Just a reminder that RMR is not a static number…it fluctuates on a number of different factors, activity level being the key one. And the number can go up or down…or both over time.
I have seen people’s RMR go up as they gain fitness and then plateau and drop back, despite continuing to gain fitness.
that’s one reason I’m convinced the easy and simple method is to step on the scale, first thing every morning. And then only look at trends. Use that to make small adjustments to quantity of food you eat.
Thanks for the info on the “better” internet calculators. I hadn’t actually checked them myself, but the report from the lab where I got my RMR done listed that higher “expected” value. It’s actually reassuring to hear that my RMR is not so far out of whack.
Re: scale weight, have you tried a DXA? I did one in early February, when I started riding, then one 5½ months later. Only 2.9 lbs difference on the scale… but I had lost 7.4lb of fat and gained 4.8lb of lean mass. Basically the scale wouldn’t have told me anything useful. Also, DXA breaks out body composition by region, so you can see specifically where you’re losing/gaining.
I would start by eliminating alcohol from your diet, or at least severely restricting it.
That’s the trick, for sure… Just a few days ago I discovered that pounding big glasses of ice water before meals not only helps control hunger (already knew that, but hadn’t made a habit of it), it also greatly reduces alcohol cravings (I may have noticed this before, but forgotten about it).
On another note, I feel I should point out that BMR and RMR are not interchangeable.
BMR is basically your coma calories (bare-minimum vital functions). RMR is your not-in-a-coma calories (BMR + going to the bathroom, digestion, sitting up, etc.).
Typically this is a correction factor of about 1.2 for a sedentary individual (and let’s be honest, most endurance athletes are sedentary when they aren’t actively exercising).
The MyFitnessPal calculator gives me a BMR of 1,867 calories. My Garmin thinks my RMR is around 2,200 calories, which converts to a BMR of 1,760.
I have to wonder if there’s not some inadvertent overlap between the correction factor and (the difference between BMR and RMR) and what gets measured as active calories by activity tracking.
Or maybe they’re smart enough to just ignore the first 500 calories worth of activities, since they’re already counting them.
I also wonder if they account for the passive tracking of activities vs active tracking with separate devices (e.g. bike computers), especially those that aren’t on the Garmin ecosystem.
Thanks, I did not understand that. I’ve always used BMR, added 300+ calories depending on how active I was during the day, and then added cycling calories. The cycling calories are usually between 1000-1500. Something like 1800 + (300-500) + (1000-1500). It’s really all about the big calorie burns on the bike, because I’ve worked at home in front of a computer for 24 years and the general activity calories are so low it’s like two glasses of milk.
Works well for me. I use my BMR (calculated from various online calculators), I put that in MyFitnessPal, then use the Garmin additional daily calories including steps and workouts to provide the total daily cals. Works absolutely spot on for me.