Hi guys im new here i hope i dont make any trouble by opening this theader here, so i really need some advice
i just dont get it about the Basal metabolism..

I have calculated my basic sales and it says that i can eat 1480 calories a day without working out, just going to the toilet and the typical everydday stuff without gaining weight?
somewhere else it says that you must eat 500 calories less then your Basal metabolism too LOOSE WEIGHT.....
somewhere else i readed that you should eat at least 1200 calories to keep it the healthy way
and now im really confused cause 1480 minus 500 would be around 900 calories and thats under 1200, what should i do? how much calories can i eat and still loose weight in a healthy way without gaining it back i hope someone understands what i mean and can give me a answer im so confused

1480 calories keeping the weight
1000 calories loosing weight
do i undertand it right?

Your BMR (basal or resting metabolic rate) is the number of daily calories you would need if you were lying motionless all day. The word "rate" is actually a misnomer, because BMR as understood today is an absolute number, not a rate.

Your TEE (total energy expenditure) is the number of daily calories you need to maintain your current weight. It's higher than BMR, because people are up and about during the day, not lying motionless. Typically, TEE is equal to BMR multiplied by a coefficient of 1.2 to 1.6, depending on your level of activity. If your BMR is 1,300 calories and you're moderately active, your TEE is probably about 1,300 x 1.4 = 1,820 calories.

In order to lose one pound per week, you need to eat 500 cals/day less than your TEE (not your BMR). In the above case that would be 1,320 calories. To lose two pounds per week, you need to eat 1,000 cals/day less than your TEE.

Of course the figures don't work out so neatly, because your metabolic rate goes down a little when you restrict calories, but that's the ballpark.

F.

^Thank you for that explanation, very well-written!

yes thank you very muchh

Freelancemomma, thanks for your explanation but I have some additional questions for when I do my calculations. My BMR is 2,653. So what should my calorie intake be? Because based on your calculations I should be getting in 2100 or even taking it down to 1700. However, on a day to day basis my intake fluctuates between 1500-1900 and yet, I'm not seeing any kind of loss on my scale in the past 7 weeks. Any additional thoughts or suggestions?

I use my fitness pal to track calories. I live in China so my food selection is not similar to that in the states. In the past 7 weeks I have only eaten two meals that I did not prepare myself but they were still very healthy. I get plenty of water everyday and my calories only come from food (not drinks) so I am eating vegetables, fruits, chicken breasts, salmon, lean beef on occasion, I also switched all my grains to whole grains but usually only use whole wheat pasta and a specific kind of cereal as well as weight loss control oatmeal and mission wheat tortillas. Portion control isn't a problem for me as my calorie intake can attribute to.

So any suggestions? From anyone are welcome!

Bump. Any suggestions?

....Are you sure that's right? That sounds really high for a BMR....Mine is only 1,472.

Then again, I just noticed that you're ten inches taller than me, ahaha. and depending on what you weigh, yeah, I guess 2,653 would be realistic. Carry on. *L*

I'm also 5'10, and that BMR sounds inaccurate to me.

At 5'10 and 296 lbs, my BMR calculated by DXA scan (a highly accurate test), is 1810. Using a factor of 1.2 (which is for a sedentary lifestyle), my daily caloric need would be 2172 to maintain my current weight without exercise.

Now, keep in mind I have a high amount of lean mass (138.7 lbs - top 1/3 of the female population for our height) and a very high amount of bone mineral mass (8.3 lbs - 99.999th percentile). So I'm apparently up there with female weightlifters. It's entirely possible you are too, because when we get obese we can gain lean mass and bone density just from carrying so much weight around all the time... but I'm also naturally big-boned and naturally high in lean mass (always was). So it's statistically unlikely that you have a much higher BMR than I do. Not impossible, just unlikely. You may want to have a high-accuracy scan done to be sure.

Now, in terms of losing weight: As I said earlier, my daily caloric need would be 2172 to maintain my current weight without exercise. But because I am lightly active, I would actually maintain my current weight if I ate 2488 calories.

3500 calories is equal to about one pound of fat, which means that to lose one pound of fat per week, you must reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories per day (3500 calories per week). I have set my calorie goal at 2100 calories, and I expect to lose just under one pound per week. Since I am trying to lose slowly, I am making sure not to drop too far below my calories, and I allow myself to go over sometimes as well, so that my average is right around 2100. I also track exercise and make sure I eat extra calories to compensate for any extra walking etc. that I do.

So far I am losing weight exactly on target, except for the first week in which I lost 12 lbs, probably because I stopped eating so much salt and lost a bunch of extra water weight. This implies the test I had was accurate, and the calculations the DXA tech did for me are correct.

The BMR calculators online are useless, because they do not account for the way your body has changed in composition as you gained weight. To get an accurate BMR calculation, you have to find out your body composition; in other words, your body fat percent and how how many pounds of lean mass you are carrying. Or you could get an even more accurate BMR calculation from a fancy all-day breathing test like they do for research purposes... but I have no idea what they call that or how much it would cost. DXA is the gold standard for lean mass but the fat pinch tests at the gym are pretty good if someone experienced does them.