BMR and how much to eat to lose a bit of weight?

[random9876]

I want to lose 10lbs of fat, slowly is fine.

I'm 43 and 5"4 with a BMI slightly over 25. I had my body composition measured (body scan and also more regularly on Boditrax at the gym) and relative to most people, I am very muscular. I do exercise a fair amount, but my muscle levels are likely genetic. Boditrax claims that my BMR is therefore higher than usual for my age at 1500 kcal. I eat roughly the same as my 6ft husband (too much over lockdown) and we also seem to have the same BMI (a touch tubby), so I reckon this is quite likely to be accurate.

How many kcals would you aim for a day? I find it all a bit confusing. Am I right in thinking that 1600-1700 might do for me on days where I exercise for an hour? I keep seeing about 1200 for people my age, but that seems too low to cope with!

Work out your tdee (amount of calories to stay as you are now) then reduce the amount by 20% to find your daily calorie total to aim for to lose weight.

tdeecalculator.net

I’m 47 in a sedentary job, but exercise 5 days a week, I’m a size 10 but if I eat over 1650 maintenance calories I put weight on quickly. I weigh and log everything I consume on My Fitness Pal to keep track. I was over 2 stone heavier & to lose I had to go down to 1300 cals. It’s doable without being hungry if you make clever choices but I was glad to get to maintenance cals.