BMR

Your body uses more than your BMR calories. If you're eating your BMR and your exercise, what you have left to contribute to your deficit is roughly your 'activity level' calories, so if sedentary, around .2 x BMR or 300 calories a day. But of course it's all just estimates.

Ok so say my maintenance calorie goal was 2500. Does that mean I could eat 2500 with no exercise, then minus my 1500 BMR to leave 1000. Would that mean I had another 1500 calories to eat?

Please explain if I am wrong
x

NO. The 2500 already includes your BMR. You can't count it twice.

I'm not sure where you got your numbers, but let's say your correct.
You eat 2500 calories, burn 1500 BMR, burn another 1000 through activities, leaving you with zero. That's good - if you eat another 1500 then you'll have 1500 EXTRA calories that will be stored as fat.

No, it's not running on zero calories. It's running on 2500 calories! What do you think your body needs calories for, exactly?

Your BMR is the calories needed to run your body. You need calories to run your organs and so forth (BMR) and you need calories to fuel your activities. There IS NO OTHER need for calories.

AS I'VE SAID I'M SORRY IF PEOPLE ARE LOSING PATIENCE I AM JUST STRUGGLING TO GET MY HEAD AROUND THIS.

And what prompted this shouting? I've been trying over and over to help you and suddenly you're offended?

So if ate around 2000 calories daily, and my BMR is 1500 would I be netting 500 or 2000 calories?

Total amount eaten minus exercise equals net. Don't subtract your BMR, it is NOT EXERCISE.

Our bodies needs some calories just to operate — to keep your heart beating and your lungs breathing. As a kid/teen, our bodies also needs calories to help us to grow and develop.

And that is the definition of BMR.

Maintenace calories (also called Total Daily Energy Expenditure or TDEE) is your BMR plus whatever number of calories you use doing stuff other than breathing, growing hair, staying warm etc. Like for instance, you walk to the mailbox, you take a shower, you fix lunch, you go to school or work, you walk to the bathroom. All that extra movement and activity needs more calories. How many more depends on how much you do in the day. It can be anywhere from 250-1000 MORE than your BMR.

Your weight-loss calorie recommendation is calculated by eating more than your BMR and LESS than your TDEE. Don't eat less than your BMR. Eat less than your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Myfitnesspal figures all this for you. Don't make it complicated, just use the Food Diary as it is set up.

I give up. Good luck.

To answer your other question - If you didn't eat anything, yes, your body would still burn all of your BMR calories so you would be at -1500 calories.

Initially! the human body is very adaptable and your BMR will actually decrease to survive on less calories. Eating so little would be harmful to your health, your weightloss would most likely slow, and just generally I wouldn't recommend it. lol.

This is why you never want to eat below your BMR calories.

So lets say your BMR is again, 1500, and you burn 1000 calories doing activities. So your total burn for the day would be 2500. The absolute least you should eat this day would be 1500 calories, though many would recommend eating 2000 calories so you have a reasonable calorie deficit of 500/daily, which means you would lose 1 lb a week.

BMR is what your body would burn if you literally just sat there being alive. No moving, no doing anything at all just existing and breathing. As a living breathing human that is functioning and typing at your computer and or phone... you are burning more than your bmr.
If you burn 500-1000 calories by excercising, walking to your car, talking to people, going to work etc.... then yes you could eat 2000to 2500 calories a day and just maintain your current weight depending on your level of activity.

Just keep in mind that everyone's body and metabolism etc is different it's not as simple as the number game. If what you're doing is working good when it doesn't work or stops working re evaluate.