Surprise in the numbers - BMR

Someone (in this forum?) mentioned BMR and I'd never heard of it before so I read about it.

Since I keep track of how much I've lost and how many calories I've eaten on the PC in Excel, it only took a few minutes to figure out the BMR's on a per week basis, calculate the calories required to maintain weight - usually 1.2 x BMR for me, since I spend most of my day at a desk, and finally calculate the expected weight loss since every 3500 calories difference is a pound of fat. I did not include week 1 in the calculations because it was mainly water loss and it was big enough to throw off the numbers.

On a weekly basis, the numbers are totally worthless. They look like there is no relationship between calorie intake and weight loss. Taking all of weeks 2-11 in account however, the predicted average weekly weight loss and the actual weight loss were only 0.15 pounds different. I didn't expect the numbers to be that close. The formulas really work, in the long run.

In addition, I think I'll watch these to know if my metabolism changes and as a clue for when I must add more exercise. I know I do need to exercise more, but at least right now the diet is on track.

When I showed the spreadsheet to my wife she just muttered something about engineers...

totally, I'm in your wife's camp! this must be a guy thang!  But good for you to be that on top of intake and output. And to arrive at the place where *over time* is where it matters.

I did much the same sort of thing using fitday over a period covering the past several years. I always exercise - my strong suit - so in my case, I don't give that much credence as it is a given.  It boils down therefore, most simply stated, for me anyway to what and how much I eat.  If any of you out there have not scientifically tried to track calories at least, it is very beneficial. The formulas you see out there are only a starting place. What YOU need may be any number of calories different.  But, if you do not know what you eating patterns are, you may not know what to fix first.

BMR is kinda subjective, my SigOt and I have discovered, if you use charts. (We're data driven types, too.) However--- using the standard BMR charts and creating identical diets-- while allowing for difference in gender (he ate 400 calories more per day to make up for the difference in muscle mass), I lost 68 pounds in the time it took him to lose 40 or so. This leads us to believe he may truly have a slower metabolic rate, or some medical condition. At 1800 calories a day and exercising 4 days a week for an hour, he has not lost another pound since October, and is uncomfortably stuck at 323 pounds. :( We're having his personal RMR tested in a week or two--- it costs about $100, but at least then you know for certain what your individual baseline is. We had a rough time finding a local facility-- but let me know if you think you might be interested-- maybe I could help you find one near you. Better living through science!