes from... because the site is not clear about whether or not the activity level does/should include exercise. Some assume it does (and thus don't log workouts or eat back cals), some assume it doesn't (and do log/eat back)... then we end up fighting over what is essentially semantics in all the exercise cal posts.

    Of course then there are the "I only eat when I'm hungry" people *face palm*

    14wgdjc.jpg
    This is mine from that site. I find it quite clear.

    Right, but MFP's is not that clear.
    Right! Which is why I like that one, then plug those numbers in to MFP and don't "sweat" thinking about "should I eat back my calories" nor do I take the (unhealthy for me) step of thinking of exercise calories as "a bonus" or anything like that.
  • MsMarie213
    MsMarie213 Posts: 21
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    Thanks Everyone. For The Info
    Hope it helps. I made it a little convoluted. But use that, it will TELL you your BMR, and then suggest daily calorie intake based on your activity level. If you do it that way, in theory, you're done (which is basically what MFP does as well). The thing is: everyone sees that number as a MAX and tries to get as far away from it as possible, rather than making it a GOAL. Does that make sense?

    Yes i just started with this weightloss process and i can say the first few days i also thought that number was a max so when i logged in 600 under my calorie goal (as mfp says) i thought it was a good thing because everyone replied with good jobs and what not. i am now clear that i need to consume at least the given amount. Now i can ease up a lil and have a slice of pizza every now and then to make sure i meet my goals.
  • chnkytim42
    chnkytim42 Posts: 127 Member
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)
    Whatever works for ya!:smile:
  • sunshinesonata
    sunshinesonata Posts: 241 Member
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    bump for later.
  • MsMarie213
    MsMarie213 Posts: 21
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)
    If thats what keeps you happy CONGRADS :)
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)

    I know I'm thinner just from all the work it took trying to understand your post.

    Spelling, grammar, punctuation... kinda like calories huh? Who needs em?!!!
  • jenluvsushi
    jenluvsushi Posts: 933 Member
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    I have just learned about figuring out my BMR & TDEE. When I calulated my BMR it totaled up to 1869. In order to find my TDEE you mutiply it by your level of activity correct.? If so i mutilplied mines by 1.2 and gotten a total 2242. I have been told that to lose 1 pound a week you subtract 500 from your TDEE and to lose 2 pounds a week you subtract 1000. Have I done this wrong?

    I have recently changed my calorie intake to a minimun of 1500 instead of the 1800 MFP has reccomended. Im still working on purchasing the correct foods such as nuts,cheeses,yogurt,etc. To give me calorie boosts when needed because i find it hard to eat back all the calories i have worked off. 1500 will be a little more managable for me to begin with. If anyone have any advice on this please share.

    Also i was planning to do an hour of cardio in the afternoons and 30 mins of circut training in the evening (30day shred) 5-6 days a week is this to much? Ive been hearing that it is possible to workout to much.


    Please feel free to correct me if im wrong about any of this Im still trying to learn about all of this..... :smile:

    You've done the math right.....If you take 500-1000 off of TDEE, you will lose 1-2 pounds per week. The queston is....how can you safely do that without eating below BMR....the answer is, YOU DON'T. It means you must move more to raise your TDEE to be able to have a higher deficit without eating below your BMR. On sedentary days, eat your BMR. On days where you work out, you get more of a deficit.
  • nixirain
    nixirain Posts: 448 Member
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    This thread is very helpful...but I must admit I'm a little scared. MFP has me set at 1200 cals to lose 1 lb per wk...Sedentary. When I plugged the same info into the suggested site, it siad that my BMR is 1430 and my daily calories should be 1673...Sedentary. This seems high to me...idk if it's because I've been programmed to think that 1200 is optimal for my weight loss or what. I fear that if I deviate from the MFP formula I will gain...At the same time, I've been yo-yo-ing over the past few weeks and I wonder if this is why...

    If I'm reading this thread correctly, I should eat 1430 (BMR) calories per day, and if I work out I should eat back the cals I burn?

    I upped my calories for that very same reason! I DON'T WANT TO DIET EVER AGAIN!! LOL, sorry for the yelling but it is true. Dieting doesn't work. Why? because you cannot eat 1200 calories for the rest of your life. its not fun or sustainable. Go for slightly slower weight loss for life!! You will learn how to eat to be the size you want. I have lost more inches eating more in the last few months than I did when I was eating 1200 calories a day. Plus I am a nicer person with more food :)
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)

    I know I'm thinner just from all the work it took trying to understand your post.

    Spelling, grammar, punctuation... kinda like calories huh? Who needs em?!!!
    :drinker: :flowerforyou:
  • FitnessDivaK
    FitnessDivaK Posts: 229
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    This thread is very helpful...but I must admit I'm a little scared. MFP has me set at 1200 cals to lose 1 lb per wk...Sedentary. When I plugged the same info into the suggested site, it siad that my BMR is 1430 and my daily calories should be 1673...Sedentary. This seems high to me...idk if it's because I've been programmed to think that 1200 is optimal for my weight loss or what. I fear that if I deviate from the MFP formula I will gain...At the same time, I've been yo-yo-ing over the past few weeks and I wonder if this is why...

    If I'm reading this thread correctly, I should eat 1430 (BMR) calories per day, and if I work out I should eat back the cals I burn?

    I upped my calories for that very same reason! I DON'T WANT TO DIET EVER AGAIN!! LOL, sorry for the yelling but it is true. Dieting doesn't work. Why? because you cannot eat 1200 calories for the rest of your life. its not fun or sustainable. Go for slightly slower weight loss for life!! You will learn how to eat to be the size you want. I have lost more inches eating more in the last few months than I did when I was eating 1200 calories a day. Plus I am a nicer person with more food :)
    Lol! Thanks...makes sense!
  • msbengineer
    msbengineer Posts: 9 Member
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    I just checked my BMR on the link suggested above and it says that I should be eating 2000-2300 calories a day (light to moderate exercise). MFP originally put me at 1370. I was starving so I upped it to 1500. I wasn't seeing progress so I dropped to 1400 and I lost almost 3 pounds that first week. Then I went on a vacation weekend and gained it all back even though I didn't totally splurge on my eating. When I started it took me a whole month to lose 2 pounds!! I have a really hard time losing weight when even when I diet. I am wondering if i need to up my calories a little because my body is starvation mode and refuses to let go of the weight. I have noticed my body toning up slightly, but it still doesn't make sense to me that the weight is not coming off.
  • emshair
    emshair Posts: 20 Member
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    Very useful info thanks to all that have helped :) I'm new to all this and there is so much to take in, very interesting!!
  • chnkytim42
    chnkytim42 Posts: 127 Member
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)

    I know I'm thinner just from all the work it took trying to understand your post.

    Spelling, grammar, punctuation... kinda like calories huh? Who needs em?!!!
    i made my post in a hurry and who cares about grammer, it's a forum. anyway how much weight have you lost? if it is anything under 20 pounds why are you giving advice? have you ever had to lose more then a few pounds or is it just cosmetic for you? probably cosmetic not health related. most people on this site come her for real reasons, like the need to drop a good amount of weight. most of the bmr tdee advocates are skinny people who complain about needing to drop 5 pounds. what works for me might not work for everybody, but it does work. but atleast i have a view from where most overweight people are, not from the sideline trying to preach about going to hell if you eat under 2000 calories
  • toddx318
    toddx318 Posts: 51 Member
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    Sabine_Stroeh -

    Can you help me find how or where to plug in the Fat2Fit numbers into MFP?

    I tried to do the Custom thing on Fitness Goals, but nothing there seemed to make any logical sense.


    FYI....Fat2Fitness is telling me that I need 2591 calories at Lightly Active to reach my goal weight.

    MFP on the other hand is telling me to only each 1600 calories.

    Same activity level input on both. It is very confusing.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)

    I know I'm thinner just from all the work it took trying to understand your post.

    Spelling, grammar, punctuation... kinda like calories huh? Who needs em?!!!
    i made my post in a hurry and who cares about grammer, it's a forum.

    Um, because it makes your post easier to understand. You can give the best advice in the world, but if no one can understand you, what good is it?
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    Sabine_Stroeh -

    Can you help me find how or where to plug in the Fat2Fit numbers into MFP?

    I tried to do the Custom thing on Fitness Goals, but nothing there seemed to make any logical sense.


    FYI....Fat2Fitness is telling me that I need 2591 calories at Lightly Active to reach my goal weight.

    MFP on the other hand is telling me to only each 1600 calories.

    Same activity level input on both. It is very confusing.
    Yeah, it's definitely a very different approach.
    If you're going to change your MFP: go to goals>change settings>custom and then put in the numbers from fat2fit (or somewhere between the two?)
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)

    I know I'm thinner just from all the work it took trying to understand your post.

    Spelling, grammar, punctuation... kinda like calories huh? Who needs em?!!!
    i made my post in a hurry and who cares about grammer, it's a forum. anyway how much weight have you lost? if it is anything under 20 pounds why are you giving advice? have you ever had to lose more then a few pounds or is it just cosmetic for you? probably cosmetic not health related. most people on this site come her for real reasons, like the need to drop a good amount of weight. most of the bmr tdee advocates are skinny people who complain about needing to drop 5 pounds. what works for me might not work for everybody, but it does work. but atleast i have a view from where most overweight people are, not from the sideline trying to preach about going to hell if you eat under 2000 calories
    Your profile states that you're a yoyo dieter. Are you suggesting you're more informed than others? I'd say your own bio suggest you're skilled at quick loss.

    ps: I've never been over weight. Is that a negative? I DID lose 25LBS once. about 15 years ago. And kept it off. cheers:smile:

    edit: apologies if I've suggested to anyone that I have the "secrets" of weight loss (and maintenance). I do know. I have a sense of how to use this website, and am not bad at explaining that to folks in a slightly different way. cheers.
  • Mindmovesbody
    Mindmovesbody Posts: 399 Member
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    Here's a question...and if you feel the need to be rude or condescending, please don't reply...

    If you shouldn't eat less than your BMR, then why does MFP calculate a net calorie goal that is less than your BMR?


    That is a great question actually and I wish I had the answer to it. But to give you an example, I was set at 1200 calories and so was a friend of mine who is 72 lbs heavier than I am and we had the same exact goals. 1200 calories is not enough for most people unless it happens to be your BMR. I'm a petite person and my BMR is 1373. That means I need to eat AT LEAST that much just for my organs to function. I'm telling ya, check out eat more to weigh less. I was so freaked out to up my calories at first because when I first joined I lost 7 lbs, then I hit a 4 week plateau. I started eating more and about 10 days later my body must have started trusting that I was going to continue to feed it because I dropped 1.2 lbs. I would not advocate this if I had not tried it myself! Eat more to weigh less, you will not be sorry you did!

    So since my bmr is 1869 thats what i should at least be eating? Gosh it seems so difficult because since i began to eat meals throughout my day and not just eat 1 big meal like i used to i tend to stay more full my protien shakes and the constant drinking of water add on to the fullness as well. Sometimes its hard to reach my limit. Maybe i should stop being so scared to eat certain things like i am now and actually EAT to boost my calories.



    EXACTLY! You can eat things you love, just make sure you are eating your TDEE minus 15% and if you exercise and gt a great burn in, don't eat back your exercise cals UNLESS you go below your BMR!!!
  • Mindmovesbody
    Mindmovesbody Posts: 399 Member
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    fel like being an *kitten*............. these methids are garbage. lol yup i said it. i am sorry if i offend, but tru, i have lost 30 poundsin the last 2 months from eatin g way under where i am quote un quote supposed to eat, and i am not sick or tired all the time, i have more energy, i am stronger, i am seeing muscles, i am jogging further, and i feel 10000 times better, so if that is me failing i would rather fail. cause i see people on here stressing about eating to little, then people eating pizza and candy going yeah but i am still under my calories. wow special much????? when i am down 100 pounds in the next 8 months i will send yall a hello way back at the starting line :)


    Good luck to you. I have lost well over what my ticker shows, I reset it for every goal. Good luck with under eating when you hit a plateau!

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