Cake and Starvation Mode

It's the boy's birthday today. WOO! He's OLD! And Mother's Day was yesterday- WOO! Mom! And the Red Wings played a lot this weekend. WOO! Round 2!

This translated into a weekend filled of dining out, cakes, other sweet treats- and an inability to go for a run.

OK, I lied. Not an "inability" to run, it was more of a "I-don't-want-to."

So this morning, I sat down with my cup o' coffee and looked at my daily calorie total: 1676. One slice of Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake (or 2 cupcakes in this scenario): 250 calories. I don't even want to talk about the calories that I probably ate in homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and homemade ice cream (last night) or the Bakes N' Cakes piece I had on Saturday night. Dude. The bakery's motto is "Butter Makes it Better." Damn right it does, but I think the cake went straight to my hips.

That daily calorie number, after being used for WEEKS, seemed off. I pulled up the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculator, figured out some scientific method for calculating calories needed to maintain my weight, knocked off 500 calories/day for the weight loss- and I get 2302 calories a day.

What. The. Hell. I was eating over 600 calories LESS than I'm allotted?

Let me back up. I use MyFitnessPal to track my calories. When I signed up to use MyFitnessPal, it set a calorie target for me. I was talking to some friends, and they both said the number seemed kind of low. I talked to my amazing trainer, who said it seemed a little low. So I looked up the best and most accurate way to calculate daily calorie needs and read about the BMR.

BMR, in simple terms, is the energy you expend in the form of calories burned, keeping your body functioning while at a restful state. In other words, this is the bare minimum of calories to consume to keep your internal organs working. You take the BMR, factor in your activity level, and subtract 250-500 calories from that number to get a net loss of calories. Mathmatically, the BMR is a pain in the ass. Actually, for most people, it's probably basic math. I'm just a math dummy, but more on that later.

The equation looks like this:  

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

You then take the BMR x a percentage which is determined on your activity level.

• If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
• If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
• If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
• If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
• If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

The final number is the amount of calories you need to minimally function on a daily basis. To lose weight, you need to subtract 250-500 calories from that total.

3 steps. Get BMR. Multiply by activity level. Subtract 500. DONE. Again, simple. Let's look at my math, shall we?

Me (I'm a woman): 655 + (4.35 x 235) + (4.7 x 60) - (4.7 x 32) - yeah, I just gave you a lot of personal information. Originally, I got 655 + 1022.25 + 282 + 150.4 = 2109.65- Oops.

First problem - that stupid subtraction indicator before the final parenthetical mark is NOT a plus sign!!

Second problem- my height in inches is 68 (5'8") not 60 (5'0").

Really, my number there should be 1808.25.

I'm supposed to take that number and multiply it by my activity level. I'm about moderately active, with the classes and running a few days a week.

Third problem: I was using "little or no exercise" thinking that I would just track my workouts and go with the base "sedentary" number. Your body busts up calories even when not working out, and THAT'S what the activity levels assume. 

I would take the 1808.25 x 1.55 =  2802.78 and THAT is my approximate daily calorie burn number.

Fourth problem- I used a different calculator that involved using BMR x the percentage of working out and subtracting it from another number. There was another step and I totally missed it. Too much math!

To lose weight, I would need to knock off 250-500 calories. That's 2302.78.

Today, I find out that MyFitnessPal actually uses a BMR calculator, but there are caveats all around that number, and it doesn't calculate how many calories you need when working out, etc. Oh. That explains the really low number. But when I go into MyFitnessPal, it tells me that I won't be losing any weight! WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

I'm going to go with the new number (2302) for a few weeks and see how it goes. As for the calories I burn while working out, my plan for now is to eat half of those calories, as I'm usually starving when I'm done working out.

And, I'm having 2 cupcakes tonight.