Urgent/confused/need help!

K

Kiwi6

New member
Hey all,

I have joined this forum not too long ago and have already done 3 days of lifestyle changes. I have some confusions concerning the BMR and my calorie maintenance.

Here is my information:
Gender: Female
Age: 21
Height: 5'3
Weight: 175.4 lb

Exercise: currently, not much... only started walking/jogging on my tread for 20-30 mins. Apart from that i'm usually sitting on my butt studying and/or in class (which is only 2 days and i live pretty close to school so not much walking involved there) (so i put sedentary).

I have calculated that my BMR is 1615 and i checked several sites that said my calorie maintenance should be 1400. But, i also checked the link posted on this forum to calculate and it told me to loose 1-1.5 pounds a week... i would need 1113-1343 (numbers might be abit off as i dont remember the exact numbers but it was close to these). I have been doing a 1200- calorie intake. Would that be harmful to my body? Would i be putting my body under starvation mode?

Also, is it possible to have your bmr lower than your calorie maintenance level if you are trying to loose weight?

I'm worried because someone told me it could be dangerous to your health if you go below.
Thanks a bunch!
 
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If you read the boards regularly most who are more experienced tend to say under 1200 is really putting your overall body at risk. So if you are trying to lose 2~ per week your body needs around 1480 calories a day.

The general rule of thumb is if you want to lose weight cut 500 of your calories out a day. Now I don't think going under 1500 is really a good idea. If you have a treadmill you should try to use it more.

I would estimate I eat between 1500-1900 worth of calories a day, granted it is different for everyone but I've started doing 1 hour of cardio which is about 3 miles for an hour currently and I continually up the incline to get a harder workout (only thing I make sure in that hour is my heart rate doesn't get to high, if it gets higher then 150 I drop it for a bit till I feel a bit more relaxed then I go higher again etc.)

I think if you continue eating healthy, write your food intake down every day so you know what you are eating you will see results. I think if you can do 20-30 minutes you can prob push yourself to do an hour a day. Give yourself a day or two off throughout the week. I pick my busiest days as my days off so I don't over exert myself.
 
I would agree with you that 1200 should be the lower limit. It kind of depends on your body, too. If you eat that few calories, do you feel starving by the end of the day, or are you okay? I would fill up the void with exercise.

From my calculations, I show that you in a typical day will burn around 1840 calories (sedentary) . Remember that BMR is your "resting" metabolism, so that's if you were to literally stay in bed all day staring at the ceiling or sleeping. So, a 500 calorie deficit (1 lb a week) would be 1340 calories, without even calculating in exercise. For someone your height, that seems about right... Welcome to a healthy lifestyle!

Check out this calculator, it's my favorite for perspective:
 
Hi ebrown,

Well, before i started i was having trouble eating LESS calories, i always found i was hungry most of the time but i started looking at healthier options like tuna fish, beans, cottage cheese etc.. and now i am having a hard time FILLING up the empty calories hehe... although i still aim for the very min 1200 calories. I don't get hungry often...only time is when im up late at night but now its getting alot better :)
 
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