Calorie Deficit question

Diyamommy

As per definition, calorie deficit is burn more than you consume. How are you all doing that? I am eating about 1200-1320 (1320 is my allowed daily calories) every day and I go to the gym and try to burn about 300 calories. How am I ever going to create a deficit?

257_Lag

Unless you are really tiny, 1320 is already at a deficit. That's how MFP works. And if you burn 300 calories you can eat another 300 calories and still be at the correct deficit.

jacksonpt

When you hear "calorie burn" that's not just from exercise. Your body is constantly burning calories regardless of what you are doing... so calorie burn refers to the total number of calories your body burns throughout the day. It's not just about exercise.

krrs1980

Your body burns calories all day long. When you set up MFP, you have to input your lifestyle. Mine is sedentary, which means that I don't do much (I have a desk job) and I'm still burning 1240 calories all day, not including what I do for exercise when I'm off work.

Diyamommy

Here is the site where I got my info from http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/caloriedeficit.html and it clearly states you eat 500-600 cals less than what you are burning. What I am asking is I do not have time to burn 1300 calories, I work full time, I have a 8 month old and a 35 year old husband who acts like a 2 year old.

Joehenny

Here is the site where I got my info from http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/caloriedeficit.html and it clearly states you eat 500-600 cals less than what you are burning. What I am asking is I do not have time to burn 1300 calories, I work full time, I have a 8 month old and a 35 year old husband who acts like a 2 year old.

You're clearly doing something wrong. Most likely you're eating at your base metabolic rate and not your energy expenditure.

Diyamommy

mps, thank you for clearing that, I just thought I just burn calories when I exercise. How do you track how much you are burning? Do you use a fit bit or something. I have one, but their calorie burnt count is way off. I am not sure how they calculate it. I just slow jogged for 5 mins and it showed I burnt 900 cals, which is ridiculous.

Your body burns calories all day long. When you set up MFP, you have to input your lifestyle. Mine is sedentary, which means that I don't do much (I have a desk job) and I'm still burning 1240 calories all day, not including what I do for exercise when I'm off work.

da_bears10089

Here is the site where I got my info from http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/caloriedeficit.html and it clearly states you eat 500-600 cals less than what you are burning. What I am asking is I do not have time to burn 1300 calories, I work full time, I have a 8 month old and a 35 year old husband who acts like a 2 year old.

you burn calories just existing. I typically burn around 2400-2500 calories a day between my workouts and normal daily activities. the website is saying that you should take 500-600 calories off of that... not just off of what you burn while working out.

TavistockToad

Unless you are really tiny, 1320 is already at a deficit. That's how MFP works. And if you burn 300 calories you can eat another 300 calories and still be at the correct deficit.

this!

when you put in that you wanted to lose 1lb per week (or whatever rate you chose) MFP created a deficit and told you to eat 1300....

da_bears10089

mps, thank you for clearing that, I just thought I just burn calories when I exercise. How do you track how much you are burning? Do you use a fit bit or something. I have one, but their calorie burnt count is way off. I am not sure how they calculate it. I just slow jogged for 5 mins and it showed I burnt 900 cals, which is ridiculous.

Your body burns calories all day long. When you set up MFP, you have to input your lifestyle. Mine is sedentary, which means that I don't do much (I have a desk job) and I'm still burning 1240 calories all day, not including what I do for exercise when I'm off work.

I use a fitbit one. It estimates your TDEE all day long, so most likely it doesn't saying that just for those 5 minutes you burned 900 calories... you most likely had burned rougly 900 calories so far that day

mcibty

Oh God please don't burn everything you eat in a day! That's not what it's telling you to do! MFP already works out your deficit for you, so if you burn an extra 300kcal at the gym - you eat those back!

workitoutwoman

mps, thank you for clearing that, I just thought I just burn calories when I exercise. How do you track how much you are burning? Do you use a fit bit or something. I have one, but their calorie burnt count is way off. I am not sure how they calculate it. I just slow jogged for 5 mins and it showed I burnt 900 cals, which is ridiculous.


MFP is ridiculous with the exercise calories. I have seen people burn 700 calories from 30 minutes of gardening. I find that difficult to believe. I use a polar heart rate monitor the wrist kind with a chest strap and manually log my exercise.

Diyamommy

mps, thank you for clearing that, I just thought I just burn calories when I exercise. How do you track how much you are burning? Do you use a fit bit or something. I have one, but their calorie burnt count is way off. I am not sure how they calculate it. I just slow jogged for 5 mins and it showed I burnt 900 cals, which is ridiculous.

Your body burns calories all day long. When you set up MFP, you have to input your lifestyle. Mine is sedentary, which means that I don't do much (I have a desk job) and I'm still burning 1240 calories all day, not including what I do for exercise when I'm off work.

I use a fitbit one. It estimates your TDEE all day long, so most likely it doesn't saying that just for those 5 minutes you burned 900 calories... you most likely had burned rougly 900 calories so far that day

Actually that day I had forgotten to wear my fitbit, I just wore it when I started jogging. Maybe something was missing, dont know. But thank you for clearing that.

proverbs31ks

I am not sure i can post this websight here, but this is very helpful if it will post.... http://www.healthstatus.com/cgi-bin/calc/calculator.cgi

proverbs31ks

copy and paste it...it might help you understand how many calories you are burning per what you weigh.

z4dow

mps, thank you for clearing that, I just thought I just burn calories when I exercise. How do you track how much you are burning? Do you use a fit bit or something. I have one, but their calorie burnt count is way off. I am not sure how they calculate it. I just slow jogged for 5 mins and it showed I burnt 900 cals, which is ridiculous.

You have burn 900 calories from midnight till that moment not only from jogging but for breath, steps to bathroom, heartbeats, eating etc.

You use energy no matter what you're doing, even when sleeping. The Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day and fitbit tracks them too.

Fitbit is extremely accurate -at least for me- and help me lose 34 pounds in 4 and a half months.
Just eat less than fitbit's number and move more to see a bigger number of burned calories (from steps, stairs etc. plus your BMR).

Actually that day I had forgotten to wear my fitbit, I just wore it when I started jogging. Maybe something was missing, dont know. But thank you for clearing that.

You don't need to wear your fitbit to assume that you are alive (bmr calories) but you must wear it to know that you move.

melw2910

Here is the site where I got my info from http://straighthealth.com/pages/qna/caloriedeficit.html and it clearly states you eat 500-600 cals less than what you are burning. What I am asking is I do not have time to burn 1300 calories, I work full time, I have a 8 month old and a 35 year old husband who acts like a 2 year old.

The website you used has a calorie calculator which works out you daily energy requirement and gives you an estimated deficit. http://calorieneedscalculator.com/index.html

This is what it gave me

Age: 38
Height: 5 feet, 1 inches
Weight: 145 pounds
Activity Level: Sedentary (Little Exercise)
Gender: female
Basal Metabolic Rate: 1386
Calories needed to maintain your current weight: 1664
Calories needed to lose weight: 914 - 1164 (calorie deficit)
Calories needed to gain weight: 2164 - 2414 (calorie surplus)

So based on my age, height and weight my body needs 1644 cals per day to maintain and 1164 per day to lose 1lb a week. This is based on no exercise at all so any exercise I do I add the calories and can eat extra while still getting my 500 cal per day deficit.

Hope that helps.

da_bears10089

mps, thank you for clearing that, I just thought I just burn calories when I exercise. How do you track how much you are burning? Do you use a fit bit or something. I have one, but their calorie burnt count is way off. I am not sure how they calculate it. I just slow jogged for 5 mins and it showed I burnt 900 cals, which is ridiculous.

Your body burns calories all day long. When you set up MFP, you have to input your lifestyle. Mine is sedentary, which means that I don't do much (I have a desk job) and I'm still burning 1240 calories all day, not including what I do for exercise when I'm off work.

I use a fitbit one. It estimates your TDEE all day long, so most likely it doesn't saying that just for those 5 minutes you burned 900 calories... you most likely had burned rougly 900 calories so far that day

Actually that day I had forgotten to wear my fitbit, I just wore it when I started jogging. Maybe something was missing, dont know. But thank you for clearing that.

i could leave mine sitting on the counter all day long, and it will still treat it as if i was laying in bed all day, just existing. That will give you your true sedentary TDEE

foleyshirley

mps, thank you for clearing that, I just thought I just burn calories when I exercise. How do you track how much you are burning? Do you use a fit bit or something. I have one, but their calorie burnt count is way off. I am not sure how they calculate it. I just slow jogged for 5 mins and it showed I burnt 900 cals, which is ridiculous.

Your body burns calories all day long. When you set up MFP, you have to input your lifestyle. Mine is sedentary, which means that I don't do much (I have a desk job) and I'm still burning 1240 calories all day, not including what I do for exercise when I'm off work.

It was probably telling you that you had burned 900 calories up to that point in the day, not just for the 5 minutes. You have to go online and determine how much you burned for each exercise.

jacksonpt

I suggest you start over. Put down the gizmos and go back to the beginning. Read up on the basics of weight loss and nutrition, understand them. Figure out your numbers and go from there.

Sounds like you are trying to run before you have a good grasp on how to crawl.

savithny

Okay, to understand "calorie burn?". Try this:

Go to the goal setting in MFP and put in all your information about activity level, height, weight, age.

Look at that calorie goal. THAT is how many calories you burn every day. If you eat less than that, you will lose weight (eventually).

Go back and change it to "lose 0.5 pounds a day." Look at the new calorie goal. It's lower, but not as low as your previous goal, right?

MFP figures out how much you'd need to maintain your current weight, and then knocks off the number of calories for the rate of loss you request.

The number MFP comes up with includes all activity you included in your "Activity level" when you decided which one to pick. If you said "Oh, I walk to school every day, so I'm lightly active!" then you DO NOT log "walk to school" as an exercise event. If you said "Oh, I do an hour of zumba every night," then you don't get to log the Zumba.

So you log any activity you didn't count in your activity level, and MFP automatically changes your calorie goal!! It gives you more calories to work with to keep the SAME deficit it already calculated!

So: If you said "I go to the gym every day, so I'm moderately active," then MFP would have accounted for "moderate activity" in your maintenance level. Someone who is moderately active gets more calories in their daily goal than someone who picked "lightly active" or "sedentary." But the person who goes to the gym every day but said "Sedentary" can track those gym visits and earn extra calories for each visit. If each person is doing it right, they should end up with approximately the same total daily goal.

Life is, at some level, all "exercise." Remaining conscious is, to your body, an "activity" that requires fuel. Breathing, blinking, digesting food. Even sitting on the sofa watching TV requires some energy for your body to keep doing it. You are always, always burning calories at SOME rate until you are dead.