Tea, I'm with Jay - your calculations are correct. And the BMR calories are to maintain, so to lose you would have to subtract 500-1000 depending on your goal, yes.
I never included exercise in my calorie calculation, still don't as I'm maintaining. I put in lightly active and get my calorie level from that. I've seen that I have to eat pretty close to that limit, even if I'm exercising a lot, or I gain weight...
I also heard on jillian's show that they did put the contestants on 800 cals/day as a jump start of sorts. Also that this is recommended for the super obese.
I really like her, but you need to do your own research on the things she says, since she herself is not a doctor or scientist, but merely a regurgitator and tester of information and theories (like any one of us)
Take her info with a grain of salt.
I think the only way calorie counters find their right number is through experimentation. Maybe you could start looking at the kinds of calories you're taking in and do some experimentaion there. I have no idea what your plan is, but if the math is making you crazy, try tweaking other areas.
To answer Lori Bell & Seagirl's question on my height, I'm 5ft 8 inches. The reason I've never included it in my information is because in the past I'd get hit by criticism from other people (on and off 3fatchicks's forum) for citing a low (but still acceptable) weight as my target goal.
That weight was decided for medical reasons, not for obvious egotistical reasons. And you do get tired of trying to explain yourself each time you do reveal your height in answering a person's question regarding your personal weight loss journey.
JayEll is also correct. I posted the question just because the BMR thing is a new concept for me to understand, and some of the literature like in Jillian Michael's book I talked about in the original post, wasn't exactly clear on the fine print on losing weight via BMR, AMR, upping calories even more with your exercise routine, etc etc.
That's all!
~ tea
Last edited by teawithsunshine; 07-12-2009 at 06:54 PM.
I'm your height, and my BMR is around 1850. My calorie intake is around 1600 a day, and I burn around 200-300 a day on week days, and around 2000 every other weekend on a hike. I guess that's about a 500 calorie deficit, which is what you were calculating.
I don't think that it's just about that though, because if your BMR is 1800 and you deduct 1000 calories a day, you aren't going to lose 2 pounds a week by eating 800 calories. I think it has to be combo of fewer cals than you bmr (adjusted for your normal activity) and a deficit from exercise.
Sparkpeople gives me reports about "calorie differential" showing my intake versus my bmr+calories burned. But, they have this disclaimer with it:
Quote:
We provide this report because members like you requested it, but SparkPeople does not recommend focusing on your daily calorie differential. Please use this report with care. Weight loss happens by creating a caloric deficit over time—not in a single day. We don’t necessarily encourage people to eat more on the days they work out or eat less on days they don't exercise. We encourage you to look at your calorie goals (what you eat and what you burn) on a weekly—not daily—basis to notice overall trends.
LOL, yeah I know about the quirks of calorie maintenance via BMR. My current resting BMR has me about 1,558-67 calories (depending on which BMR calculator I use). Exercise "supposedly" kicks it up a lot higher to over 2,000 calories... anywhere from 2,400 calories to 2,700 calories (if I'm to believe the calculators are correct).
It's been difficult to try to determine how many calories to lose weight since I joined the gym & started lifting/gaining muscle mass. I've tried the traditional 1,200 calories, 1,500 calories, etc etc without much success as of late. I'm now trying about 1,800-1,900 calories to see if that helps. The caloric experimentation has been frustrating at times, but it goes on....
~ tea
Last edited by teawithsunshine; 07-12-2009 at 07:26 PM.
It's been difficult to try to determine how many calories to lose weight since I joined the gym & started lifting/gaining muscle mass. I've tried the traditional 1,200 calories, 1,500 calories, etc etc without much success as of late. I'm now trying about 1,800-1,900 calories to see if that helps. The caloric experimentation has been frustrating at times, but it goes on....
Experimentation is all you've really got. We have nothing else. Trying to decipher all those numbers won't necessarily provide you specifically with a "correct" number. As is often said around here, we are all experiments of one. YOUR body will do what YOUR body will do.
Quote:
And you do get tired of trying to explain yourself each time you do reveal your height in answering a person's question regarding your personal weight loss journey
Tea, people are just looking to help you, you know that, right? Not to be nosy or judgmental. You're taking your personal weight loss journey (as we all are) and making it more "public", just by being here posting and starting threads. You've asked many questions as of late specifically about the "correct" calorie count and the such. Since we don't know you personally and we're not doctors or professionals of any sort, having a simple thing like a persons height DOES shed a tad more light on the "situation".
I just got tired of posting my height and having to explain when people would notice that and my target weight loss goal. I can see now in questions such as this, it'd help to reveal my height.
You say part of your goal weight is medically driven. If your weight loss has dramatically slowed it may be time to check in with your caregiver to reassess where you are at, is the goal initially set still the best for you and to see if they have any other suggestions for continued weight loss.
And you do get tired of trying to explain yourself each time you do reveal your height in answering a person's question regarding your personal weight loss journey. 
