My BMR is too high to eat so many calories.....HELP!!!

My BMR is 200 x 11 = 2200. How am I suppose to eat that much???  Please tell me what to do.

I'm 43, 5' 6", 200 lbs. and can't do alot of exercising due to a back injury. I have alot of leg pain also. But I do try to move about as much as possible and I can walk slowly for maybe 200 yds. and that's it. I lift a 10 lb weight (arm curls and over my head) so I try to do as much as possible. So I might burn about 300 cals with exercise.

I've seen many times on here to eat your BMR and you will lose. THAT would be a whole lotta eating!!!! NO WAY can I do that!!!!

Any suggestions to what I should eat? I've tried eating about 1400 cals and I gained 2 lbs. I try eating 1200 - 1300 and I stay put. FRUSTRATED!!!!

Sounds very frustrating. My BMR is 1459, I do not exercise at all. I am going for the 1000 cal deficit so I eat 1250 a day. Or should I say, I am supposed to. Some days I over eat and others I under eat. It is super hard for me to stick to it everyday. I am trying to do what is best for my health. I have been up and down on my daily weights but my trend line is going down on the weight analysis. That is what I look for. I wish I had some good advise. All I got is, keep up the work and it will pay off in the end.

What does this website say is your BMR??  I don't know if standard formulas are very accurate.  I am 5'6" and 48 and my BMR is only about 1700 and I only weigh 25 lbs less than you.  If you aren't very active then I think 2200 is too high.

I would use the tools on this website to get a better BMR estimate to use

On the burn meter estimate it says 1930 and I have it set at sedentary and just add if I can do something during the day. So, am I suppose to eat 1930 calories? Thats alot!!!

This is the confusing part for everyone! The idea is to eat 500-1000 less than your body burns just doing nothing (1930 in your case). The key is, on days where you do get exercise to not let the deficit go over 1000. make sense? "They" say that if you have a 500 cal deficit you should lose 1 lb a week.

So I should eat 1430, right? and if I exercise don't go over the 1000 deficit. I tried eating 1430 cals and I gained. Should I just stick with it for another week and see what happens?

I went to google and did their bmr calculator and it says 1633 is my bmr. So is it 1930 or 1633???? LOL Which do I use????

Ok... you're getting numbers confused.  Your BMR is a number that indicates what your body would burn if you didn't move an inch all day.  The number that CC gives you is sendentary burn, which includes the normal movements of a sedentary person.

You shouldn't eat below BMR... so... try for 1630ish, but don't go over 1930.  If you eat around 1630 you will have an automatic 300 calorie deficit, even without exercise.  Then add in your exercise... and you'll see an even bigger deficit.

Um .. this is my guess on it. The 1930 takes into consideration being sedentary which does involve movement ... for real, just do the search for sitting and see how many calories you burn and hour just sitting. Sedentary means you don't do much but you are a functioning person who gets up and walks to the bathroom or drives to the store. The BMR is the calculation for how many calories you body would require right now if you were in a coma and did absolutely nothing all day everyday to maintain your weight. Which is why they say if you eat less than your BRM your body will 'shut down and yada yada yada' ... so I would say that on a day of sitting around and basically doing a whole bunch of nothing you would burn 1930 calories because you got out of bed that day.

Ok, I finally got it!!!!  I will eat 1630ish and not over 1930 (not that I could!). And I'll try my best to get in some exercise everyday to get my 500 deficit a day.  I can't believe it finally "clicked" in my head.  Thank you all so much!!!!!  I love this site!!!!!  THANK YOU!!!!!

NEVER EAT LESS THAN YOUR BMR. EVER.

Your BMR is the amount of calories needed to maintain homeostasis. You will burn your BMR if you literally lay in bed all day, eat nothing, and stay at a constant temperature. Eating any less than your BMR causes rather rapid metabolic slowdown, and causes rapid muscle loss.

The idea is to eat 500-1000 calories less than the amount you burn every day. This is considerably more than your BMR.

To eat less than your BMR is dangerous to your health. End of story.

Original Post by momof2funykds:

My BMR is 200 x 11 = 2200. How am I suppose to eat that much???  Please tell me what to do.

The equation for BMR is not weight x 11. To those who keep suggesting this equation, please stop.

Maybe somone already said this, but your BMR is 1630 (based on http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ )

That is your minimum - you do not have to eat 2200, and in fact should not.

 

Original Post by lucindadevries:

This is the confusing part for everyone! The idea is to eat 500-1000 less than your body burns just doing nothing (1930 in your case). The key is, on days where you do get exercise to not let the deficit go over 1000. make sense? "They" say that if you have a 500 cal deficit you should lose 1 lb a week.

this is incorrect, the idea is to eat 500-1000 calories less than you actually burn, not 500-1000 less than you would burn if you don't do anything all day.

How is it possible that I am still not getting this right? For those of us who are sedientary...work at a desk 8-12 hours a day...no exercise and our BMR is 1459 how many cals are we supposed to eat?

The only thing I can't believe is this:

 I've seen many times on here to eat your BMR and you will lose. THAT would be a whole lotta eating!!!! NO WAY can I do that!!!!

 I'm sorry, but that is bull, because the only way you gained the weight is because you ate more then that every day.

Try this. Someone posted today and I like it. It will give you everything about BMR and how much you should eat to lose.

http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/calneed

That is a good site. How is 1900 calories alot. I can eat that with my eyes closed and I'm only 5'3" weighing 134. I would love to be able to eat that much and still lose and according to this site I could and still at least maintain. YIPPEE!!!

Original Post by lucindadevries:

How is it possible that I am still not getting this right? For those of us who are sedientary...work at a desk 8-12 hours a day...no exercise and our BMR is 1459 how many cals are we supposed to eat?

eat 1459, unless you exercise to the point where you are burning 2459 or more total (not just at the gym) each day.

I started eating 1630 today and it was actually pretty easy. I went to the store and bought higher calorie GOOD food. I found that whole grain stuff is higher in calories. I was in this mind set to buy things with very little calories and right now I need more calories.  So I'm gonna eat the 1630 and see what happens and try to burn that extra 200 calories I need to get my 500 deficit. AND I got my calories in by 7pm and have had nothing to eat since. (BIG pat on my back!) Thank you guys!!!!

Im happy there is a post on this because I dont get this either...

 So are the calorie count numbers not right???

 My burn meter on CC says 2480 at sedentary...

The google BMR calculator for me says 2000

 CC told me I should eat 1750 to lose a pound and a half a week...

 wtf? why is CC telling me to eat below my BMR? And Ive been doing that for like 3 weeks! Am I ruining my metabolism?

 On the other hand Ive lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks so...its working?

Original Post by angie1004:

Try this. Someone posted today and I like it. It will give you everything about BMR and how much you should eat to lose.

http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/calneed

 

This is a great link...thanks!