Still lost on how many calories!

You have to eat below it in order to loose weight or otherwise you would just stay the same. So if your 1500 bmi and you ate 1200 you would be banking 300 calories a day or 2100 a week. Without exercise you would loose a little over 1/2 a pound a week.

MFP does not care about your BMR it only cares about how much weight you want to lose per week. So if you want to lose a certain amount, it's going to set you lower regardless of your BMR. You can manually set your goals if you want to eat at BMR. That's what I do!

Never eat below your BMR!!! MFP calculates way too low. It told me I should be eating 1400 a day to lose two pounds a week, yet my BMR is between 1700-1800. So no, don't eat below your BMR - ESPECIALLY if you're exercising.

Wow. There is a lot of very very bad information in this thread. Do not eat below your BMR. You were right to think that. BMR is what your body needs to function if you were laying in bed all day. You should definitely eat below your TDEE. Set your goals to lose 1lb a week. Right now, you have overridden the system MFP uses because you did not use the recommended weekly weight loss goal.

Thanks for the info. I had been wondering how would I know how many calories I would need to maintain once I reach my goal.

I did the 1200 CAL and eating back it didnt work for me. I switched it to 150 and ate 1400 to 1800 each day and started losing weight. 1200 calories didnt work for my body.

The way I understand it, and it's working, is your BMR is what your body burns just staying alive. BUT. . . to actually lose weight and not stay stagnant at that weight is to eat less than BMR. My BMR is over 1700, so I am allowed 1200 calories to actually eat. That's burning an extra 500+ calories so that I will LOSE WEIGHT but that would take forever if I didn't exercise.

Now, the main point is DO NOT EAT UNDER 1200 - not your BMR number. When you eat under the "lose weight" calorie count, your body goes into starvation mode. BUT . . . do not eat your exercise calories earned, if you can help it, because that's just extra burning of calories you get to benefit from.

Thus far, 3 weeks into the plan, I've lost 10 lbs.

If I've said anything wrong here, anybody please correct me.

Good luck

You have to eat below it in order to loose weight or otherwise you would just stay the same. So if your 1500 bmi and you ate 1200 you would be banking 300 calories a day or 2100 a week. Without exercise you would loose a little over 1/2 a pound a week.

wrong!
BMR is what you burn by just being alive, you calculate your deficit from TDEE -
example a person with a BMR of 1500 who is sedentary, would multiply BMR x 1.2 to get TDEE = 1800.
to lose 0.5lb per week you would take 250 cals from 1800 and so eat 1550.
to lose 1lb per week take 500 from 1500 and eat 1300.

If the same person was lightly active, mutliply by 1.3 = 1950
1700 to lose 0.5lb / 1450 to lose 1lb.
Plus eat back any exercise cals (or choose a higher activity level), as the above numbers assume you are sedentary, ie no exercise at all.

Personally I lose best by netting around BMR (1550), and eating 2000ish total.


www.fat2fitradio.com has a good BMR / TDEE calculator, its more accurate than MFP as it takes into account your body fat %. At the end of the day, you need to remember that MFP is only a computer program that spits out numbers based on what you tell it.
OP - If MFP gave you 1200 cals, its more than likely you have chosen to lose too much per week, or your activity level is too low.

The way I understand it, and it's working, is your BMR is what your body burns just staying alive. BUT. . . to actually lose weight and not stay stagnant at that weight is to eat less than BMR. My BMR is over 1700, so I am allowed 1200 calories to actually eat. That's burning an extra 500+ calories so that I will LOSE WEIGHT but that would take forever if I didn't exercise.

Now, the main point is DO NOT EAT UNDER 1200 - not your BMR number. When you eat under the "lose weight" calorie count, your body goes into starvation mode. BUT . . . do not eat your exercise calories earned, if you can help it, because that's just extra burning of calories you get to benefit from.

Thus far, 3 weeks into the plan, I've lost 10 lbs.

If I've said anything wrong here, anybody please correct me.

Good luck

You will not keep the weight off if you eat under your BMR. Yeah, you might be losing now, but it will not stay off in the long run as you will go into starvation mode. BMR does not take into account your activity, so you will still burn more than you intake as long as you're moving and not laying in bed all day!

The way I understand it, and it's working, is your BMR is what your body burns just staying alive. BUT. . . to actually lose weight and not stay stagnant at that weight is to eat less than BMR. My BMR is over 1700, so I am allowed 1200 calories to actually eat. That's burning an extra 500+ calories so that I will LOSE WEIGHT but that would take forever if I didn't exercise.

Now, the main point is DO NOT EAT UNDER 1200 - not your BMR number. When you eat under the "lose weight" calorie count, your body goes into starvation mode. BUT . . . do not eat your exercise calories earned, if you can help it, because that's just extra burning of calories you get to benefit from.

Thus far, 3 weeks into the plan, I've lost 10 lbs.

If I've said anything wrong here, anybody please correct me.

Good luck

as my last post, create deficit from TDEE not BMR. by deducting from BMR you are effectively creating deficit twice. Initially you will lose, but long term you will lose muscle as well as fat which will slow your metabolism and you will find it harder to lose / easier to gain.....the typical crash diet / regain the weight, and repeat many times cycle!!