Did the Burn Meter give you the correct number of calories to eat to effectively lose weight?

I motivated to lose 20 pounds and have read lots of info on the web.

However, I'm getting a discrepancy on how many calories I need to eat a day. The CC Burn Meter gives me a Target Calorie rate of 1700 to lose weight.

When I visited this site http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calc ulator.htm and used the Mifflin formula (which I read somewhere is more accurate for women) to determine how many calories to eat, I'm told to only average 1513 per day.

(I used to freedieting site to learn about zig-zagging or cycling calorie intake to avoid plateaus and help metabolism.)

Any insights or opinions? Here are my stats if anyone is inclined to help me get on the right track from the start. I don't want to undereat and make my body think it's going into starvation mode, but overeating would be defeating, too.

Female, age 40, 5'5", 155 lbs., exercise for 1 hour 3-4 times a week.

Well- let's first say- what I would give to be your weight!!  I am 43 5'5 and 270- with a goal of only 160!!!

But I noticed that difference too(in different calorie models) and in talking to people I get the input that the cc website is affording me too many calories(it allows me 1750/day).  I had not heard of your other website so I just clicked it and input my data and came up with 2160 on their site..so I am not sure.

I am daily hovering around 1700-1900 and often sooo hungry I want to pass out- but I talked to my doc and she said the 1700 sounded reasonable for weight loss and maybe even 2000 if I could match that with an increase in exercise level(I do very little other than day to day running around with two kids and all the housework a stay at home mom can muster!)- I do notice that if I walk 3-4 days a week- even if only for 20 minutes each time- I can significntly do two things- 1) take the edge off hunger pangs and 2) drop more pounds and not feel so exhausted.

Overall I am under the understanding that it is not so much the calorie count as it is about increasing the -muscle- at age 40 and beyond for women and then increasing the activity level.  My doc was very clear that muscle mass was important as it 1) looks better and 2) helps you ultimately burn more calories.

So I am now doing weights and trying to exercise more- the weights I am more loyal to than the walking so I cannot truly measure results yet- but it feels good and pants fit better.

I know none of that was an answer, just more opinion and suggestion- hope it helps in some way!!!

Take care-

when I first logged in to the calorie target thing it told me to eat 1550 calories a day. I am 5'3 and was 165 pounds. I was not loosing (only 10 days in) so I got on the forum and started asking questions like you. Someone told me to recalculate and when I went back and did it I had my activity level listed too high. When I changed things it gave me a calorie target of 1250. Since then I have been loosing around a pound or so a weekwhen I don't go over my calories. Most days I am pretty strict about getting around 25%protein, 25% fat, and 50 % carbs. I usually am not starving and feel pretty energetic! I have not really been excercising, but I am on my feet all day teaching 8 year olds!

I have the opposite problem.  If I ask CC to pick its own target date for me, it tells me to eat 1350 cals/day.  My BMR is 1500 cals/day and I get massively tired/cranky if I eat below that for more than one day.  So, I eat 1500-1700 cals/day and have lost 15 pounds in 2 months.  The take-home message is that we're all different and you may have to experiment for a while to see what the best calorie range is for you.

I have both the Mifflin and Harris-Benedict equations in an spreadsheet.

The Mifflin BMR is 1377.916

The Harris Benedict is 1364.049

Both equations have you multiply the BMR by a factor of 1.2 to 1.9 depending on your activity.

Does this help?

Jeff

Original Post by susiecue:

I have the opposite problem.  If I ask CC to pick its own target date for me, it tells me to eat 1350 cals/day.  My BMR is 1500 cals/day and I get massively tired/cranky if I eat below that for more than one day.  So, I eat 1500-1700 cals/day and have lost 15 pounds in 2 months.  The take-home message is that we're all different and you may have to experiment for a while to see what the best calorie range is for you.

^I had the same issue. For a while I was eating way too little because I was trying to go by CC's recommendation. My body bloated up because it was upset with me! I agree with adjusting your intake for what feels best.

CC told me to eat 1200 (with an average daily burn, as a sedentary person, of 1930 when I started at 210 lbs). No way I could or would eat that little. First, I'm pretty active and second, I was too hungry. I set it to 1500 and actually averaged closer to 1700 while losing my first 12 lbs. Now I'm taking time off from exercise b/c of an injury and I'm a lot less hungry. I'm eating about 1300 and my burn is probably in the 1800s. I think we all  have a tendency to aim too close to the magic 1000 cal deficit, and by cutting it too close, we regularly go OVER the 1000 cal deficit, triggering a metabolic slow down. I aim for about a 700 cal deficit and it was working. With the injury, I've been all over the map, not sure if I'm losing or not!! But I'm not really gaining, so that's ok. I'll get back to working out as soon as possible!

I had my RMR measured and its 1714. This times 1.2 for activity is only 6 calories off from what the CC burn meter calculated.  CC told me to eat 1500 calories but the guy who measured my RMR so no less than 1600 (plus 30 min cardio).  If I exercise more then I can eat 1700 or so. 

So the burn meter was on for me but the daily calorie goal is too low and I have a hard time making it and I get shaky and cranky if I try.