Question about calorie deficits. How low is too low?

prettysoul1908

Hi guys,

What's a safe deficit regarding MFP's goals? I am allotted 1340 calories a day to lose 1 pound a week. In most cases I am under my goal (I don't mind eating back my exercise calories) and for the most part I am not feeling deprived (a little overzealous, yes... But not deprived)

I've seen posts from others who go below their goal and then go way over from deprivation in a yo yo pattern. I know this response is individualized but is there a "danger zone"?

I've been tracking my calories through MFP for almost a week and a half (cut back about a month ago) and I'm learning a lot from this forum and am trying to avoid pitfalls.

All feedback welcome.

nordlead2005

That is impossible to nail down, as one person may not be able to go over a 250 calorie deficit while another person can have a 1500 calorie deficit (i.e. size matters). I easily ate at a 1000 calorie deficit for 2 months straight when I started at 220lb, but not everyone can or should do that.

Find what works for you. If you start to really crave food, instead of binging increase your calorie intake by 200 calories/day, or even go to maintenance for a while. Also, what/when you eat can have a big impact on your ability to stick to your deficit. Experiment with different things until you find something you can easily stick to. For me, that is skipping breakfast, a decent sized lunch and dinner, and a snack in the evening.

Bshmerlie

I personally don't think you should go any lower. 1340 calories is already low enough. If you just started out the 1340 will probably seem pretty easy but when you hit the 2nd month for some reason it becomes a little more difficult. Just make sure you are weighing your food and try and find a routine that you can settle into and be comfortable with. Remember this is a marathon and not a sprint.

prettysoul1908

Such great advice. I'm going out to buy a food scale today.

And it probably is "beginners luck" that I haven't had any issue with hunger just yet with such a deficit. Or maybe it's the lack of a scale and I'm really eating more! Lol. I have lost 3.8 pounds in the past 10 days so I'm thinking I'm probably having some kind of deficit

And I have a hard time eating breakfast too! Is it really just bs that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Except a piece of fruit or something small... I prefer not to eat until mid morning... Even lunch.

Thanks again guys for the feedback. Trying to make sure I'm not settling myself up for failure in the long run

Francl27

mhaskins08 wrote: »

Such great advice. I'm going out to buy a food scale today.

And it probably is "beginners luck" that I haven't had any issue with hunger just yet with such a deficit. Or maybe it's the lack of a scale and I'm really eating more! Lol. I have lost 3.8 pounds in the past 10 days so I'm thinking I'm probably having some kind of deficit

And I have a hard time eating breakfast too! Is it really just bs that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Except a piece of fruit or something small... I prefer not to eat until mid morning... Even lunch.

Thanks again guys for the feedback. Trying to make sure I'm not settling myself up for failure in the long run

Then by all means skip breakfast! You don't have to eat breakfast. My days go better if I have a later breakfast myself, but unfortunately I'm one of the persons who's usually hungry in the morning... so I eat. But you really don't have to.

Just keep in mind that you often lose a bunch of water weight at first... weight loss will slow down after. And if you're not weighing and eating all your exercise calories, you might be overestimating your exercise calories and not have as much of a deficit than you think.. but with 16 pounds to lose even a 250-300 calorie deficit is fine.

SueInAz

If you are counting calories, when you eat has little bearing on your weight loss. I rarely eat more than a 200 calorie protein bar before 11:00am on workdays and on weekends I don't usually eat breakfast at all.

Weight loss the first couple of weeks usually involves dropping a lot of water weight from the difference in what you're eating (most drop a lot of processed foods in favor of whole foods) so don't be fooled into thinking that's the rate you'll be losing at for much longer. If you are, it may be a sign that you need to re-evaluate your calorie goal. A good guideline is not to lose more than 1% of your weight from week to week; as you lose weight 1% will be fewer and fewer pounds and ounces.

prettysoul1908

Damn water weight. I would love it if
It were 3.8 pounds of fat. But it's probably mostly attributed to cutting down on the booze. Since cutting back on that I've lost 10 pounds total (almost a month)

How long does water weight fall off and when can I look forward to burning this damn fat? Lol

MarcyKirkton

I judge by my rate of loss. Every reputable source says 1 to 2 lbs per week is within healthy range, more under doctor's care. So long as I'm losing steadily but not excessively, I can tell I'm eating enough.

SueInAz

mhaskins08 wrote: »

Damn water weight. I would love it if
It were 3.8 pounds of fat. But it's probably mostly attributed to cutting down on the booze. Since cutting back on that I've lost 10 pounds total (almost a month)

How long does water weight fall off and when can I look forward to burning this damn fat? Lol

Oh, you've been losing fat, too, right at around the rate that corresponds to how much less you're eating than your calorie intake level. When we lose weight, it's always going to be a combination of fat, water and muscle. It's just at the beginning when, due to your change in diet, excess water gets released quickly. After this, you should start settling in to the rate of loss you'll see for awhile at that calorie level.

Yi5hedr3

Anything more than 20% would be aggressive and should be of short duration.

ahoy_m8

Do you know how many pounds of fat you have? Rule of thumb is 1 lb fat can provide up to 30 kcal energy per day. If you have 100 lb fat, you can handle a huge deficit. If you have 20 lb fat, losing more than 1lb/wk puts LBM at risk. Some on here say this metabolic limit been debunked, but I've personally never read anything contradicting it.

random5483

You will get different answers here. Some fairly general points:

1. Eat no less than 1500 calories if male and 1200 calories if female. If you are on the very small size or under medical supervision, going lower might be fine. If you are a large sized male/female, this is probably too low.

2. Aim to lose no more than 2 lbs a week. It's best to aim for something less than 2 lbs unless you are very large. If you want to preserve muscle, a 10-20% TDEE deficit is probably best. 25-30% deficit might be okay if you are willing to loose muscle. TDEE is a better way of determining maximum safe loss than the MFP formula (IMO).

3. If you don't care about preserving muscle, you can have a larger deficit. But most larger people have muscles under the fat. Preserving some of it will help you avoid being skinny fat. Building muscle takes years. If you want that toned or muscular look, it will be quicker to achieve if you slow down your weight loss.

PAV8888

10%-20% deficit off of your TDEE. Up to 25% maybe while you remain obese. Avoid eating less than your BMR for extended periods of time.

The above combination together with eating ABOUT 1g of protein and AT LEAST 0.45g of fat per lb of body-weight at a BMI of 22 ought to give your average snowflake as good a chance as anything at a healthy weight loss with minimal LBM lost, especially when combined with a progressive weight training plan.

Obviously if you're very large, or very small, or have other considerations...

TDEE can be calculated through observation over a period of time and from weekly/monthly figures provided by trackers such as Fitbit and its ilk. It can also be initially estimated using web sites such as scooby's accurate calorie calculator

BMR can be calculated using: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

I remind you that water weight changes due to glycogen, sodium, muscle repair, hormones are an order of magnitude larger than any underlying fat level changes.

People have a weight level, not a single point of time weight. You CAN weigh the same today as you did 3 weeks ago AND be losing FAT at a rate of 1+ lbs a week!

Use web sites such as www.weightracker.com, www.trendweight.com (which I use), Libra for Android, Happy Scale for iPhone to see the changes to your underlying weight level as opposed to your daily water weight fluctuations!