Someone draw me a picture, please

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bffjill

New member
I'm pretty confused about what BMI means in relation to weight loss. Say that my BMI is 1200 cals/day. If I want to lose 1 lb of fat in one week, I have to burn 3500 calories. This is the part where I'm not sure if I get what's going on:

If I need 1200 calories just to survive, and I burn 250 calories exercising, and I take 250 calories away from my daily intake, will I die? I heard that there needs to be a "deficiency" in calories. I assume this means you have to burn more/eat less than what you need. So if I want to lose weight, do I start with 1200 and go from there, or do I eat what I eat now and cut out x amount of calories through diet and exercise?

Someone's got to know the answer to this.
 
BMI is body mass index

that's not what you're talking about

BMR is your basal metabolic rate -or the calories your body needs to jsut survive - not counting any exercise -

What is your current height/weight/age -and what are you looking to do?
 
uh..no, you wouldn't die. but 1200 is like, the bare minimum. you don't want to subtract from that or you would get sick.
 
Yeah, bmr. That's what I was talking about, I just can't spell. According to the internets, I need 1200 calories to live. I want to lose about 7 pounds. I'm not really fat-looking (yet), but my body fat percentage is 23%, yow! I'm 5 feet tall, 27 and weigh 115ish. I was just wondering if I eat 1200 calories and then subtract from there. Do I want 1200 minus 500 everyday to lose 1 pound in 1 week? That seems excruciating! 1200 calories is like 2 apples and a stick of gum! ;)
 
Hi there Jill, welcome aboard!

I think I understand what you are asking - however, I am inexperienced and far from an expert. However, HERE is a thread that contains numerous articles about how calorie deficit works, probably most importantly - how to figure out how many calories YOU need to lose weight at a healthy, modest level, how to incorporate exercise into your lifestyle to boost weight loss, and many other articles about lifestyle changes. However, seeing as you only want to lose 9 pounds, it shouldn't be too too difficult for you; don't be overwhelmed.

But if you are at 115, I would definitely say exercise would be more important to you at this stage to lower your body fat. There are plenty of cardio and strength training articles in that thread I gave you, and they were all eye openers for me.

Best of luck!
 
bffjill said:
Yeah, bmr. That's what I was talking about, I just can't spell. According to the internets, I need 1200 calories to live. I want to lose about 7 pounds. I'm not really fat-looking (yet), but my body fat percentage is 23%, yow! I'm 5 feet tall, 27 and weigh 115ish. I was just wondering if I eat 1200 calories and then subtract from there. Do I want 1200 minus 500 everyday to lose 1 pound in 1 week? That seems excruciating! 1200 calories is like 2 apples and a stick of gum! ;)
Click to expand...
How do you know you're body fat percentage? Home scales are not accurate measures of that -and are going to be off by A LOT!!

Try using that calculator for bmr


And again (read arounde the forum you will have a lot of info you need) that is your resting calorie rate - if you do any kind of exercise that number goes up...

1200 is not your starting calorie set- unless you never get your butt out of bed and if that's the case you are not welcome here becuase you don't want to help yourself :)

your starting calorie set is closet to 1300 -

then


Harris Benedict FormulaTo determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:
  1. If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
  2. If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
  3. If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
  4. If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
  5. If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9
 
Your BMR is the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight if you laid in bed the entire day. So not only do you add the calories burned through exercise, but you also add several 100 calories for normal daily life activities like cleaning, walking around, etc. You then add up all that (mine adds up to around 1900-2000 without exercise) and THEN you deduct to get your calorie deficit. So I should be deducting around 500 calories by either exercising more or eating 500 calories less.

How many calories per day are you having now?
 
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