BMR?

yes.. I was a body builder, training for competition.

Sorry... I hit submit without finishing.  The following is personal b****hese are my choices and ideas and beliefs.. and not intended to infringe on anyone else's.    No.. I'm not trying to make myself crazy.  But, quite frankly, I will NEVER accept myself like this...    I don't care how long my life is as long as I have some quality of life.  :)  I'm not afraid of dying, heck... I know where I'm going and it will be a paradise beyond my wildest imagination to physically lay at the feet of my Lord, be with my brother and friends who have passed.  I also know that God didn't intend for me to take His temple and ruin it.  I would like to bend without pain, I would like to get rid of a phenomenal amount of arthritis, I would like to walk through a store without clinging onto a cart for dear life.....  I want to walk up and down my own stairs to leave my house.  I want to make a 700 mile drive, with the top down, while getting a tan and not feel the pain of trying to stand up afterwards.. ps.. while I'm there.. I want to hit the beach again.  I want to swim in the warm Gulf waters again.. . that takes walking across the beach, which I cannot do right now. I have 7 very choice guitars that are nothing more than ornaments for me at this point.  I wanna rock out once again (yes.. even us old ladies do that) LOL. We all have our own goals, and I respect you for yours.  I have some too.. .many more than listed above.  I have two new grand nieces or nephews that will be born in several months who I want to see, and many many nieces and nephews I want to see at least one more time before I die.  I'm not telling you that what you are doing isn't working for you... I respect you.  I have been down many roads on this journey, and I have seen many PERSONAL failures.  I refuse to continue to feel like I've failed, and I may die.. .but heck, I'm gonna die trying!!!  :) Blessings all around!! Lori

I feel you all on this one...my body has also been slow to release weight.  It is easier for people to quietly assume I do something wrong, like society always tends to blame fat people for the way they are. Hey, sure, the blame can be well-placed at times. I swear the more obsesity is studied, the better. So many factors about our bodies are not understood...terms i have never heard before are now being flicked around..ghrelin, leptin, omentum...etc. The BMR calcs are not exactly trustworthy, doctors have very little nutrition training, anyone with slim credentials can call themselves a nutritionist...what's a fatchick to do but keep switching it up, keep on trying the same old ways, new ideas....

AMEN sista!  OOOwweeee    I've got a doc or two who will argue that BMI for me too .  BUT, I accept the numbers as they show up on the index.  It doesn't matter to me one way or the other. I hate seeing a new doctor.... I hate being treated as if I sit at KFC day and night!  I also have a doctor friend who DOES frequent KFC and you'd never know it!!  His rich French food, his wines, his decadent Italian desserts... and he doesn't have the TIME to work out between office hours and surgery and rounds.  Hey.. more power to him!  I get fatter just listening to his restaurant experiences and gotta tell him  "shaddup already.. I'm growing as you speak".  LOL I've been looking into all of this for years.  I know there's more to it than just expanding.. there's gotta be a reason why my sister doesn't expand, and woofs down more than I could eat in 2 days in her ONE sitting, yet my brother ate normally and grew to an astounding 600 lbs. I say keep on keepin' on!  Either I die like this.. or I die tryin'!!    :) Be Blessed! Lori

This thread has gone around many topics - but i'm going to get back to the original question about formulas to calculate RMR or BMR.   I'll trash the Harris-Benedict equation first - this formula was devised in the 50's and statistically normalized on a group of less than 10 people, all fit, young, healthy, males.  The formula was later changed into one that could be used for either men or women.  In any case, this formula has distinct limitations. Other formulas were developed later - I can name 5 that I had to learn in school.  We had to learn 5 different formulas because of the limitations of each.  One of the big limitations of these formulas is that they don't account for people who are overweight or obese.  Another limitation is that they are almost always tested on healthy, young college students who need to earn some extra cash so they volunteer for the experimental testing. It all gets even more confusing when we have to take a person's weight, adjust it according to a formula and then use that number to calculate the BMR.  General practice by dietitians is to use adjusted body weight and then their favorite predictive equation to guess your base calorie requirement - then we use our clinical crystal ball or a person's self report to add on an activity level.  This is really just educated guessing - and some are better at it than others The gold standard of BMR or RMR testing is called indirect calorimetry.  This uses a machine which measures the amount of oxygen you consume and the carbon dioxide you expend and extrapolates that into number of calories burned while at rest.  To have this type of testing, you have to go to someone who has special equipment.  There were a few hand-held machines on the market, but the company got into some financial trouble and distribution has been compromised - they are hard to find these days. So what's a person to do? Keeping an accurate record of your intake is perfect.  Adjusting your calories based on your personal response to a calorie level and activity level is ideal!  If you can get a MedGem measurement (or other comparable measure) that is fantastic. But don't get hung up on these formulas.  They are tools, not rules. regards, Danielle Halewijn RD eNutritioncare.com visit us on the Diet & Nutrition Forum!

Thanks for the history! I've always said those formulas seem to be for fat burning machine types, so what you say makes perfect sense. Not everyone has that same setting!

AHA!  Thank you very much!  Very informative!

Hi Lori, I've read this whole post and shared in everyones sheer discomfort in understanding what this is all about.  BMR's, BMI's, resting heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol, LDL/HDL levels.  And let's not forget the number on the scale.  All numbers that seemingly run our lives.  Having been at this now for over 2 years I have realized that it is quite simple, really.  Barring any severe medical issue that contributes to weight gain or weight loss, etc., eating right, exercising and taking vitamins appears to be the way to combat obesity.  Does this sound staggeringly simple?  It sure does.  But sometimes the hardest things do in fact have the simplest solutions.  I think the more we get caught up in the numbers, the more we are working far too hard to accomplish our goals.  Eating whole foods, exercising daily and taking care of ourselves is really all that is needed.  Sometimes we get so hung up on the numbers on the scale that we fail to see all the amazing things we are doing for our body as we take this journey.  Perhaps focusing more on what we are doing instead of what appears not to be happening is important. I remember quite vividly back in 2004 when I went on South Beach for the first time.  I was 343 pounds and I did it for 6 weeks.  My clothes fit great, I felt amazing, my energy level was through the roof.   When I went for a doctors appointment I was sure I had lost between 40-50 pounds.  Guess what?? I lost 10.  10 measly pounds after all that work!!!  I didn't take into account that I had amazing energy, felt great and my clothes were falling off.  All I looked at was the scale and I let that number determine my success.  It took a whole year more before I started again, this time at 352 pounds.  The rest is history. Sometimes the most simplest things present as the most difficult.

amen, my sister!  That scale number is a hard one to swallow, of course it IS an important indicator. But you said it best, what I try to say in soooo many words:  there are so many aspects to personal health.  *Tone counts for something *general overall conditioning counts *clear eyes *lower cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure *clear skin *increased energy *improved attitude *improved self worth & esteem *higher immune system *better life stress management *cellular function improved Our bodies fight HARD to maintain what IT deems homeostasis.  Each of us may "program" it to respond the way it does, and other factors out of our control also drive this homeostatic state. If high level scientists don't get it yet, how can any of us? We have charletans and tomsdicksandharrys telling us conflicting approaches.  Again, we can take the level of persoanl satisfaction to the level that we are able to.  i know I personally am proud of myself in so many ways, and know that I do more positive than negative things to honor my temple. Every single person here should also allow that pride to be in the front of your thoughts.