calories too low on mfp

if your BMR is 1352 and you set your calories to that you should still eat back your calories, otherwise you will be worse off than you were netting 1200.

if your BMR is 1352 and you set your calories to that you should still eat back your calories, otherwise you will be worse off than you were netting 1200.

agreed.

MFP pal Anewlucia started the group EAT MORE TO WEIGH LESS ....I copied and pasted this information below from one of her threads that may helpful.

You can get your bmr and tdee number from here :http://www.scoobyworkshop.com/calculators

What is BMR? Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed all day!

What is TDEE? TDEE is the common abbreviation for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is a metric to calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day. This is quite similar to BMR; in fact, you need your BMR to calculate your TDEE; but your TDEE accounts for your average daily activity as well to give a figure truer to your specific situation. Basically, the TDEE calculation relies on categorizing your daily activity into one of the metrics' predetermined groupings:

Sedentary - desk job and little to no exercise Lightly Active - light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk Moderately Active - moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk (****SIDE NOTE - even if you have a desk job most people fit right here when you workout 3-5 days a week) Very Active - hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk Extremely Active - hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training Once you have determined where you fit in on the TDEE activity rate scale, this activity rate is used to weight your BMR giving you a more accurate assessment of how many calories you really need throughout the course of the day.

Here is a link to a site that you plug in your information and it will provide your BMR and TDEE along with your Cut value (again, if you workout 3-5 times a week select "Moderate" and the "Select Your Goal" option you will select is "Lose Fat - 15% caloric reduction.



So now, you should have your BMR, TDEE, and Cut Value (TDEE - 15%)

Here is a video that talks about this in great detail that hopefully will clear up any questions you may have: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi9xjIRvbY&feature=g-all-u

If TDEE is figured out correctly, then exercise cals don't *have* to be eaten back because, technically, TDEE figures them in. The underlying factor here, is that most people underestimate their activity levels, (for fear of being told to eat "too much") and then proceed to under eat. If a person is burning 1000 cals/day in exercise, then that should be figured into their TDEE, meaning their TDEE should be AT LEAST 1000 cals more than their BMR. If this is not the case then they are undercutting themselves on the cals. So a person w/a BMR of 1300, that puts up 1000 cal burns should have come up w/a TDEE calculation of 2400 or more. So any situation where a person is not getting those calculations, they should be eating back some of those exercise cals.

So if you come up w/BMR=1300, TDEE=1800, you need to either A)eat back some cals, or recalculate your TDEE to include the *actual* burns that you're getting.

So to cut using *true* TDEE figures, you'd just eat a flat TDEE (-15%), as long as TDEE is correct. It should be fine. But if you are using MFP's calculations, or are not getting a TDEE that includes the amount you burn each day *plus* BMR, you need to eat back some exercise cals.

i eat around 800 a day.

I generally eat over 2000 calories per day, even on rest days I try to keep my calories around at least 1900. I am losing weight just fine, and I am not slowing my metabolism down. I have lost 32 lbs since March 1st, so it IS possible to eat AND lose weight. Please consider looking into the Eat more to Weigh Less group. They have a lot of amazing and useful information and it is based on sound nutritional science. It doesn't promise to have you drop a whole lot of weight quickly, instead you learn how to eat properly to fuel your body and you lose slow and steady. It is more realistic and more sustainable than a crash diet.

also, you can read the new rules of lifting for women, even if you decide you don't want to lift, that book explains REALLY well why you need to eat more than you have been told to by fad diet trends. Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. Enjoy the journey and eat well.

this is all so confusing

MFP is way too low and gives everyone the same 1200 calories. Or, so it seems to me. I suggest you go to fat2fitradio.com and use their calculator. Use the number that's right for you and do not eat back the calories. I've had good luck doing this. I would never try to live on 1200 calories or less a day. It's totally dangerous and you end out losing weight but it's muscle, not fat.

Still looking. Here's another one that does not say 'don't eat below your BMR'-

The American College of sports medicine (ACSM) says that the daily calorie level consumed for women should never drop below 1200 calories per day and 1800 calories per day for men.

I can't believe that I was eating 1200 calories before...this totally makes sense!! I can't find another BMR calculator out there that even comes CLOSE to what MFP suggests!!

I would never try to live on 1200 calories or less a day. It's totally dangerous and you end out losing weight but it's muscle, not fat.

Um, no. I did not lose 37 lbs of muscle. It's not dangerous at all. If you're young, active, tall, trying to lose only a few pounds, or male it might not be the right choice for you, but it's not totally dangerous in any way.

Calorie goals can be changed. Start with the number you're comfortable with and tinker with it as you go. There's no one perfect number for weight loss. I increase and decrease mine all the time depending on hunger, stalls, ect. Good luck!

If your BMR is around 1400 (where mine is) and you are slightly active (workout 3 days a week and low cal burning job) a way to roughly estimate your daily caloric needs is to multiply your BMR by 1.2 this puts me at 1680 for my daily burn. So in order to lose 1lb per week I have to have a 500 cal deficit putting me around 1200 cals per day. I am 5'1" and 145 but muscular. On days I don't work out I eat right at 1200 cals but on days I work out I make sure to eat between 200 and 300 more. If you are only working out for 30 mins a day at most with a VERY intense workout you will burn around 400 to 500 cals depending on your size, health, and overall fitness level so if you do not eat bellow your BMR and only workout that much you WILL NOT lose weight at a speed of 2Lb a week unless you have a lot to lose. If you only have 20 lb to lose and a life beyond the gym there is no reason that eating slightly below your BMR will hurt your metabolism. A good rule of thumb is to not go over a 1000 cal deficit unless severely over weight. So watch your calories and your working out and eat back the calories that make you have a bigger deficit than that but not all of them if your goal weight is 30 or less pounds away.

My BMR is around 1400 and MFP set my calories at 1200. I decided that was far too low and changed it to 1500... I'm still losing weight

The American Heart Association says nothing about BMR.

"To lose weight, you must use up more calories than you take in. One pound equals 3,500 calories. To successfully and healthfully lose weight—and keep it off—most people need to subtract about 500 calories per day from their diet to lose about 1 pound per week."

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/WeightManagement/LosingWeight/Losing-Weight_UCM_307904_Article.jsp

By the way, none of these sites say anything about 'eating back your exercise' either.

If you feel it's too low, change it like others have posted. I personally eat 1,600 calories a day and was just told by my nutritionist to up my calories to about 1,800 a day because of the intensity of the workouts I'm doing. I honestly in all of the years of alorie tracking have never gone as low as 1,200 and I've lost over 100lbs. I haven't seen the eat more group either but I wouldn't mind visiting!!

The AHA is correct about the 500 calories a day. But you have to know how many calories you are eating in the first place before you can subtract the 500 a day. That is why using a tool like MFP is so helpful. However, you have to be totally honest with yourself with the amount of food you are actually consuming for anything to work.

There is no such thing as 'eating back your exercise' unless you are deliberately consuming extra calories on exercise days. Recommended daily calorie ranges are based on a stable daily intake, not highs and lows based on exercise days and non-exercise days.