Question about BMR, exercise, and adjusted calories

lemasney
lemasney Posts: 67 Member
edited December 21 in Food and Nutrition
So, I'm doing okay. I'm 39 this month, 6'2", and was about 290 when I started. 31 pounds down in about 7 weeks, and enjoying it a lot. In the past, I lost 100+ pounds mostly counting calories with some subtle exercise, but this time around, I got a <strike>fitbit</strike> movement tracking device to actively track my output, and it is working very well in helping me stay motivated to move more.

I'm perfectly happy to either eat only my adjusted calories (BMR minus 1000, about 1780 cals) even though my device adds between 500 and 1500 calories extra to eat. This is great because I don't mind if I go a little over my 1780 because I know that I'm covered by the exercise.

But I never eat all of my extra calories because I feel like those are potential pounds lost. I know that people feel very strongly about this topic (eat burned calories vs. eat your adjusted BMR cals) and so I have a question.

I was wondering if anyone here could discuss the reasons why I should either continue what I'm doing or do something different.

Also, I'm always looking for new friends to support and to help to support me, even though I am deeply in love with my current friend set. Please friend me!

Let's keep it clean, have a good learning time, and enjoy each others opinions and experiences on the topic. :)))

Replies

  • SteffieMark
    SteffieMark Posts: 1,719 Member
    And your current friend set is deeply in love back! =D Bump for responses.
  • Momma_Grizz
    Momma_Grizz Posts: 294 Member
    Bump for responses. Friend request will be sent shortly :D
  • lemasney
    lemasney Posts: 67 Member
    Thanks, y'all!
  • furby1
    furby1 Posts: 114 Member
    Many congratulations on your journey so far.....you've done so well, so why change what you are doing?
    You know the old saying "if its not broke why try and fix it!".....

    If I could find a way of loosing more weight I'd grab the chance, but I've been at a plateau for almost 5 weeks now. Unfortunately due to health issues I'm not able to exercise too much so am mainly relying on less calorie intake.
    I lost 9lb in 5 weeks and have been stuck ever since. So I've tried eating 1200 cals and no exercise cals, eating 1200 cals plus half exercise cals (about 120 average per day), and then 1200 cals plus all exercise cals. I've now upped my cals to 1380 and not eating exercise cals (now about 150 per day), then will try eating some exercise cals and then all, then up my daily cals some more!....Its a real trial trying to find out what will work for me and so discouraging, but reading stories like yourself helps me keep going.

    Unless you start plateauing for a long period of time....keep doing what works for you and ignore what others are saying! :)...good luck on the journey...would be happy to consider you amongst my fellow travellers if you want a new friend
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
    Firstly, you are interchanging bmr and tdee. Bmr (basal metabolic rate) is the amount of calories you would burn in a coma. Tdee (total daily energy expenditure) is your total calories burned in the whole day. Most people here recommend eating at least your bmr (which you can calculate at fat2fitradio.com if you want your tdee there you have to put in your current weight as your goal weight because they calculate the tdee of your goal weight and want you to eat at that level so you smoothly transition to maintenance and eat that amount of calories always and forever). There is nothing magical about bmr, but scientific literature shows that a more modest calorie deficit has better adherence and you lose less lean mass (which is good, because if you lose lean mass, you end up needing to lose more fat to get to the same body fat percent and body fat percent is really what dictates how lean you look... The number on the scale is pretty worthless.

    So now that we've covered that. If your deficit is calculated as tdee-1000, you should not eat back exercise calories/fitbit adjustment because exercise is covered by tdee. If your deficit is calculated as tdee if you were sedentary -1000, you should eat back some portion of the exercise calories or you will end up with a ginormous (that's a scientific unit) deficit and loss of lean mass. Especially since 1000 is already a pretty large deficit. If you are less than 30-50 lb overweight you may want to rethink a 1000 deficit.

    My bf has a fitbit and he gains weight if he eats the whole adjustment, it isn't accurate for him. You can find out by trial and error if it is right for you or just eat back half or whatever makes you happy.
  • CallMeCupcakeDammit
    CallMeCupcakeDammit Posts: 9,377 Member
    I'm actually surprised it's telling you to eat that low (not that it's that low, but you're a lot taller than me, and a man on top of that!). I'm 5'8", 212, and I eat 1850-1900. That's a kinda new calorie goal for me and my body still needs to adjust, but I'm not gaining weight back. That's a calorie goal set by my dietitian after I got my metabolism tested, which was way higher than I would've thought! That said, if it's working for you, I don't see any reason you should change it until you get to a point where you're not losing anymore. Congrats on your loss so far!
  • theartichoke
    theartichoke Posts: 816 Member
    I love giving my little opinion about things like this but I don't anymore. Your journey and goals are your own. The best thing you can do for yourself is research, learn and experiment. There's a difference between fat loss and weight loss. Fat loss is what we're looking for while preserving, and hopefully strengthening, our lean body mass.

    I can't copy and paste from my phone but search for:

    In Groups...Eat More to Weigh Less. Join and read through the stickies. Even if you don't subscribe to the method the information there is priceless.

    Search the forums for:
    Pu_239's How to Lose Weight Correctly and
    Helloitsdan's In Place of a Roadmap
    Both have helped me tremendously. I also have an Excel spreadsheet given to me by a gentleman here that's been a wonderful tool for accurately calculating my numbers. Again, with the focus being fat loss, not weight loss. I'd be happy to send that to you if you'd like!

    Congratulations on your success so far and I wish you the best on the rest of your journey!
  • lemasney
    lemasney Posts: 67 Member
    Many congratulations on your journey so far.....you've done so well, so why change what you are doing?
    You know the old saying "if its not broke why try and fix it!"..... Unless you start plateauing for a long period of time....keep doing what works for you and ignore what others are saying! :)...good luck on the journey...would be happy to consider you amongst my fellow travellers if you want a new friend

    Great advice, and thanks so much for the feedback!
  • lemasney
    lemasney Posts: 67 Member
    Firstly, you are interchanging bmr and tdee. Bmr (basal metabolic rate) is the amount of calories you would burn in a coma. Tdee (total daily energy expenditure) is your total calories burned in the whole day.

    My BMR and my tdee are the same/similar on MFP, because I chose sedentary, due to my desk job.
    if you lose lean mass, you end up needing to lose more fat to get to the same body fat percent and body fat percent is really what dictates how lean you look... The number on the scale is pretty worthless.

    I track my body fat content with a fitbit aria scale. I track it along with everything else.
    Especially since 1000 is already a pretty large deficit. If you are less than 30-50 lb overweight you may want to rethink a 1000 deficit.

    I am 70 pounds overweight.
    My bf has a fitbit and he gains weight if he eats the whole adjustment, it isn't accurate for him. You can find out by trial and error if it is right for you or just eat back half or whatever makes you happy.

    Yeah, I'm pretty happy.
  • lemasney
    lemasney Posts: 67 Member
    I love giving my little opinion about things like this but I don't anymore. Your journey and goals are your own. The best thing you can do for yourself is research, learn and experiment... Congratulations on your success so far and I wish you the best on the rest of your journey!

    Best advice ever, and thanks. :)
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    "heybales" has the link to the Google doc/Excel spreadsheet in the first paragraph of his profile page:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/heybales
  • lemasney
    lemasney Posts: 67 Member
    "heybales" has the link to the Google doc/Excel spreadsheet in the first paragraph of his profile page:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/heybales

    This is amazing, thanks for the share.
  • lemasney
    lemasney Posts: 67 Member
    That's a calorie goal set by my dietitian after I got my metabolism tested, which was way higher than I would've thought! That said, if it's working for you, I don't see any reason you should change it until you get to a point where you're not losing anymore. Congrats on your loss so far!

    Metab testing sounds interesting! I would love to try that. Thanks so much for your support, and I agree.
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