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can I go much lower than my BMR rate is?


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Hello all. I'm a male, 41 yo, 6 ft tall, weight 196 lbs and not much active at all (but this is about to change). Apparently my BMR is 1918 kcal per day (calculated with this bmr calculator). Now my question is - can I go lower than BMR and still do sports (running)? I would like to quickly lose some weight and after that change my diet and eat more than BMR rate is (obviously). Do you think this is a bad idea? As far as I was told, BMR isn't the lowest calorie needed since body can get energy from stored fats (in my case there's a lot of energy in there ).

Can I do my body harm if I eat to less calories?

I am not planning on doing this my whole life - just for now, until I drop some weight.

What do you think?

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You're body needs energy from food even more so when you exercise. However the body needs a lot less food than we are used to giving it. You dont need to stick to a BMR number. If you aren't eating enough your body will surely let you know. Make sure you are getting plenty of sleep.

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Hi Bob,

 

If you aren't very active, then you might have a hard time exercising on a calorie restricted diet. Some people do, others don't. A lot depends on genetics and what kind of diet you will be eating.

 

You might lose muscle by exercising on a calorie restricted diet. As you run, your body loses fat, but it also will get rid of muscle if you aren't using that muscle in its full capacity. You either need to do weight training, or HIIT to keep the muscle mass. A lot of studies suggest that HIIT training is the fastest way to lose fat and keep muscle mass. These studies show the fat loss is much higher than the calorie burn would suggest. In fact, the studies show fat loss many times over steady state training even though the calorie consumption and calories burned were the same.

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