BMR Question

You can lose weight at either. Neither is dangerous. If your MFP rec does not include exercise, you may want to add that back or add back some of it.

It's much easier to me to estimate your TOTAL daily expenditure including exercise and subtract 250-1000 calories per day, depending on how fast you want to lose. Don't go below 1200 of food intake.

Good luck!

BMR is the count of calories your body would use to maintain itself if you were in a coma and did absolutely nothing all day. It stands for Basal Metabolic Rate.

TDEE is the "Total Daily Energy Expenditure" that you burn just doing your normal day - brushing teeth, styling your hair, walking to the car, picking up sacks of groceries and taking them to your kitchen, that sort of thing.

MFP does not calculate in any exercise calories that you burn - it calculates your BMR and your TDEE and gives you a certain amount of calorie deficit - a lower amount of calories - than your TDEE but above your BMR. That deficit is what helps you lose weight - you are burning more than you are eating. You want the deficit to be over BMR in most cases (not necessarily true for some) so you lose more fat than muscle.

When you exercise you are burning more calories and so your deficit is larger. If your deficit gets too large, you are not taking in enough calories to keep your body's functions fueled. So your body will stop doing some things in order to compensate. Some symptoms that you are under-fueled include always being tired, hair falling out, skin dry and nails peeling or thin.

Each person is different,. but for most people - if you will NET what MFP sets you up for, you will lose weight. When people say NET that means that you get as close to 0 calories left at the end of the day as you can after logging in your exercise calories.

Hope that helps!