What if I have a bigger deficit, but meet my BMR?

I have been here for about 6 weeks now and have lost 9 pounds with 21 more to go ( applause).

I am probably one of the older participants at 62 years young. I currently tip the truth meter at 216 and want to get to 195.

I golf everyother day (walking), do another 30 on the treadmill and swim for 15-20 minutes.

My question is - as long as I meet my base calorie ( currently 1850) does it matter how much I burn? on days that I golf, walk, and swim. I cannot eat enough stuff.

What do you think? AND BTW thanks for all the help and support. I find that tracking input and output is a real key to success.

regards, Paul

If you're deficit is getting too big, you need to eat more.

..and if I don't I won't  lose weight, right? If so how do the people on "The biggest Loser" do it?

There was a paper ( "A limit on the energy transfer rate from the human fat store in hypophagia") that showed that the most calories the body could get out of fat before breaking down lean mass was 31 calories per pound. So, in theory the most deficit you should have is your pounds body fat * 31 to loose weight. This also means that the more pounds fat you have, the more calories you can extrude from fat per day, which is why fatter people can lose more weight in a short time.

 There are a number of body fat estimators on the web, and your results can vary considerably between them. You might want to take the average of the YMCA, Navy, and this one:

http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home -body-fat-test-2774-143.html ;