BMR and Calorie Count

I was wondering if anyone had an explanation for a discrepancy I have found.  As suggested by many threads I've read, I found BMR calculators online.  My BMR is listed at 2365... However, CC suggests I eat 2050 calories a day. 

Am I wrong thinking you should never eat less cal's than your BMR?  If I'm not wrong, why is CC's figure so incorrect and dangerous?  Anyone have any insight?

It's late for me so I could be way off base here but I recall somewhere that it says if you are very obese then it is ok to eat under your BMR, or have a deficit larger than 1000 cals.

I spoke to a trainer about this today. I am 215 lbs, 5'9" , 37 yrs old and have a large build. My BMR is 2030. However, I eat between 1500 and 1900 calories a day (it varies from day to day). I keep reading about eating your BMR at a minimum and "starvation" mode.

Basically the answer I got was if I feel good and I can get through my workouts (6 times a week) with enough energy than I am fine. My goal is 190 lbs down from 245 a year ago, so I am doing well. Since I want to lose, there is no reason I can't have a calorie deficit of over 1,000, especially if I am burning the calories through exercise. I sometimes do not lose in a week, but I just think it is because I am not really sticking with the lower cals (weekends tend to be my sabatoge - eat way too many bad calories)

Does anyone else agree there is too much information out there and you have to know your own body and figure out what works for you through experimentation. You have to lose 3,500 cals to lose a pound - the rest is up to you.

That's interesting.  So it appears that Calorie Count software knows that you can eat less than your BMR, but CC allows its members to falsely preach the gospel that Thou Shalt Not Eat Under Your BMR.  Seems if the operators of the site know you can, in fact, eat less than BMR (THEY SUGGEST IT), they would stop fake 'experts' from decrying the practice on their site. 

Oh well, off my soapbox.  Thanks for the replies!

My BMR is around 1600 yet I eat 1300, I've been doing this for sometime.. Fantastic results. So I see no worries/problems in this.

If your BMR is 2365 thats basically how much you burn per day if you where to lie in bed all day, and most of us don't do that.

So if you take your BMR and then ADD the number of calories you use up doing exersise that will give you your daily burn.

You need to eat LESS than your daily burn to lose weight or eat that amount to maintain your weight.

Sooooo in your example your burn 2365 lying in bed ... if that was all you did all day eating 2000cals per day would make you lose wiegth on a deficit of 365cals per day.

If your more active you need to add on calories ... say you don't do that much say 300cals worth of activitys a day.

You'd take your BMR + Exercise = your burn.

So in our example 2365+300 = Daily burn of 2665 and eating anything less than that will cause you to lose wait ... so eating 2000-2200 might be a good number.

(please note it's not recommended to too too little as eventually your body panic's and the reverse actually happens)

Personally i try and eat about my BMR (1333) as a minamum ... i like to think that thats how many calories i need to "live" and that way i can tell myself that everytime i get my ass out of the chair "THATS" whats causing me to loose weight and not the food... sort of takes the focus off the food and onto being active and healthy.

There are basically two camps of people who quote the "Eat your BMR" mantra.  The first of these are people who are under the mistaken belief that this is a hard and fast rule of weight loss and that if you don't eat your BMR, your body will go into "starvation mode", which is also a load of crap.  The second camp are people who say to eat your BMR because it is a safe recommendation.  The logic is this.  If you eat your BMR, then you must exercise more to create a caloric deficit and lose weight.  Eating your BMR and maintaining a balanced diet basically ensures that you are not undereating, and that you are pretty active.

The people in camp A need to be educated so that they stop just blindly spouting misinformation.  The people in camp B should explain why they suggest eating your BMR, so that everyone else get's educated on why it is a safe recommendation.

All that being said, you do not have to eat your BMR as long as you ensure that you are not going below the minimums of 1200 for women, 1500 for men, and about 1800 for active teenagers.  Also be aware that BMR calculators are simply estimates and those estimates are proven to be badly skewed for tall people and people who are very overweight.  And you can't suddenly go into "starvation mode" like switching on a light switch.  Triggering the bodies metabolic adjustment mechanism, which is what starvation mode really is, results from undereating for extended periods.  So if someone tells you that by eating under your BMR, you will go into starvation mode, then they are a) misusing the term and b) don't know what they are talking about.

Personally, I think that the term "starvation mode" should be banned from this site.

Except in the case of the girl eating 400 calories a day. Ummm, starvation mode.

And just the other day I slipped and fell RIGHT into starvation mode...

Original Post by fringe1000:

Except in the case of the girl eating 400 calories a day. Ummm, starvation mode.

And just the other day I slipped and fell RIGHT into starvation mode...

 haha thats not "starvation mode" its just down right starvation

People are right though i think "starvation mode" is thrown around too much its not an easy thing to fall into its something that happens after weeks of under eating,

its also not a light switch it doens't flick on and off ... it's a gradual thing .. if you don't eat enough your metabalism slows down and you'll stop losing weight as efficiantly. You might even start feeling listless and lack energy... and it fixes just as gradually when to start feeding yourself a suitable amount again.

btw just to clarify ...i don't think eating below your BMR is a bad thing, if you sedatery then realistically its the only way you will lose wieght i just think it's healthier to use your bmr as a guide and add exercise rather than taking food away where possible.

my BMR is 1333 and im successfully losing fat (wieghts not moving haha but im gaining muscle) on about 1300 - 2000 calories a day because i make up my deficit wth exercise.

Ok so now I'm confused.

CC says my BMR is 1500.  But if that was true, shouldn't my burn meter always end up at 1500 by the end of the day?  And if that was true, than if I exercise x amt of calories, then should I be able to eat x amt of calories more than my BMR?  I'm confused.

It says my BMR is 1500 but then it says to loose I need to eat 1200.  Ok I get that.  I usually eat around 1300.  And including my exercise every day, it says I burn total calories around 1450 each day.  So if my BMR is 1500, why do I only burn 1450 AFTER EXERCISING?????

Help!  I don't know how much to eat!

lora - CC doesn't say your BMR is 1500 because CC doesn't report BMR. You would have to go to other sites (www.phord.com/cc is good) to find out that number.  BMR is what you burn without moving (not even being sedentary). The lowest burn rate CC reports is sedentary, which is typically calculated as BMR * 1.2

Ok maybe I am confused.  I was thinking that the Daily Caloric Expenditure tool that cc has under Tools/Burn Meter was equivalent to BMR.  So I will look at the website you posted and will see what that says.

Thanks.

It confuses lots of people. 

The way it goes is:

BMR (basal metabolic rate): What you burn in a coma
Sedentary: BMR * 1.2  (little exercise, desk job)
Light Activity: BMR * 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Moderate Activity: BMR * 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week)
Very Active: BMR * 1.725 (heavy exercise/sports 6-7 days/week)
Extreme Activity: BMR * 1.9 (heavy exercise/sports, physically demanding job)

You can get CC to tell you what you would burn at all those activity levels, except the coma one (BMR).

And as techdog said, BMR is only a "safe recommendation". It isn't essential, nor is the formula accurate enough to ensure that it really is how much you burn in a coma.  It's more of a starting point, to help ensure that you are not undereating and to encourage you to be more active.  Some people (including me) find that it really helped them to use that as their minimum. Others eat below it and lose weight fine. And still others used to eat below it, but as they approached their goal weight, they found it better to stick around BMR.

Ok so that site gave me the following information.

Your customized recommendation:
EAT 1194 calories :: BURN 1719 calories :: LOSE 1.05 lb per week

So since I am not supposed to eat less than 1200 calories - which it basically says is my BMR (after rounding a bit), than I should eat my BMR and try to burn 1700 calories/day?

Seems like a tough pill to swallow since I usually burn according to cc between 1400-1550/day.  Adding another 200 calories would involve another 30-60 worth of activity a day.  So must find the time somewhere.  Or up my intensity level. 

Ok just blogging at this point.  Thanks for letting me talk it out.

What activity level did you pick? That's where it's getting the information on how much you burn in a day - it isn't telling you that you have to burn that much, it's indicating that you already do, assuming you picked an appropriate activity level.

edit to add: rounding is fine - it's all estimates anyway.

I picked moderate level.  Should I have picked sedentary?

Thanks for talking this out with me.  I do appreciate it!

Pick the one that makes the most sense for what you do - if you are moderately active, as the site defines, then pick that.

For you, since your BMR is already at the 1200 that is the minimum for all women (you must be quite small!), assuming you are not a teenager, it seems like you should stick to eating 1200 (I'm assuming that's what you've been doing), and whatever you burn, you'll burn. If you are as small as I think you are, you might not be able to lose weight as fast as a pound a week, but if you eat 1200, you'll always have a deficit, and the deficits will add up over time.

Original Post by halcyonlies:

I'm so glad I read this! My BMR is somewhere between 1600 and 1700 and I eat between 1300 and 1400 to maintain a defecit of 1000 calories everyday after I work out. I was worried it was going to hurt my weightloss efforts.

As I am sure others will tell you, weight loss isn't an exact science and a willingness to experiment a little with calorie intake levels and activity levels.  As you get closer to a healthy weight, it generally becomes harder and harder to eat below your BMR and still lose weight.  So as you get closer to a healthy weight, you may need to adjust your calorie intake upwards and your activity level as well in order to lose those last few pounds.  Fortunately, since the calculation of BMR uses your weight as a variable, it decreases each time you lose weight.

As far as using BMR as a starting point, I personally believe that if you have a lot of weight to lose, that a better BMR calculation is what is called the weight adjusted Harris-Benedict formula.  This formula uses the Harris-Benedict formula (like the one at phord's webpage) but instead of using your current weight, you take your current weight and subtract 1/2 of the difference between your current weight and your target weight and use that number instead.  This helps if you are extremely overweight to counter the skew in the calculations for very overweight people.

Thanks for all the advice.  I guess I am considered pretty small - 5'1" and 109.  most people look at me and don't think i need to loose anything and that may be true.  but I sure do need to tone up.  my belly is jelly after having 3 kids and my thighs have so much cottage cheese you can diet off of them alone!  So i think I'll stick with the 1300 calories and just keep up the exercising! 

Thanks again all!  i love reading all the posts and advice!

Good weight loss and happy exercising to all!

Oh my, now I am a bit confused..LOL!

I just took my BMR of 1622 and added my activities of 1982 ( I use sedentary and add all my exercises and being on my feet all day) and it came to 3604 calories and I am not even through for the day. It is 10:45 P.M. The CC burn shows 3300. I guess it takes that extra 300 and uses that for sitting and sucking air. OK, nevermind...I just unconfused myself! Oh Yea, I love that when it happens! Now my next dilemma...I only ate 1560 calories and I feel fine. I eat all day. Apples, oranges, etc. Now that I think of it..I would like some popcorn.

My point is I believe our body will tell us if we are screwing with it or not although it is nice and smart to have ground rules till we get in tune. I am still and hopefully always will be learning more and more. You folks teach me something new every single day...Thanks!