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New here with question about Muscle and BMI

Old 03-30-2010, 04:02 AM
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Default New here with question about Muscle and BMI

Hi All, Great site lots of great tools and guide lines. I am about 255 But I used to be a gym rat, so I have a lot of muscle still, Arms, legs shoulders , chest. I think I was about 205 when I was 6 pack abs (quite some time ago).. anyway to measure your BMI based on that, obviously I was not over weight at 205 but the chart says I would have been or any way to take that into account? Do you burn more fat when you have more muscle? Right now my plan is 4500 Cals Burn a Day and intake 1500 Cals breaking that up into about 6 meals (well not meals lols) But basically eating through the day.

Anyways nice meeting you all and hope to get the question above answered

Warm Rgds
Chris
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Old 03-30-2010, 04:22 AM
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cpow1972 - welcome!

Lean mass does help your metabolism to burn quicker (higher BMR) so you should be burning more calories per day than someone the same age, weight and height as you who has a higher body fat %. You need to do special tests to determine your real BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) accurately.

This description has pretty much all you need.
Basal Metabolic Rate - BMR

In your case I would be concerend that your planned low calorie intake may be too low and may actually slow down your BMR as the body starts to try and conserve energy. You might be better advised to keep a more modest calorie balance (1000-1500 per day), you may end up losing the weight more quickly as your BMR will not go too far out of whack. This is also more sustainable when you have reached your goal weight and should result in fat being burned rather than muscle. What you don't want is to get lighter yet still retain the same body fat.

I am an amateur at this too so please take other advice too!

Last edited by jonr71; 03-30-2010 at 04:23 AM. Reason: spelling
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Old 03-30-2010, 12:06 PM
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I have similar issues with BMI. I'm 6' 1" and 270. When I was in my twenties I was 180, which was down from 250 in high school. 180 is still in the over weight range on BMI. At 180 I didn't have anything left to loose and wouldn't have wanted to.

With people using BMI to charge you higher rates for health insurance, life insurance, and so on... There needs to be something to account for your frame size. I have a gladiator frame not a scarecrow frame.
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Old 03-30-2010, 05:34 PM
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Originally Posted by aerobiotic
I have similar issues with BMI. I'm 6' 1" and 270. When I was in my twenties I was 180, which was down from 250 in high school. 180 is still in the over weight range on BMI. At 180 I didn't have anything left to loose and wouldn't have wanted to.

With people using BMI to charge you higher rates for health insurance, life insurance, and so on... There needs to be something to account for your frame size. I have a gladiator frame not a scarecrow frame.
aerobiotic.

My answer was about Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) rather than BMI. As you can read via the link, clearly your type of body mass, lean vs fat will also affect your BMR. The standard average weights don't really work at that point. There are tests to show your own real BMR - they involve blowing into a machine which tests oxygen saturation I think. If you are this kind of build you are likely to fool basic scales based calculations.
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Old 04-01-2010, 06:16 AM
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yeah, that seems too low an intake to me.

one trick used by old school bodybuilders was to reduce intake to various levels so the average would be what you want but on somedays you may have it 400 higher or 400 lower or even around 4500 (maybe once a week as a treat). This helps to keep your metabolism from dropping, because the body goes into a kind of survival mode and adapts.

I think a pound is worth about 4 to 5000 calories, so you could lose a lot of weight by significantly reducing it by as much as you say. I would keep your average a little higher though, no more than half. on any day if you want to keep muscle.

In terms of BMI, i am 200lb and nearly obese on the bmi scale. 29 points. It makes no sense and is totally outdated because i am healthy and slim looking. What really matters in your body fat % you can measure this through various ways, electrical impedance, water etc..

You should also weight train as it will allow you to hold onto more muscle, burn more fat and keep up your metabolism. hope this helps

Last edited by rrross; 04-01-2010 at 06:20 AM.
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Old 04-11-2010, 04:45 AM
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Like other people have said, BMI sucks as an indicator of overweight if you've got any reasonable amount of muscle. I wouldn't pay too much attention to it. Try to get an estimate of your % bodyfat using skin calipers, it's a much more meaningful measure.

To the OP, I think your caloric intake is too low. If you truly burn off 4500 cals a day I'd go no lower than 2500-3000 calories per day total. Your body is smarter than you and if you cut back too much it's going to fight you by hanging on to as much fat and letting go of as much energy-expensive muscle as possible, the exact opposite of what you're looking for. I'm doing a steady cut right now, my cals burned are close to 3000 per day and I'm eating around 1800-2200, just to give you some perspective.

A pound of fat is equivalent to roughly 3500 calories. So even if you were to cut back just 500 calories/day under your maintenance level, you would lose one pound per week. At 1000/day you would lose 2 pounds in a week, but I wouldn't recommend any more than that. Just my 2 cents.

Good luck on your journey,

-Nik
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Old 06-10-2010, 08:24 AM
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TDChicken is right on.
And IF you can burn 4500 cal/day (that's a lot of work!!!), there's no way you could maintain that burn with only 1500 cal/day, you'd get light-headed and fall down. One or two days of that schedule is all anyone could take. A 500 cal/day deficeit is all you need to lose a pound a week. Modify that on a daily basis so that you average a little more than 3500 cal/wk, and you'll be able to lose weight consistantly and without going crazy.
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