metabolic test says I should eat more?

[robocat]

I just had an metabolic rate test and the result was about 600 calories higher than what fitbit estimated it at. The person giving me the test says that not eating enough can actually prevent you from losing weight.

I admit I don't have the most healthy eating habits, so I actually do skip a lot of meals either because I forget or because I don't want anything in my fridge and the grocery stores are closed or I don't want to cook or I'm not hungry because of medication side effects, etc., etc..... So I can believe I'm not eating nearly as much as I should be, but idk. Once my medication wears off, I tend to eat whatever will fill me up the fastest.

I'm only trying to lose a few pounds, and I guess I have, but I sort of plateaued despite definitely eating less. I'm also more concerned with building muscle and changing body composition to play sports better.

The test says my rmr is 2280. I went over the numbers with gym manager and she showed me how much I should eat if I'm exercising my usual amount and how much like protein I should be eating to maintain what I have and what not...and it's a lot. It looks like a lot of work to figure out a meal plan and to like pay for all that food and to actually cook it and spend time bothering with all that...I mean, if I want to eat healthy stuff.

How accurate are those metabolic rate tests? All you do is breathe into a mask...

I kind of want to verify the info before I start trying to eat as much as the person is telling me to. Eating that much more a day is like another large meal. Before I invest in all that planning for food and potentially gaining weight, I would kind of like to know people's thoughts on that metabolic testing and how much stock I should put into it.

Like what can affect the results? I only sleep about 4hrs a day...and I had skipped lunch before I took the test...drank some tea...

[Dominique]

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@robocat wrote:

How accurate are those metabolic rate tests? All you do is breathe into a mask...

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No idea, but at least it’s based on you breathing into the mask. As opposed to relying on an equation (Mifflin St. Jeor) that assumes an average person your gender, your age, your weight, your height.

I will say 2280 sounds very high for RMR. Using the above mentioned equation, this would be the BMR of a 25-yo male, 7’0" tall, weighing 235 lbs. Is that you?!

However, if your main concern is to "lose a few pounds", you don’t need to log your intake and base it on the results of a metabolic rate test: just step on a scale everyday, monitor the trend over time (for instance, using a weekly average, or a service like TrendWeight, see link in my signature) and make adjustments (to your eating and/or activity level) based on your goal.