Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

[Greeneggs&ham]

How many calories should we be aiming for a day on Atkins? Does it matter if we eat more or significantly less than our BMR? FitDay.com claims I burn 3500 calories a day without added exercise -- I'm just wondering if there is a minimum I need to eat and a maximum before weight loss drops off?

I thought I recalled the book stating that calories are not as important (assuming we aren't stuffing ourselves) and that we only need to keep track of carbs to lose weight, but I've seen threads on this board talking about excessive food intake being just as negative as on a low fat or low cal diet.

My intake has ranged from 1700 to 2500 per day over the past three days and I must admit that I feel like quite the piggy on days like today where I was well over 2K! Do I need to put on the snout mask or am I OK to continue "as you were"?

[ValidRouge]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

Eric,

Eat to your appetite. SOme days you'll be eating more than others. Some days you won't feel like eating so much.

I'm a woman, I'm shorter than you and I eat well above 1800 calories a day. Sometimes 2500-2800 without exercise.

What you don't want to happen is finding yourself consistently eating far below your BMR. That's the only time I'd worry.

[chinadoll]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

I generally eat right around my BMR, just by coincidence not design. But either I have really resistant metabolism or Fitday is too lenient because according to Fitday I should be losing 2+ pounds a week and I am not even losing 1 pound per week. This isn't a plateau thing either. This has been the pattern since I started back in March. I must hav a very high resistance. Darn it!

[Littlehaze]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

I'm clueless about this stuff. No idea how to get in more calories or even if I'm suppose to.
According to my BMR, I should be eating around 1900, but the most I've done is a little under 1500. I've even been as low as 1050. So, I dunno.

[Lyssie]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

If you should be eating 1900 and the most you eat is 1500, you should be eating more. Here's a little story, I got down to eating about 900-1000 calories a day and working out about 2-3 hours a day, and still not losing weight, driving myself nuts. Yes Folks!! Starvation Mode DOES exist!!! So if your BMR says you should be eating more, you should probably be eating more.

[Littlehaze]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

I don't pay much attention to calories, so I'm not purposely trying to limit them. It just seems to be working itself out that way.
My carb intake is where is should be, so I don't really know what I can do to increase my calories without going overboard on those carbs. I feel like I'm stuffing myself as it is.
I'll figure something out.

[Lyssie]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

Yeah, you sound like me. I made a goal to eat at least 1600 calories a day. Add butter, oil, cream cheese, mayo to foods to add calories.

[Greeneggs&ham]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

But assuming you did no exercise and ate the equivalent of your BMR, wouldn't you remain at the same weight? It seems like the whole point to weight loss is to consume less than you expend.

I realize it is different with Atkins since you are burning body fat instead of glucose, but I'm still not sure I understand why one's BMR is the magic number we should be trying to hit when eating our meats and veggies.

[Lyssie]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

Well, since your BMR is a Basal Metabolic Rate, it's what your body goes through in order to survive. So even sitting up in bed in the morning, brushing teeth, etc, is using up extra calories over your BMR... So if you eat right *on* your BMR, you will still lose weight (unless you lay in bed all day - literally).

It's not so much "different" on Atkins, you should still be eating less calories than what you're burning off, you're just making your body better able to burn off the calories you're consuming, so instead of it having to switch gears from burning off carbs and going to fat on your tushie, it is used to the fat in the food and can burn through tushie fat more effectively (is how the doctor explained it to me when I was like, 19). Hope this explanation doesn't confuse you more.

This WoE does also have the appetite suppression which makes it easier to fall into the range where you're eating below your BMR to the poiint where it's not so good... believe me, I was keeping those eating habits and workout schedule going for weeks without *any* results.

[Greeneggs&ham]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

So you're telling me I shouldn't lay here in bed all day scanning the message board on my laptop?

...just kidding

[murphy'smom]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

How do you figure your BMR??

[Lyssie]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

Hrmmm... that's a good idea, but if you're eating Atkins and drinking all your water, you'd have to get up eventually to go pee anyway.

murphy'smom - there are a lot of websites that will calculate it for you. It should basically ask your height, weight, age, and maybe resting heart rate. Keep in mind, that if you do it this way (instead of going to a center for an actual test which is kinda expensive) it may not be accurate. Then again, what is?!

[murphy'smom]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

Thank you so much!!

[TheDogAteMyName]

Re: Daily Caloric Intake and BMR

I eat to my BMR or more everyday. It works out that way