BMR Calculation

[CharleneB]

Hi,

Can someone give me an estimate of my BMR . I am 32 year old female, 95kg, 175cm.

I go to Curves 5 days a week , and am at the start of couch to 5k. I get to between 13500 and 16000 steps per day but I do have an office job where I sit at a desk all day. I've been losing weight pretty easily to now, down 18.9kg (42lbs) since January and I'm just trying to make sure that all my efforts are not wasted in the future.

Also I'm pretty sure I am under my BMR daily. will this have an effect on my weight loss?

I have upped my calories recently healthily (at least I think it is with nuts, nut butters and rice cakes)

Thanks!

[lavabelle]

According to this website Metric BMR Calculator your BMR is approximately 1731.6

[lavabelle · Accepted solution]

If you want to get the total amount of calories you burn with exercise you can use Harris Benedict Equation to get your total expenditure as an approximation.

[lavabelle]

Just remember though as you lose weight your BMR goes down, so you have to eat less or exercise more when you weight less to maintain or lose. 

[Dominique]

There are several standard equations for determining BMR. You already got Harris Benedict from @lavabelle. You could also use Mifflin St. Jeor via this other calculator. It comes pretty close at 1723 calories. Mifflin St. Jeor is also the underlying equation used by Fitbit (AFAIK).

One important thing to realize is these equations don’t take into account the impact of any recent diet history on metabolism (metabolic adaptation). In your case, you’ve lost 16.5% of your body weight during the past seven month. This means a reduction in metabolism has very likely taken place as you dieted down to your current weight. That reduction could be something like 10-12%.

The other thing is that even for people who have been maintaining their weight at the same level for a longer period of time, there are individual differences distributed along a bell curve: you could be in the middle of the curve, but could also be an outlier on either side.

[CharleneB]

Thanks all for the calcs. I just wasn't sure where I fit in "activity" wise with the calculators. Sedentry job just starting running with Curves Strength training. I found some of the reading behind Harris Bennedict very interesting thanks @lavabelle

@Dominiquedoes the same hold through if the weight loss was due to increased exercise v's dieting per se.

I'm not near 1700 calories on a daily basis, generally between 1200 & 1500, should i pushing myself to eat those extra calories? My general calcorie spend at the minute is around the 2700 mark on average.

[Dominique]

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@CharleneB wrote:

@Dominiquedoes the same hold through if the weight loss was due to increased exercise v's dieting per se.

I'm not near 1700 calories on a daily basis, generally between 1200 & 1500, should i pushing myself to eat those extra calories? My general calcorie spend at the minute is around the 2700 mark on average. 

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I’m not sure what you mean by "calorie spent at the minute". 2700 would sound like your energy expenditure (calories burned) for the whole day.

You can indeed have the same deficit (e.g. 1000 calories) either by dieting alone, or by dieting & exercising. For instance, let’s say you’re mostly sedentary, your TDEE is 2000 and you’re eating 1000 (example 1). And let’s say you’re more active, your TDEE is 2500 and you’re eating 1500 (example 2). In both cases, you’ll have the same deficit (1000), but it’s likely you will be in a better position (metabolically speaking) in example 2. Plus, you’d have the benefit of improved fitness and health from the extra activity.

As to which activity level would apply to you, I’d use your average step count as a rough proxy: less than 4000 = sedentary, up to 8000 = light activity, up to 12,000 = moderate activity, up to 16,000 = high activity, higher than 20,000 = extreme activity.