what is a good daily calorie deficiency number?

paulbsr

I am targeting to end each day with at least 1200 calories in the bank. Good?

NickGibson188

how many are you planning on eating?

HerbertNenenger

based on....... what?

futuremanda

MFP actually will calculate it for you. Tell it how many lbs you want to lose a week, and it will tell you how much to eat.

TavistockToad

paulbsr wrote: »

I am targeting to end each day with at least 1200 calories in the bank. Good?

What?

TeaBea

HerbertNenenger wrote: »

based on....... what?

This!^

It's all relative. How much weight do you have to lose total?

Obese people can run larger deficits more safely than those closer to goal. Many people close to goal run a deficit that's only 10% less than TDEE.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

segacs

15-20% of TDEE is a decent maximum deficit, though this will vary a bit depending on your personal stats.

cwolfman13

Yeah....MFP is a cool calculator that actually goes ahead and calculates your GOAL calories to include your deficit as per your stats and desired rate of loss....you simply eat to your GOAL...that's it...calculators are cool...

paulbsr

Here's where my head is at - my body requires 2500 calories/day to grow hair, nails, drive the heart and digestive system (correct?). I exercise 2 hours/day (1200 cal). So that means if I could have eaten nothing, 3700 cal would have been sourced from fat reserves (?). However, I consume 1700 cal throughout the day. That means 2000 was contributed by stored energy. Or have I got this all wrong??

TavistockToad

paulbsr wrote: »

Here's where my head is at - my body requires 2500 calories/day to grow hair, nails, drive the heart and digestive system (correct?). I exercise 2 hours/day (1200 cal). So that means if I could have eaten nothing, 3700 cal would have been sourced from fat reserves (?). However, I consume 1700 cal throughout the day. That means 2000 was contributed by stored energy. Or have I got this all wrong??

What exercise are you doing that you think burns 1200 cals?

paulbsr

30 mins Squash + 15 min Eliptical + 20 min Resistance + 20 min Swim. 4 times a week.

hsmith0930

It won't be easy to have a 1200 calories deficit every day, but it's possible, especially if you are already well overweight or obese. If you eat 600 less calories and burn 600 extra calories (probably an hour? Of exercise, depending on what you do and your exact weight, of course.) you've got a 1200 calorie deficit.

segacs

paulbsr wrote: »

Here's where my head is at - my body requires 2500 calories/day to grow hair, nails, drive the heart and digestive system (correct?). I exercise 2 hours/day (1200 cal). So that means if I could have eaten nothing, 3700 cal would have been sourced from fat reserves (?). However, I consume 1700 cal throughout the day. That means 2000 was contributed by stored energy. Or have I got this all wrong??

Let me correct a couple of misconceptions here.

Your BMR is the number of calories you would use up basically just by existing, i.e. if you were in a coma. Your TDEE is your BMR plus the number of calories you burn every day via normal daily activity and exercise, i.e. your total burn. There's a third number that MFP uses, your NEAT, which is in between the first two and counts normal daily activity but NOT exercise.

I don't know your stats so I can't check your numbers. But using your example, if your NEAT is 2500 and your TDEE is 3700, then yes, you would theoretically use up 3700 calories each day to keep your body going. If you eat 1700 calories per day, then 1700 of that will come from the energy from the calories you consume that day. The rest will come from fat (and to a lesser extent, muscle) stores. You can cut back how much muscle you lose by lifting weights, to ensure that most of the losses come from fat.

However, a few considerations:

• A 2000 calorie/day deficit is NOT healthy. That's a loss rate of 4lbs/week. At most, 1-2lbs/week is considered healthy. What you want to target is roughly around 15-20% of your TDEE. So if you TDEE is 3700, then you'd want to target a ~555-730 calorie deficit each day, including exercise. So that's a loss rate of 1-1.5lbs/week, max. Really it's not recommended to go above that, for a wide variety of reasons.
• Is your TDEE actually 3700? You claim to burn 1200 calories per day via exercise. That's EXTREMELY high. Where are you getting that number from? I'd be skeptical that your calorie burns are actually that high. Most gym machines, and MFP, for that matter, tend to overestimate calories burned via exercise. Let's say you're actually burning half of that or even less. That would make your real TDEE more like ~3100.
• You may have to do some trial and error with your calorie numbers to lose weight at your desired pace, since no calculator is ever going to be perfectly accurate for your body. They give you estimates so you can come up with a starting place. Try it for 4-6 weeks and see what happens. If you lose weight faster than expected, increase your calories. If you lose slower than expected, decrease your calories.
  
  
  Hope this helps!

TeaBea

paulbsr wrote: »

Here's where my head is at - my body requires 2500 calories/day to grow hair, nails, drive the heart and digestive system (correct?). I exercise 2 hours/day (1200 cal). So that means if I could have eaten nothing, 3700 cal would have been sourced from fat reserves (?). However, I consume 1700 cal throughout the day. That means 2000 was contributed by stored energy. Or have I got this all wrong??

Ok - first thing....yes you have fat reserves, however....your body cannot get 100% of what it needs from fat.

All weight loss does NOT equal fat loss (unfortunately). This is why you need moderation. Obese people lose quickly (at first) and keep lean muscle. People closer to goal cannot.

2 pounds a week (1,000 daily calorie deficit) is fine for someone with more than 75 pounds to lose.

750 calorie deficit (1.5 pounds a week) is about as high as you should go (for a little while). But you will need to step down to 1 pound a week.....and then 1/2 pound a week (10-15 pounds to go).

Does your exercise include strength training? That helps signal your body...hey I'm using those muscles. Exercise should be about fitness....calorie burn is just a small perk.

Serah87

Your a 42 year old male, 1200 calories is way to low!!!!

You need to probably eat twice that amount depending on your exercises.

I ate way more to lose weight and I am 45 years old and 5'2.