Calorie deficit

danholloway13

Hi guys can anyone help? I'm using Fitbit with myfitnesspal. One is saying I have 598 calories left and the other is saying I have about 50 calories more left. Which one do I trust? As well what happens if I don't eat enough calories a day? Cheers and thanks for your advice.

janejellyroll

Choose one and go with it. If your devices are synced and you're using MFP to track your food, just go with that one.

If you don't eat enough regularly, you'll compromise your nutrition and health. Even when you're losing weight, you need food for nutrition and energy. If you eat too little, you'll lose extra muscle. Most people don't want that -- it's the fat we want to get rid of.

Nicklebee93

I'm not sure i completely understand... are you logging all your calories/food in both? Are the extra calories net calories? Meaning you added in exercise and it's giving you more that you're allowed to eat?

If it's net calories, most people eat about 50%-75% back of those. So you could realistically eat about 100-250 back, not the whole 598, if you wanted to of course.

Jamiempang

Keep in mind that BOTH are machines. There is no heart rate device that will monitor your calories burned accurately. Also, MFP isn't even trying to read you. It just goes by what you tell it. Set your calories and macros and eat them. Stick to them. If you aren't losing you will know that something is up and you can tweak it from there. If you don't eat enough your body will go into starvation mode and start storing fat. Also your metabolism will slow down to compensate. You don't want that to happen.

danholloway13

If mfp is saying I have 600 calories left but I'm not hungry would that be a problem?

janejellyroll

danholloway13 wrote: »

If mfp is saying I have 600 calories left but I'm not hungry would that be a problem?

Within the context of a single day, no. Regularly coming 600 short could wind up really sabotaging your health and energy.

If someone had 600 calories left and wasn't hungry, first I would want to verify they were logging properly (choosing correct entries, weighing all solid foods). If they truly were, then it would be a great time to look for calorie-dense foods to add to the daily plan.

minamina27

I think fitbit gives you the amount of calories to eat that you have amassed upto the point when you check it whereas Mfp assumes the calories you will have by the end of the day.

mejaneucoconut

I use both mfp and fitbit. I went to the website IIFYM and they set my cal. intake, my macros, and gave me instruction to workout. Before I was cutting cal. and working out and had almost 1500 to 2000 cal left a day. I was tired and really hit a wall. The new program is hard because I have to eat so many cal. but it is working. Cutting cal. too much does have a detrimental effect. I tried to get advice from people and I was only confused more. Don't cut too much. The idea of more is better isn't really appropriate when cutting cal. Be reasonable. This is only my opinion and others with more experience may say different. I can only go by what happened to me. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I was working hard and spinning my wheels going nowhere and feeling horrible.

kimny72

You might have the settings different on each one. Double check your goals, stats, and activity level on both.

I allow negative adjustments from Fitbit, and the calories will be pretty close on both.

NorthCascades

janejellyroll wrote: »

If someone had 600 calories left and wasn't hungry, first I would want to verify they were logging properly (choosing correct entries, weighing all solid foods). If they truly were, then it would be a great time to look for calorie-dense foods to add to the daily plan.

Most weekends I go out and do a 50+ mile bike ride. This burns about 2,000 kCal, as measured (not estimated, measured) with a power meter. At max I'll eat a bag of peanut M&Ms during the ride, so it usually involves skipping a meal, sometimes two. If I go at a low to moderate intensity, I don't end up being that hungry at the end, so I wind up with big, legitimate deficits. The hunger usually comes on the next day. Even if I go at a higher intensity and build more hunger, I still wind up with an appetite the next day, no matter how much I eat after the ride. So (after a big effort) I usually eat until I'm full, leave a deficit, and then go over the following day, which doesn't bother me because of the deficit I had the previous day.

LazSommer

Trust no one.