Question about BMR...

So, yesterday I was browsing the forums when I came across a thread that talked about your BMR. Someone wanted to know how to calculate it, so I went to one of the sites that was provided by one of the CC members and I have found that my BMR is 1394 kcals.

I guess my question is, should I always be eating at least around 1400 kcals a day? There are days that I have eaten 1200-1300 kcals and I am scared that I may have been in starvation mode those days, which could be slowing down my weight loss. My stats are: 20 years old, 5'4", around 123 lbs., trying to get down to somewhere around 115 lbs. Just curious... I don't want to be doing any damage to my body or doing more harm than good.

Another question: I have put my activity level as sedentary so that I can add my exercise on top of my average daily burn. Does this mean that I need to eat 1400 kcals on days when I'm sedentary and more when I am exercising? My burn meter with no exercise says 1650 kcals.

I definitely won't complain if I need to eat more because that's always possible for me!

If you're averaging half an hour a day of activity, set your activity level to 'light' and take it from there.   If it's an hour or more then go with 'moderate'.  If you work with a reasonably steady average rather than lots to eat one day and not much the next I think that works better and allows you to get into a good eating habit overall.   Regular exercise ups your metabolic rate for much longer than just for the time when you're exercising.... another good reason for keeping with a steady intake rather than wildly changing it from one day to the next.

Yes, you shouldn't go below 1400 cals.  But if you have done on a few occasions don't worry, it's not the end of the world to have the odd day.  If you were doing it all the time, you'd have a problem. 

Have fun.

I agree with gi-jane.  You shouldn't eat under your BMR, but going under a day or two isn't enough to put you in starvation mode.  It's not something your body instantly drops into as soon as you don't hit that magic number.  Starvation mode happens when you continuously eat far less then your body needs and it finally realizes that, and starts conserving instead of burning.  It takes a little while for that to happen.

Plus, your body doesn't work on a 24hr clock, so the average calories over a few days or even a week is more accurate then just your daily intake.