BMR!!! Eating To your BMR... No Matter What!

[Ilpirata]

I'll go back to using Fitday for at least the days when the foods I eat are easy to track, and that should give me a better idea of where I'm falling, calorie-wise.

I think thats a great place to start! Do the best you can with it - you'll get at least a basic idea of what your macros are like.

Hang in there!

[lene]

Thanks! I really do appreciate advice, since I seem to run into stumblng blocks on my own. I'm relieved to be past the "I can't stand life without bread and potatoes" stage, but being in the "why the heck am I stalled out now" stage is equally frustrating, in its own way. And since I do see that eating too few calories will be a problem, but eating too many is also a problem, I feel befuddled at the prospect of having to figure out the proper range for my body.

One issue I have with BMR is that this is a generalization, whereas in practice, each individual's body will have different needs. I fear I may set the BMR I find online as my goal, while in reality my years of screwy eating have left me with a BMR that is actually lower than this. But, all I can do is give this level a try, and if I continue to stall, try increasing and decreasing... <sigh> Life is simply *never* easy, is it? LOL

[Ilpirata]

I fear I may set the BMR I find online as my goal, while in reality my years of screwy eating have left me with a BMR that is actually lower than this. But, all I can do is give this level a try, and if I continue to stall, try increasing and decreasing... <sigh> Life is simply *never* easy, is it? LOL

I hear ya. All I can say is pretty much ALL of us have done this to our metabolisms, myself included. And BMR is working for me.

[lene]

Cool! How did you decide to use the BMR as your goalpost for eating, btw?

[JerseyGirl1969]

Originally Posted by lene

One issue I have with BMR is that this is a generalization, whereas in practice, each individual's body will have different needs. I fear I may set the BMR I find online as my goal, while in reality my years of screwy eating have left me with a BMR that is actually lower than this. But, all I can do is give this level a try, and if I continue to stall, try increasing and decreasing... <sigh> Life is simply *never* easy, is it? LOL

Hi. Here's what I've been told. The calculators are right...or close to right (depending on your LBM (Lean Body Mass), but your "current" metabolism could be less. This will reset it. You have to be patient, even if it means gaining 4lbs (I did) or waiting weeks or months.

Personally, I'd rather correct my metabolism than have a lifetime of deprivation.

[JerseyGirl1969]

Originally Posted by Sybilizedliving

You're singin' my song, Laura.

Last night I nearly posted that I just didn't think this (eating my BMR) was going to work and what was I thinking and what I really needed to do was listen to all the low-cal people out there and not only chuck my low-carb way of eating but drop my calories significantly in order to get my weight loss moving.

It is really hard to believe that eating 1700-2200 calories is going to actually result in the scale starting to move. Then there's the entire mind game of it all.....like, if I don't believe I can lose weight eating my BMR, then I probably WON'T lose weight eating my BMR (or the opposite). Sometimes my mind is simply not a good place to go.

At 90 minutes of exercise per day, I KNOW that I can't drop my calories too low. But, why isn't the bloody scale moving?

Oh, and I have a new potential stress - my doctor wants me to do a glucose challenge because I've had two slightly elevated blood glucose readings. It will really pi$$ me off if I have diabetes. I just feel like I've failed myself....like I've abused my body for so long and now I'm paying dearly.

However, today is a new day. After my appointments today, I'll stop at the store and get some protein. I use the kipper snacks/tuna a lot to fill in my protein requirements but I'm getting a bit sick of them. Maybe I'll get some ground chicken and make up some little patties to have in the frig to supplement. Time to get creative and NOT GIVE UP!

Thanks for being here everyone.

No, you're singing my song. Once or twice a month I get frustrated and then think the same thing, maybe I'm wrong and just need to eat less and less and less (remember, I did 800-1200 calories for 6 months and didn't lose). But then I have cyberfriends like here that point me back in the right direction.

And I too had the same fears re: diabetes (I have/had insulin resistance, but just below diabetes. See my February posts on my blog. Scary thing.).

[lene]

Well, gaining a few pounds would be a downer, but not so much so that I would give up on the idea of correcting my metabolism in order to avoid seeing the jump on the scale. I'm certainly prepared to gain a bit if it means I'm taking a step toward better health.

Besides, I see the scale go up and down all the time, so I'm fairly used to it. I find that when I eat salty foods, which is perhaps more often than I ought, I can gain at least 2 pounds overnight. Eh, I can handle it...

[Ilpirata]

Cool! How did you decide to use the BMR as your goalpost for eating, btw?

Well first I noticed that I had been stalled for over a month. just bouncing up and down the same pounds. At first I suspected hidden carbs or something so I decided to track everything religiously in fitday. Needless to say it took a couple of weeks for me to actually start doing so. Once I did that for a month I had a good idea of what I had been eating calorie wise and also my fat/protein/carb ration (average 1600 cals less than 20 g carbs per day). I posted for help in the main lobby here:

Okay I need Help. 2 Month Stall

At this point I was somewhere around three months of stall or close to it. Based on the responses I read there it was pointed out that i may be eating too little. Obviously that level of calories wasn't working and I finally gave in to the suggestions and decided to try eating MORE rather than eating LESS to lose. After all, if I kept going down from 1600 calories at my size now I'd be eating practically NOTHING at goal. It took awhile to get my head around but I finally joined this challenge two weeks ago and so far the stall is broken - 2 lbs lost the first week and 2 lbs the second.

So basically I decided based on my own collected data and the great advice I received here on LCF. If I were on my own who KNOWS what I woulda tried next!

[Ilpirata]

Well, gaining a few pounds would be a downer, but not so much so that I would give up on the idea of correcting my metabolism in order to avoid seeing the jump on the scale. I'm certainly prepared to gain a bit if it means I'm taking a step toward better health.

I didn't gain anything... and you might not either.
I really suggest giving this a shot - what do you have to lose?

[lene]

Heh, my fat ass?

[lene]

Thanks for telling me your story. I feel better and better about getting back into doing fitday, to get a handle on my calories. I already know my carbs are plenty low, but I'm thinking I've fallen out of the zone on the calorie thing...

[Ilpirata]

Thanks for telling me your story. I feel better and better about getting back into doing fitday, to get a handle on my calories. I already know my carbs are plenty low, but I'm thinking I've fallen out of the zone on the calorie thing...

No problem! Glad you found us and please jump on in and give it a shot!
Welcome...

[Zer]

Guess I'm going to have to provide a link now, when I refer anyone to this BMR thread, since I see at least two other threads discussing BMR or guiding folks to a BMR calculator. It's all good, right? Right!

[Ilpirata]

Guess I'm going to have to provide a link now, when I refer anyone to this BMR thread, since I see at least two other threads discussing BMR or guiding folks to a BMR calculator. It's all good, right? Right!

RIGHT!!!

There's at least a halfway decent explaination of the idea at the top of our thread... may help some and of course the more the merrier!

[lene]

Oooh, point me to the other threads. I want to see more BMR talk. <g>

[Ilpirata]

Oooh, point me to the other threads. I want to see more BMR talk.

I see two in the main lobby front page right now...

[Ilpirata]

Here's a few more:

Comitted to Eating to BMR

Need some advice or insight

Which is the way to go??

Repairing the metabolism..?

And finally i recommend this outside link explaining what happens when we drop below our BMR consistently:

Shape Up & Drop 10-Step 7

( just searched for BMR to find those - there are more if you look for them)

[lene]

Caught 'em... Thanks!

[lene]

Oooh, thanks for the additional ones! I only saw the first two you mentioned. Thanks!

[Kris T.]

Ok, dang it guys, now I have another thread to keep track of!!

So I punched in the numbers and got You have a BMR of 1273.45.

Ok, that's fine, granted, I have no idea what I eat now calorie-wise, so I think I'll try fitday (free, hopefully?) to see. The whole reason I'm here is because I bought a new scale that measures body fat %. Mine is apparently at 22% and I'm NOT happy about that. I used to actually be lower than that. Granted, I was teaching an exercise class 3x a week, but still. My carb-loving, beer-drinking DH measured at 22% too.

Anyway, I'll keep track of this thread now and my calorie intake, just for kicks. I have no idea if I need to up my calories or lower them. I don't eat a whole lot period, so I'm thinking maybe it's not enough as it is.

Kris

[Ilpirata]

Oooh, thanks for the additional ones! I only saw the first two you mentioned. Thanks!

Be sure to click that bottom one for the outside LCF link. I had actually not read it before and its super!

[Ilpirata]

Ok, dang it guys, now I have another thread to keep track of!!

So I punched in the numbers and got You have a BMR of 1273.45.

Ok, that's fine, granted, I have no idea what I eat now calorie-wise, so I think I'll try fitday (free, hopefully?) to see. The whole reason I'm here is because I bought a new scale that measures body fat %. Mine is apparently at 22% and I'm NOT happy about that. I used to actually be lower than that. Granted, I was teaching an exercise class 3x a week, but still. My carb-loving, beer-drinking DH measured at 22% too.

Anyway, I'll keep track of this thread now and my calorie intake, just for kicks. I have no idea if I need to up my calories or lower them. I don't eat a whole lot period, so I'm thinking maybe it's not enough as it is.

Kris

Hi Kris...
You got the first part of the calculation right but we also need to figure your HB equation. I'm going to assume you're at least moderately active based on that super barbie avatar of yours. So we take your BMR and multiply by 1.55 for moderately active. That gives us 1973. Then we subtract 300 to 500 cals daily for weight loss.. are you still trying to lose weight? Or are you at goal? If you are at goal you should always be eating 1973 cals per day to maintain. If you are looking to lose then you should aim for between 1473 and 1673 cals per day, but NEVER BELOW 1273.

[Ilpirata]

Just checking in with my totals for the day:

Total: cals-2103
Fat: grams-170 1528 percent-73%
Sat: 61 547 26%
Poly: 43 390 19%
Mono: 41 373 18%
Carbs: grams-30 77 percent-4%
Fiber: 10 0 0%
Protein: grams-119 476 percent-23%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

Happy with totals and ratio - look at all those veggie carbs! Thats ALOT for me.

[Zer]

11pm...sardines....and tallying intake at FitDay.

Calories Eaten Today
.......grams . cals ........%total
Total: 2571cals
Fat: 187 1683 .................67%
Sat: 77 692 28%
Poly: 2 20 1%
Mono: 13 118 5%
Carbs: 104 279 ...................11%
Fiber: 34 0 0%
Protein: 135 539 ............22%
- - - - -
Today's Foods
Food Name (Serving Size) . Cals . Fat . Carb . Prot
ALG's vanilla WPP (30g/scoop x2) 238 3 13 40
Cacao, raw (1Tbs) 60 1 9 3
Espresso (1 Tbs crystals) 24 0 4 0
Oil, coconut (4Tbs) 480 56 0 0
Olive oil (1Tbs) 119 14 0 0
TJ Sardines in olive oil 220 12 0 26
4 Bran-a-Crisp (wheat bran, rye flour) 80 0 24 4
Cranberries, raw (1oz) 13 0 3 0
Goji berries (1Tbs) 56 1 14 2
P'kin seeds, spicy (4oz) 560 44 20 24
P'kin Seed, organic (4oz) 720 56 16 36
Totals 2571 187 104 ....135gProtein
-----
Target BMR:2423cals / 182gProtein / 128ozWater

What a struggle to fulfill my commitment to eat up to BMR. Almost ditched it all. Why is this so difficult? Just think I can skip eating? Why??? Dunno.

[Sybilizedliving]

Today's numbers:

Total: 1848
Fat: 121 1092 61%
Sat: 48 431 24%
Poly: 12 104 6%
Mono: 29 262 15%
Carbs: 35 86 5%
Fiber: 13 0 0%
Protein: 153 611 34%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

Dang......I forgot to buy eggs today. I've had eggs and meat each day for brekkie and I find that it's 2 in the afternoon most days before I'm hungry again. It's good for the satiety but bad for trying to eat higher in my range!

Am looking forward to weighing on Monday to see if this experiment is working or not! Just read an article/blog by Dr. Eades re: calories counting. The thing that he doesn't address is the 'how many'. It would be good to find out his thoughts on our little experiment...maybe I should post something on his blog re BMR and see if he responds?

[hummingbird11]

HB's Favorite Breakfast ~ Egg Cream Frappuccino

3 organic free-range/cage-free eggs (fresh!)
8 oz coffee (brewed strong & chilled overnight - or you can make & use coffee ice cubes!)
1 scoop Jay Robb's whey protein powder (chocolate or vanilla or strawberry)
1/2 cup Aloe Vera Juice
1 Tbsp Torani SF syrup or DaVinci SF syrup (french vanilla or chocolate or any flavor you like!)
1 Tbsp Organic India Psyllium Husk Powder
1 Tbsp Local Bee Pollen (for allergy relief)
2 Tbsp organic heavy cream
2 Tbsp organic extra virgin coconut oil (melted)

blend/froth eggs first; add cream and blend/froth again
(makes it fluffy!)
add the rest of the ingredients in the order above; add melted CO last

Enjoy!

[dointhis4me]

Hey there! Just checking in since I've been MIA for days! I haven't tracked at all so I'm not sure where my calories have been....I'm sure they've been all over the place (lots of eating out) So today it's back to eating at home and back to Fitday

[lisabinil]

Originally Posted by Zer

11pm...sardines....and tallying intake at FitDay. What a struggle to fulfill my commitment to eat up to BMR. Almost ditched it all. Why is this so difficult? Just think I can skip eating? Why??? Dunno.

Zer don't give up-you are doing so great! Might I just point something out-please don't take it the wrong way please. If I was eating what you are eating-I would be depressed and cranky too. Where are your whole foods and veggies-a regular meal? Maybe that would spark your appetite a little more-8 oz of pumpkin seeds in one day is overkill. Add some variety to your diet-your body will thank you. What a about a steak with a flavored butter or blue cheese accompanied by a veggie such as broccoli or asparagus with hollandaise? How about some baked or grilled chicken thighs seasoned up with the spicy Mrs. Dash you like with a salad alongside? Try a bacon cheeseburger on Oopsies with sliced avocado. Load up an omlette with ham, cheese & your favorite veggie-my family often has these for dinner. Enjoy your foods don't force them. Keep up your good work and I know you will see 399 soon!

Great job to everyone on this challenge and thanks for letting me peek in. My friend lildragonfly have been experimenting with eating to your BMR since March. Keep up the good work everyone!

[lene]

Hi, all...

Well, I signed into fitday this morning, after a long while, and was sad to have to add 4 pounds to my weight from the last time I was there. But, I knew I'd had this small gain, and have stalled, which is why I'm giving the BMR a serious try.

Had one of the coconut flour cheddar rolls I made yesterday for breakfast, with 4 thick slices of bologna I get from a local farmer, fried. Also had a mug of hot tea sweetened with a spoon of erythritol, a few drops saccharine, and a few drops Fiberfit. (I find the combined sweeteners works best for my tea.) And since I know that I'll be having a light, late lunch this afternoon of a muf of coffee with an ounce of cream, and half an apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter, I added those, as well. So far, my totals come to 1009 calories, 26 carbs (not deducting fiber), and 38 protein, of which only 20 grams are from actual meat. So, I have to get in about 595 more calories, and around 55 more grams of animal protein today... Not sure what supper will be except for knowing I want to make some lemon-ginger coleslaw.

[Zer]

402.6# as I chug 43gProtein in a WPP Hot Slosh at 7am, with serious intent to eat several times today to target BMR:2423cals.

Calories Eaten Today (7am)
...........grams . cals ............%total
Total: 799cals
Fat: 61 546 ....................69%
Sat: 51 455 57%
Poly: 1 9 1%
Mono: 3 29 4%
Carbs: 26 77 ....................10%
Fiber: 7 0 0%
Protein: 43 170 ............21%
- - - - -
Today's Foods...bkfst at 7am
Food Name (Serving Size) . Cals. Fat . Carb . Prot
ALG's vanilla WPP (30g/scoop x 2) 238 3 13 40
Oil, coconut (4Tbs) 480 56 0 0
Cacao, raw (1Tbs) 60 1 9 3
Espresso (1 Tbs crystals) 21 0 4 0
Totals 799 61 26 ......43gProtein
-----
Target: BMR:2423cals / Protein:182g / Water:128oz

Looks to me as if eating up to my BMR:2423cals is working - at least for today. Scales show a drop in weight. I'll take it!!! Two days left in May to work on capturing 399# - by eating mostly protein-fat combos. Exciting!!!