Eating below BMR is okay if...

laurenmay

Gold Member
You're obese or overweight.

I've done a lot of research and spoke to a family doctor and apparently eating below BMR is perfectly safe and won't slow the metabolism down so long as you have body fat to lose..

If you're a healthy weight and have a healthy BMI with low body fat, then it's not advised.


'It all depends on how much weight you're carrying around.. The more weight, the more extreme of a deficit that can be run. For example, lets say you weigh 200lbs and have a body fat percentage of 25%, that would mean you have 50lbs of excess fat on the body and only 150lbs would be lean body mass. You burn on estimate 33 calories for every pound of body fat you carry, so that person could safely create a deficit of 1500+ calories per day. Now lets say you weigh 150lbs with a body fat percentage of 15%, this would mean that this particular person could only create a deficit of 700 calories a day otherwise they'd start attacking lean body mass and damaging metabolism.'


So lets take me for example.. I'm 208lbs, and have a body fat percentage of 41% according to my scales. This means that my lean body mass is 128lbs and I'm carrying 80lbs of fat around. So I could create a deficit of 2640 calories per day before attacking my muscle & metabolism!

Obviously my TDEE is 2500 so it's impossible to create a deficit that large, and stupid too! But if I wanted a 1500 deficit or even wanted to be silly and starve myself and have a 2500 deficit then it'd be safe for my body because I'm carrying so much body fat.

Hope this helps some people.
 
my BMR is ~1700 but i'm well over 200lb and i have a hunch that my body fat is over 45%, probably nearer 50%. my calorie limit that i've set myself is 1500, but i try to hover around 1300. "try". not always "succeed". lol

i figured that i was safe to be under my BMR because of the excess pudge :)
 
Thanks for posting this. All that BMR stuff was confusing me and I was worrying my calorie intake was too low. But I'm still in the obese category so my daily limit of 1400 can just stick around for the time being!!
 
You're obese or overweight.

I've done a lot of research and spoke to a family doctor and apparently eating below BMR is perfectly safe and won't slow the metabolism down so long as you have body fat to lose..

If you're a healthy weight and have a healthy BMI with low body fat, then it's not advised.

'It all depends on how much weight you're carrying around.. The more weight, the more extreme of a deficit that can be run. For example, lets say you weigh 200lbs and have a body fat percentage of 25%, that would mean you have 50lbs of excess fat on the body and only 150lbs would be lean body mass. You burn on estimate 33 calories for every pound of body fat you carry, so that person could safely create a deficit of 1500+ calories per day. Now lets say you weigh 150lbs with a body fat percentage of 15%, this would mean that this particular person could only create a deficit of 700 calories a day otherwise they'd start attacking lean body mass and damaging metabolism.'

So lets take me for example.. I'm 208lbs, and have a body fat percentage of 41% according to my scales. This means that my lean body mass is 128lbs and I'm carrying 80lbs of fat around. So I could create a deficit of 2640 calories per day before attacking my muscle & metabolism!

Obviously my TDEE is 2500 so it's impossible to create a deficit that large, and stupid too! But if I wanted a 1500 deficit or even wanted to be silly and starve myself and have a 2500 deficit then it'd be safe for my body because I'm carrying so much body fat.

Hope this helps some people.

Hi Lauren :)
I'm 141lbs and 30.9% BF... I'm eating 1500...I'd better go away and do the maths lol

Sent from my iPad using MiniMins
 
I've started to up my cals from 1200 to my BMR (1455cals) cause I don't want to lose muscle! I read that eating below your BMR for long periods of time causes muscle loss (hence why you see celebs with skinny arms but major bingo wings and no tone at all!) if your afraid to eat your BMR cause you won't lose as fast then do what I do...I eat 1455cals but burn off 255cals daily so I net at 1200cals
X
 
I've started to up my cals from 1200 to my BMR (1455cals) cause I don't want to lose muscle! I read that eating below your BMR for long periods of time causes muscle loss (hence why you see celebs with skinny arms but major bingo wings and no tone at all!) if your afraid to eat your BMR cause you won't lose as fast then do what I do...I eat 1455cals but burn off 255cals daily so I net at 1200cals
X

You'll only lose muscle when you have no available fat stores apparently.. Like I'm 41% body fat, so I can eat below bmr for a long time before it starts affecting my muscle. Obviously as I lose weight my body will lose fat so I'll have to keep check that I have enough body fat to still be able to eat below bmr.. Those celebrities are already either at goal weight or below goal weight with very little body fat, so yes then it's dangerous to eat below bmr which they're very likely to be doing as I read a lot of high profile celebs eat as little as 800 calories daily.
 
I'm not suggesting that anyone needs to eat below their BMR forever anyway? Only while losing weight & then when you're at goal weight to maintain you eat over your BMR.
 
As a short term solution eating below BMR won't harm your but it isn't sustainable and can be a bad idea for anyone prone to binge eating as you can feel deprived.

Read through all the diaries on here. The long term consistent losers all enjoy a sensible amount of calories. They are the successful ones.
The people who start eating low and being really restrictive seam to fizzle out after a while, and then stop or change fron diet to diet.

Anyone with a couple stone to lose should be able to lose 2lb a week eating over BMR (and below at TDEE).
Eating a 'sensible' amount of calories means you can eat normally which is what a lot of people find hard after coming off a diet.
2lb is a healthy and sustainable loss. If you lose 2lb a week thats over six stone in a year! Nothing to be sniffed at.
 
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