Calorie deficit or fixed # of calories?

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lmbecker12
lmbecker12 Posts: 46 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm fairly new to MFP but have been tracking my food intake for years off and on. Previously I've done WW with the point plus system. My question....do most of you typically try to lose weight using the calorie deficit approach (i.e. more exercise you do, more calories you can eat) or a fixed number of calories? I know with WW you earned activity points and you could choose to use them or not...trying to figure out the better approach when looking at calories.

I have about 30 lbs to lose and have set my goals to lose 1.5 lbs a week. On my fitbit that's a deficit of 750 calories per day. Without exercise that would be typically 1450 calories a day or so.

This is week 4 for me and have lost 8.4 lbs....the first 8 was the first two weeks when I was going by a fixed # of calories...the 0.4 was last week when I was working under the calorie deficit approach....I know part of the original 8 was water weight....

Thoughts?
Lisa

Replies

  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    If you are confident in your calorie burn tracking then you can adjust your daily calorie intake to reflect the different burn levels each day. If not just stick with what MFP sets.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Do what works for you... Feel free to adjust from time to time as it seems appropriate. If you feel fine eating 1450/day - then do that. But if you occasionally have a day where you seem to need more, don't feel about to eat more. The goal is long term success - and what worked for me might not be the best for someone else.
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
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    Both methods are actually calorie deficits. MFP gives you a built in deficit - and you make that deficit larger by exercising. Most people lose fairly quickly in the beginning because of water weight. That slows down, which is normal and good.

    My answer depends on one question really - what do you use to track your exercise?
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I use the calorie goal MFP gave me and eat back about half of the extra calories from exercise.

    Both things you talk about are deficits.
  • suruda
    suruda Posts: 1,233 Member
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    I am typically a slow loser, less than 1/2 pound a week after the initial hurrah. Because of that, I try to not eat back my activity calories. That being said...there are times when I want something extra and I'm happy to have a few there.
  • healthy_life2015
    healthy_life2015 Posts: 215 Member
    edited April 2015
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    I typically do not eat back my exercise calories, but I allow myself to if I am particularly hungry.

    If you are set to lose 1.5 lb a week, then you need a deficit of 750 calories per day. How you get to that deficit is up to you. You can eat 750 calories below maintenance, you can eat 250 below maintenance and burn 500, you can eat 500 below and burn 250 etc. It is really up to you!

  • lmbecker12
    lmbecker12 Posts: 46 Member
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    TheVirgoddess wrote: »
    Both methods are actually calorie deficits. MFP gives you a built in deficit - and you make that deficit larger by exercising. Most people lose fairly quickly in the beginning because of water weight. That slows down, which is normal and good.

    My answer depends on one question really - what do you use to track your exercise?

    I've just been walking on my treadmill and outdoors now that the weather is good so I'm using my fitbit to determine calorie burn.

    You are correct in that both are calorie deficit methods....I guess I worded that poorly...maybe the better question would be whether you "eat" your calories gained from exercise or stick with the fixed calorie amount.
  • brisingr86
    brisingr86 Posts: 1,789 Member
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    Are you asking whether or not to eat back exercise calories or about the difference between daily adjustments vs. a TDEE-20% approach?

    Regarding the first, if you're doing more activity, your body needs more calories to function, so you probably need to eat at least a portion of exercise calories back (assuming you're tracking food intake accurately). If you don't eat them back, you may lose more quickly because you have a higher deficit, but it may not be healthy loss and your body is probably going to revolt eventually if you're not giving it enough to function and do the extra activities you want to do.

    If you're asking about daily adjustments (eat more on days you exercise, eat less on rest days), vs TDEE (you account for your exercise up front and spread out the extra calories so you can eat more on rest days, but don't get as many extra calories on days you work-out), I like the TDEE method because I just have one number to aim for, but I'm really bad at being consistent with workouts, so I usually do a bit better taking it one day at a time.

    Hope one of these helps. There are lots of other threads on each of these topics.

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