Calorie Deficit

alessandragiu1

I was wondering if someone could help me understand eating a calorie deficit diet. I have read some articles but I am still confused on what I should be doing. I eat 1400-1500 calories a day. I exercise 4/5 times a week strength training and 30 minutes cardio. Hope someone can clear this up for me.
Thanks.

TimothyFish

You burn some number of calories through normal life and exercise. That is your TDEE. You eat food that equates to some number of calories (1400-1500). You subtract what you eat from your TDEE to get your calorie deficit. Which MFP does for you automatically, when you set it up.

malibu927

If you're eating less than your TDEE (the amount of calories you burn every day from living, working, running errands, exercise), then you're eating at a deficit. The best way to ensure this is to use a food scale to weigh your food. Otherwise you risk eating more than you think.

peachyfuzzle

What is your age, height, weight? Also, what are you fitness goals?

alessandragiu1

26, 5'2, 154lbs. I want to be around 125-130lbs and toned.

peachyfuzzle

Using http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ at 3x/week workout level, your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is about 1900 calories. Since you're only losing 20 - 30 lbs, you should expect to be losing at about .5lb - 1lb per week. The closer you get to that goal weight, the closer it will be to .5lbs.

Since 1lb of fat - ~3500calories, you'll need to set a calorie deficit of 500cal/day for 1lb (500 x 7 = 3500). Since you are already decently close, it might be better to set it to 20% of your TDEE which would be 380 calories deficit.

This would put you somewhere between the 1400 - 1600 calorie range.

"Toned" is a myth. The way you get a muscular look is by losing bodyfat percentage. Once you reach a certain BR%, any muscle you have laying under your fat will start to become more exposed. If you have very little muscle, then you might not ever get to that point regardless of how much BF% you lose.

Kalikel

It just means you swallow fewer calories than you use up.

alessandragiu1

peachyfuzzle wrote: »

Using http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ at 3x/week workout level, your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is about 1900 calories. Since you're only losing 20 - 30 lbs, you should expect to be losing at about .5lb - 1lb per week. The closer you get to that goal weight, the closer it will be to .5lbs.

Since 1lb of fat - ~3500calories, you'll need to set a calorie deficit of 500cal/day for 1lb (500 x 7 = 3500). Since you are already decently close, it might be better to set it to 20% of your TDEE which would be 380 calories deficit.

This would put you somewhere between the 1400 - 1600 calorie range.

"Toned" is a myth. The way you get a muscular look is by losing bodyfat percentage. Once you reach a certain BR%, any muscle you have laying under your fat will start to become more exposed. If you have very little muscle, then you might not ever get to that point regardless of how much BF% you lose.

Thank you for that! So I can continue eating 1400-1600 calories a day. I am just having such a hard time losing weight/inches that I was wondering what I am doing wrong. That info helped. Thank you.

cwolfman13

Calories are a unit of energy. Your body requires so much energy to maintain itself...everything from pumping your heart to getting out of bed to driving your car to walking around to exercise...that all requires energy (calories)

For me, all of that amounts to about 2,800 calories per day to maintain the status quo. If I consume more energy than is required (surplus) then I will gain weight because that surplus energy gets stored for later use as body fat.

If I consume less energy than is required (deficit) then my body has to make up the difference by dipping into stored energy (body fat)...and thus burns fat for energy and thus I become leaner.

If you put all of your info into this calculator along with a rate of loss goal, the calculator will calculate your deficit for you...the number you get back when you say you want to lose X Lbs per week is your deficit.

peachyfuzzle

alessandragiu1 wrote: »

peachyfuzzle wrote: »

Using http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/ at 3x/week workout level, your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is about 1900 calories. Since you're only losing 20 - 30 lbs, you should expect to be losing at about .5lb - 1lb per week. The closer you get to that goal weight, the closer it will be to .5lbs.

Since 1lb of fat - ~3500calories, you'll need to set a calorie deficit of 500cal/day for 1lb (500 x 7 = 3500). Since you are already decently close, it might be better to set it to 20% of your TDEE which would be 380 calories deficit.

This would put you somewhere between the 1400 - 1600 calorie range.

"Toned" is a myth. The way you get a muscular look is by losing bodyfat percentage. Once you reach a certain BR%, any muscle you have laying under your fat will start to become more exposed. If you have very little muscle, then you might not ever get to that point regardless of how much BF% you lose.

Thank you for that! So I can continue eating 1400-1600 calories a day. I am just having such a hard time losing weight/inches that I was wondering what I am doing wrong. That info helped. Thank you.

You're welcome!

Don't expect to lose it fast since you're pretty close anyway. Also, as suggested previously, you should invest in a food scale. If you're not weighing food, it is extremely easy to go over your calorie goals. The closer you are to your goal weight, the more accurate the count needs to be.

Good luck!