CONFUSED - BMR is 1300 calories but MFP says eat 1200

yubafarm
yubafarm Posts: 28 Member
edited December 19 in Food and Nutrition
I just used the MFP tool to calculate my BMR which came out at 1300 calories. But when I enter info into the "goals", and target a 1.5 lb/week loss, MFP says i should eat 1200 calories (not accounting for exercise). I don't want to make this more complicated than it needs to be but I'm confused, don't want to eat too little, and just want to understand how to approach this.

I am 43, female, 5'4", 145 lbs, don't really have a firm targeted weight as I plan to add muscle weight, but entered a target weight of 130 into MFP bc that's how much fat I think I should lose.

thanks for any advice!

Replies

  • kcoftx
    kcoftx Posts: 765 Member
    Since you are close to goal, I would tell it you want to lose 0.5lbs a week.
  • overfences
    overfences Posts: 96 Member
    You have to eat a deficit to lose weight. If you want to maintain your current weight, you should eat your BMR + any exercise calories.

    If you exercise, MFP will "add" the calories burned so that you still have a net 1200 calorie goal for the day.

    HTH!
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    You have to eat a deficit to lose weight. If you want to maintain your current weight, you should eat your BMR + any exercise calories.

    If you exercise, MFP will "add" the calories burned so that you still have a net 1200 calorie goal for the day.

    HTH!

    Not quite right - if you want to maintain your weight you need to eat your TDEE (which is basically your BMR multiplied by an activity factor which reflects the calories you burn during a regular day.) MFP doesn't include exercise in this number so you need to add exercise calories too.

    Back to the original question - as you don't have much weight to lose, trying to lose 1.5 pounds a week is probably unrealistic, especially as you are wanting to build muscle. Go back and reset your goals, selecting "lose 0.5 pounds a week" and you should have a healthier level of calories for your size.
  • chrisc16
    chrisc16 Posts: 94
    I plugged your numbers into another calculator at http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/, and got these:
    BMR = 1378 calories to lose 0.3 lbs per week
    TDEE = 1653 calories to maintain weight

    of course, this was with "desk job with little exercise" - if you exercise, you'll add extra calories back

    sometimes it's nice to use other tools to "check" MFP's equations and suggestions.
  • _Amy_Budd
    _Amy_Budd Posts: 378 Member
    You should NEVER net below your BMR, no matter what MFP calculates for you. Yes, you'll drop pounds initially, but you'll ruin your metabolism, and almost guarantee to put it back on - at which point it will be way harder to take off because your metabolism will be screwed up. The Scoobys calculator linked above is very good. Also, check out the "Eat More to Weigh Less" group on here - the wonderful Lucia and Kiki who run that group explain it really well.

    :)
    Amy
  • yubafarm
    yubafarm Posts: 28 Member
    thanks for the responses, everyone!

    I know I'm not supposed to eat under the BMR but still don't understand why MFP is suggesting that I do exactly that. It knows my stats and BMR but it's telling me to eat under it...odd. Is it just a glitch in the system? I guess I will change to 0.5 lbs/week loss to get it to give a higher calorie target - thanks for suggesting that. I want to lose fat at a faster rate but at least if I change it, the calorie numbers will be more realistic.
  • dovesgate
    dovesgate Posts: 894 Member
    MFP is telling you to eat that because you told it you want to lose 1.5lbs per week.
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