Weight Loss
Moderators: duke3522, devilish_patsy, topanga1485, nycgirl, spoiled_candy, cmillington, coach_k 1200 cal/day is bull part 2
Okay, so after my last post some people got it and some people are just more confused. Hopefully this will help, especially because I don't have enough time to answer a bunch of individual emails.
The feature on CC for estimated burned cals/day depending on activity is a great tool, however the allowance tool should be shot. Here is why
The expenditure tool uses the Harris Benedict Formula which calculates your BMR.
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)
this is the number of calories your body would need if you slept all day long and did not move.
You then mulitple this number by an activity factor to see how much you burn
I prefer to choose a sedentary excercise level and add in my workouts, If you want you can choose an activity level that already includes your workouts
Activity Multiplier
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)
Your food intake should never go below your BMR. Now your BMR is an estimate. It can change with a number of factors that a calculation cannot account for. An extremely muscular person will actually have a higher BMR than calculated, and a person with a considerable amount of weight to lose will actually have a lower BmR than calculated. Also your BMR will change as you lose weight and need to be recalculated.
**now when saying you should not go below your BMR, do not not go below your healthy weight BMR. For example, if you have 100 lbs to lose, figure out what your bmr would be at your healthy weight (to have a healthy BMI) And fool around with that number. this is why doctors will tell some of their patients to eat less than their bmr. When you are overweight your BMR is taking in account the energy required to carry all that weight. At a healthy BMR there isn't much extra weight to carry. Me for example, I'm already in a healthy BMI range so eating below my BMR is not good, but someone is is overweight and has a BMR of 1800 and their healthy goal weight has a BMR of 1400, could probably get away with eating 1400 and be ok. If this is your case, talk to a dr!
When you mark sedentary on CC the tool will automatically multiply your BMR by an activity factor to calculate what you burn in a normal day without any vigorous activity (a desk job). This is where the mistake comes in. For example my sedentary calories burned is 1700 so when i used the tool to see how much I should eat it gave me 1200 cal. My BMR is 1440. For four months I ate 1200 cals and did not workout, I had a deficit but I wasn't eating enough for my body to maintain its normal functions. To make up for the 240 cal my body was not getting it started to use my lean muscle tissue, which in effect lowered my metabolism and I gained 15lbs. How could I gain 15 pounds when i was eating less than I burned? My metabolism had slowed down so much and my body held everything I eat just incase I decided to stop eating. Your body is smart and will do everything to keep it alive. Once I figured this out I started eating about 1400-1500 cals per day and did not have any time to workout. So just working and going to class I had about a 200-300 deficit each day. 3 months later I had dropped 10 lbs by eating MORE!
So how do you figure out how much to eat.
BMR x activity level + exercise - desired deficit = how much you shoud eat.
Me for example
22, 5'5, 134 lbs.
BMR = 1440, sedentary (1.2 activity factor)
1440(BMR) x 1.2(activity factor) + 300 (exercise) -500(desired deficit) = 1528 cals/day
According to this caculation if I workout 300 cals, I can eat 1528 cal/day and lose 1lb per week. Now with this same equation if I changed my deficit to 600 it would = 1428 to eat each day. this is below my BMR so if I want a 600 def. I need to increase my excercise because i cannot decrease my food any more.
If I used a mod activity level (1.375) which already includes some working out
1440 x 1.375 - 500 = 1480.
so you can see the numbers come out a little differently with different levels, I feel adding excercise to my sedentary level is more accurate, but that is just for me.
BMR is an estimate, it just gives you a starting point to see how much you can eat. BMR fluctuates and is affected by many factors. The best thing to do is use this as a starting point and see how it works for you.
Like I mentioned before about eating to little and lowering your metabolism. If you eat to little (below BMR) your body will start using its lean muscle tissue for energy and therefore decreasing your muscle and metabolism. This may appear as a weight loss on a scale initially. the weight lose will then stop when your body can no longer take any more lean tissue. AT this point your metab. is very slow and your body starts to store.
How do you know if you are losing lean tissue and not fat. the best way is to have your fat % taken. If you are losing weight and your fat % has not changed then you are losing muscle and that's bad.
I have a body caliper that is used on one fold. It is not as accurate as the one that measures several different folds, but it can be done by you and in the privacy of your own home and gives you a general idea. grab the fold about 1 inch above your right hip and use the caliper to gauge your body fat. Here is how I use the number to see if I'm losing fat or muscle.
134 lbs at 18% body fat = 24.12 lbs fat
lets say i lose 4 lbs and am still at 18% fat
130 lbs at 18% = 23.4 lbs fat
as you can see the body fat went down, but out of 4 lbs lost only .72 was body fat. The other 3.28 was a combination of things, but mainly lean muscle tissue. this is not good and your metabolism will suffer.
Now just so folks do not get alarmed, If you are eating correctly, you will lose some lean mass when you lose fat. It is impossible to just lose fat, the ratio of how much fat to lean muscle is the important factor. Like the example, if only a quater of the weight loss is fat, then you need to change things around. This is why weight training is so important. You are going to lose some lean body mass when losing weight, the weight training helps to counter this.
Here is a great website: http://www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate. html
Also, there is an electronic book that you can buy on the internet that is called. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. It is $35 and well worth it. It completely explains how the body burns and stores, how to calculate BMR, body fat %...everything. It even gives workout schedules and explains how much you should of carbs v protein v. fat... everything. Very easy to understand and will really help you out.
http://www.burnthefat.com/ BUY IT!
If you have any questions for me specifically post it rather than email, because CC only lets me send 2 messages/day.
The feature on CC for estimated burned cals/day depending on activity is a great tool, however the allowance tool should be shot. Here is why
The expenditure tool uses the Harris Benedict Formula which calculates your BMR.
Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)
this is the number of calories your body would need if you slept all day long and did not move.
You then mulitple this number by an activity factor to see how much you burn
I prefer to choose a sedentary excercise level and add in my workouts, If you want you can choose an activity level that already includes your workouts
Activity Multiplier
Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)
Your food intake should never go below your BMR. Now your BMR is an estimate. It can change with a number of factors that a calculation cannot account for. An extremely muscular person will actually have a higher BMR than calculated, and a person with a considerable amount of weight to lose will actually have a lower BmR than calculated. Also your BMR will change as you lose weight and need to be recalculated.
**now when saying you should not go below your BMR, do not not go below your healthy weight BMR. For example, if you have 100 lbs to lose, figure out what your bmr would be at your healthy weight (to have a healthy BMI) And fool around with that number. this is why doctors will tell some of their patients to eat less than their bmr. When you are overweight your BMR is taking in account the energy required to carry all that weight. At a healthy BMR there isn't much extra weight to carry. Me for example, I'm already in a healthy BMI range so eating below my BMR is not good, but someone is is overweight and has a BMR of 1800 and their healthy goal weight has a BMR of 1400, could probably get away with eating 1400 and be ok. If this is your case, talk to a dr!
When you mark sedentary on CC the tool will automatically multiply your BMR by an activity factor to calculate what you burn in a normal day without any vigorous activity (a desk job). This is where the mistake comes in. For example my sedentary calories burned is 1700 so when i used the tool to see how much I should eat it gave me 1200 cal. My BMR is 1440. For four months I ate 1200 cals and did not workout, I had a deficit but I wasn't eating enough for my body to maintain its normal functions. To make up for the 240 cal my body was not getting it started to use my lean muscle tissue, which in effect lowered my metabolism and I gained 15lbs. How could I gain 15 pounds when i was eating less than I burned? My metabolism had slowed down so much and my body held everything I eat just incase I decided to stop eating. Your body is smart and will do everything to keep it alive. Once I figured this out I started eating about 1400-1500 cals per day and did not have any time to workout. So just working and going to class I had about a 200-300 deficit each day. 3 months later I had dropped 10 lbs by eating MORE!
So how do you figure out how much to eat.
BMR x activity level + exercise - desired deficit = how much you shoud eat.
Me for example
22, 5'5, 134 lbs.
BMR = 1440, sedentary (1.2 activity factor)
1440(BMR) x 1.2(activity factor) + 300 (exercise) -500(desired deficit) = 1528 cals/day
According to this caculation if I workout 300 cals, I can eat 1528 cal/day and lose 1lb per week. Now with this same equation if I changed my deficit to 600 it would = 1428 to eat each day. this is below my BMR so if I want a 600 def. I need to increase my excercise because i cannot decrease my food any more.
If I used a mod activity level (1.375) which already includes some working out
1440 x 1.375 - 500 = 1480.
so you can see the numbers come out a little differently with different levels, I feel adding excercise to my sedentary level is more accurate, but that is just for me.
BMR is an estimate, it just gives you a starting point to see how much you can eat. BMR fluctuates and is affected by many factors. The best thing to do is use this as a starting point and see how it works for you.
Like I mentioned before about eating to little and lowering your metabolism. If you eat to little (below BMR) your body will start using its lean muscle tissue for energy and therefore decreasing your muscle and metabolism. This may appear as a weight loss on a scale initially. the weight lose will then stop when your body can no longer take any more lean tissue. AT this point your metab. is very slow and your body starts to store.
How do you know if you are losing lean tissue and not fat. the best way is to have your fat % taken. If you are losing weight and your fat % has not changed then you are losing muscle and that's bad.
I have a body caliper that is used on one fold. It is not as accurate as the one that measures several different folds, but it can be done by you and in the privacy of your own home and gives you a general idea. grab the fold about 1 inch above your right hip and use the caliper to gauge your body fat. Here is how I use the number to see if I'm losing fat or muscle.
134 lbs at 18% body fat = 24.12 lbs fat
lets say i lose 4 lbs and am still at 18% fat
130 lbs at 18% = 23.4 lbs fat
as you can see the body fat went down, but out of 4 lbs lost only .72 was body fat. The other 3.28 was a combination of things, but mainly lean muscle tissue. this is not good and your metabolism will suffer.
Now just so folks do not get alarmed, If you are eating correctly, you will lose some lean mass when you lose fat. It is impossible to just lose fat, the ratio of how much fat to lean muscle is the important factor. Like the example, if only a quater of the weight loss is fat, then you need to change things around. This is why weight training is so important. You are going to lose some lean body mass when losing weight, the weight training helps to counter this.
Here is a great website: http://www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate. html
Also, there is an electronic book that you can buy on the internet that is called. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. It is $35 and well worth it. It completely explains how the body burns and stores, how to calculate BMR, body fat %...everything. It even gives workout schedules and explains how much you should of carbs v protein v. fat... everything. Very easy to understand and will really help you out.
http://www.burnthefat.com/ BUY IT!
If you have any questions for me specifically post it rather than email, because CC only lets me send 2 messages/day.
48 Replies (last)
1200 calories is bull--some people have RMRs that are LOWER! Every body is different..
Hi everyone-
Thank you lizshuler for all of the information you provided in your post. I was wondering if you or anyone else could help try to figure out my information to help me. I tried reading everything and figuring it out myself, but I was beginning to become confused by all the numbers and calculations and because I am new to CC. I would really appreciate your help.
I am 5' 2'' and my current weight is 123 lbs. My goal weight is 115 lbs. CC gave me an allowance of 1200 calories to get to my goal weight and this is of course below my BMR.
My current BMR is 1392.15
My goal weight BMR is 1357.35
I would classify myself as sedentary as well.
How many calories should I be eating so that I can safely lose 8 lbs?
Again, I would sincerely appreciate any help. Thank you!
Thank you lizshuler for all of the information you provided in your post. I was wondering if you or anyone else could help try to figure out my information to help me. I tried reading everything and figuring it out myself, but I was beginning to become confused by all the numbers and calculations and because I am new to CC. I would really appreciate your help.
I am 5' 2'' and my current weight is 123 lbs. My goal weight is 115 lbs. CC gave me an allowance of 1200 calories to get to my goal weight and this is of course below my BMR.
My current BMR is 1392.15
My goal weight BMR is 1357.35
I would classify myself as sedentary as well.
How many calories should I be eating so that I can safely lose 8 lbs?
Again, I would sincerely appreciate any help. Thank you!
ok ..maybe you can help me here...I am 45 female weigh 138 lbs trying to use cc calculations 1500 or less aday. Been doing this for 2 months going to the gym 4 times a week elliptcal 30 mins circuit weights 30 mins and sometimes 20 mins on treadmill after circuit. 2.5 miles on elliptical, 1.2 miles on treadmill..not just trudging along..elliptical on level 7. I cannot seem to lose ANy weight at all. I am so frustrated can you do any calculations to help me understand what i am doing wrong?
cindyr63: You didn't mention your height, so the numbers could be a little off. But you should be losing on 1500 calories. Are you sure you're counting everything you eat? You should be down 6-10 lbs in two months.
Your Estimated BMR (calculated at http://phord.com/cc):
BMR=1276 :: RMR=1531
Your customized recommendation:
EAT 1288 calories :: BURN 1978 calories :: LOSE 1.38 lb per week
Reasoning:
Deficits: Your deficit is the difference between how many calories you eat and how many calories you burn. Your recommended deficit is 690 calories. This is the least of your Activity Deficit (702 calories), your Safety Deficit (690 calories), and your Maximum Fat Calorie Expenditure (which cannot be calculated without knowing your body fat percentage).
Activity Deficit (702 calories): This is the number of calories you burn in your daily activities (such as being awake, driving to work, exercising, doing homework, etc.). This is an estimate based on the amount of exercise you indicated you do each week in the form above, averaged out for daily deficit numbers. For sedentary individuals this is 20% of your BMR.
Original Post by jakshops:
1200 calories is bull--some people have RMRs that are LOWER! Every body is different..
Totally.
Original Post by phord:
thanks for posting that link. it's really helpful. CC had my total calories for the day at about 2700 which i think is WAY more than i should be eating. the link you posted recommended about 1600 which is right about what i've been aiming for. so i'm glad to know i'm doing the right thing even though i haven't seen results yet.
I'm confused! I'm 28 yrs old, 5'3, and 140 lbs. My goal weight is 115. So, here's my math...
1428.5(BMR) x 1.2(activity factor sedentary) + 200(exercise) -500(desired deficit) = 1414.2 cals/day
But my goal weight BMR is 1319.75.
Am I not supposed to go under 1428.5 (my current BMR) or 1319.75 (my goal weight BMR)? Does this mean I can afford to eat 1319.75 cals/day? If I don't exercise at all one day does that mean I can only eat 1214.2 cals? But then that's below my goal weight BMR of 1319.75!!! What do I do?
Regardless if you exercise one day or not, you should not go below your BMR. I would stick to your current weight BMR and not worry about your goal weight until you get closer (it's only 100 cal difference anyway). I would suggest sticking around 1400. On workout days you will meet your desired deficit and on non workout days you will just have to accept a smaller deficit.
48 Replies (last)
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