Quote:
Originally Posted by texasma
Faiora, I hear what you're saying but the reasoning behind the 1200 calories is because im not very active. I have a desk job and haven't included exercise in my daily routine yet. According to one website, my BMR is around 1400. Im trying to make sure I have a 500 calorie deficit every day. Does that make sense??
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Your BMR is the amount of calories your body needs at rest—so basically, if you lay in bed all day and don't move or even twitch. If you are truly sedentary, you need to multiply that by 1.2 to get your TEE (Total Energy Expenditure) which reflects how many calories you would need to eat in a day to stay the same weight. If your BMR is really 1400 that means 1680 calories, and subtracting 500 (one pound per week loss) brings you down to 1180, which rounds to 1200, so the calculation itself is good.
However, those websites aren't reliable because all our bodies are different (not to mention they all use different calculations and give different results). They function on an estimation of lean mass based on your height, weight, and age—but we all have different amounts of lean mass based on genetics, the types of activities we do, and other factors.
One way to get an accurate measurement of BMR is to find out your body fat percent (and thus, the amount of lean mass you have). Problem is, most of the methods of finding out are no good for an exact calculation—the results are only useful over time, to mark a change. The only accurate methods are underwater weighing and DXA scans, both of which are expensive (I get DXA scans done, and my calculated BMR is 1860. I am lightly active—I commute to work on foot, nothing else—so I multiply by 1.375, and ultimately I'm losing weight slowly by eating an average of 2100 calories per day).
So if you're ruling out expensive options, which would be smarter than my control freak need to know everything, that leaves you with experimentation.
But experimentation is safer in this case if you try to eat more first, and see if it works. You need to feed your essential functions first.
And anyway—like I said—it's so much easier to eat that little bit more calories that it's worth seeing if eating more still works for you.
I'd say at LEAST try eating what you think your BMR is. Then you can feel confident your body is getting everything it needs, and if your BMR is accurate you will definitely lose weight over time, because you do not literally lay in bed all day long every day.
(and even if you did, you wouldn't gain)