A little confused about Metabolic Resting Rate and Amount of Calories Burned Per day

My one year is coming up in the next 30 days-I want to give it everything I got to hit under 200 pounds...and want to try to lose at least 2  pounds per week (the last 2 months very slow weight loss)...but was a little confused after doing reading on Metabolic Resting Rate.   I know it is just an estimate, but at 5'5   and age 47 female, at current weight of 217 - calc said my metabolic resting rate would be 1638.    I know if I want to lose a pound, i need to somehow burn off 3500 calories-whether i am reducing my calories or burning....but not sure if i am missing something here....So if at 1638, i only ate 1000 calories for the day, and then did activity at the gym to burn at minimum 500 calories....that would give me a daily deficit of 1100e calories...so if i did this every day for the week, it would give me a deficit of 7700 - so i would lose my 2 pounds per week since i essentially would have burned enough for 3500x2?   Would love to hit 3 pounds - and would like to increase my calorie burn at the gym - but just didnt know if i was on the right track here.....i know water weight, muscle gain, and other factors would contribute-just not sure if I am on right track here...Please advise....

The biggest thing that may affect this is your individual metabolism (which no online "calculator" can account for).  Many of us have destroyed our metabolism by years of yo-yo dieting, so although it takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose a pound on paper, it sometimes doesn't work that way in real life.  Also, the online calculators are just general estimates (no matter how "precise" the number it spits out may seem). It can easily be off by a couple of hundred calories per day.

Also, determining how much you are actually burning during exercise can be challenging.  The read outs on things like elliptical machines are notoriously incorrect, and when a book or online source gives general,vague information such as "running burns X calories per hour", doesn't account for your weight, speed, etc.

I would be surprised if you lost 2 pounds every week at a year out, but don't let my skepticism deter you from trying!

Lora

Can you point me to any scholarly work on "messing up" one's metabolism?  I must admit it smells of the same variety as the starvation mode myth and I'm rather skeptical of such a claim.  It's contrary to anything I've been able to find myself.

 

Yeah, I do have one.  Will have to dig it out, though.  Stay tuned.  :)

Lora

I did run across this in my Googling adventures:

http://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495(12)00241-7/abstract

It found that yo-yo dieting had no adverse effect on metabolisms.

The study I have -- once I get time to dig into my boxes in the closet -- addresses the effect of fasting for long periods of time and VLC diets for extended periods of time followed by lower caloric intake (under which RNY would certainly qualify).  I don't think it had anything about yo-yo dieting.  I don't see how yo-yo dieting would cause metabolism changes... Unless part of that process was an extended period of time with VERY few calories that was NOT followed by people going right back to too many calories (as usually happens) which then can restore the metabolism once it is convinced the "famine" is over.  

It will probably be Friday before I have a chance to dig the box I need out of that closet...

Lora

This topic is v. confusing to me. I've been studying it for awhile. I got a lot of information from a podcast: FAT2FIT radio.com. I've learned a ton about nutrition and dieting and once I got used to the hokey guys, I loved it. have listened to the whole series twice and probably will give it another go around, cause each time, I increase my knowledge about dieting, weight loss, fat loss, etc...

My conclusions - like what Lara said, the stats they give you work on a perfect case, and we, having screwed up our metabolisms so much are far from a perfect case. You'll have to find your own "sweet spot" where you can lose or maintain your weight and this only happens when you're super careful about recording calories. Don't count your exercise as losing calories. 

Exercise is important to boost your resting metabolc rate - the more muscle the higher the rate, so exercise is important, but it should be part of your life and not counted as now I can eat more calories.

You shouldn't go too low on your calories - cause then you put your body on "starvation" mode and it will hold on to every ounce you give it - that's why you've got to figure out your own sweet spot.

It's complicated. When you figure it all out let me know and I'll do the same.

I had my NUT do the actual BMR test pre op. maybe you could call your NUT and have her do the same? That will give you what your actual BMR is. Good luck.

Generally speaking the normal BMR calculations no longer apply. In my case the calc says I should be getting 3000 calories a day, plus adding more for exercise. If I do this I gain weight. Like someone else said our metabolisms are different. The generally accepted maintenance diet starts at around 1200 calories per day. My recommendation is for you to work with your NUT to determine where you should start. Then through trial and error you should be able to nail down the sweet spot for losing or maintaining.

Personally I find that I lose best when my calories are in the 700-900 range and I get some exercise in as well. Anything above that and I just don't lose weight anymore. Drives my non-RNY friends crazy because this is so low and not what the current thinking supports in fitness. My NUT explained that we are a whole new category and can not live by the same rules as non RNY patients. Using this method I have seen weight loss similar to that during my post surgery honeymoon phase.

Chrispy

As others have said, our metabolism is screwed up. Most of us are not "normal" so the online calculators are not really accurate. I know my surgeon has one of those machines you breathe into to calculate your RMR. i have learned what works for me through trial and error.

How many calories are you eating now? Personally I do not think you should be eating more than 1200 at one year out if you want to lose and not factor exercise calories back in. I never eat mine back. Most people here seem to eat 1400-1700 calories a day to maintain.