Calorie deficit?

ZumbaZumbaBabe

I'm new at this does MFP already count your calorie deficit for weight loss into your calories for the day?

queenliz99

Not sure what you are asking. Have you read the stickies at the top of the boards? Like this one? Good stuff

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10257474/starting-out-restarting-basics-inside/p1

shed77f

It does take your deficit off before giving you your calories, I think that's what you're asking. You then add on your exercise & can eat those (or most commonly a portion of those) calories back too!

Only caveat being that there's a minimum of 1200 calories for women & 1500 for men. So it won't take you below that but tbh going lower than that wouldn't be healthy in any case.

Hope this helps x

ZumbaZumbaBabe

Thanks shed, that's what I was asking.

lynn_glenmont

If you set your goal to lose weight when you set up your profile, then the calorie goal that MFP gives you already includes a deficit. So if you eat the calories MFP suggests, you should lose weight.

Also, MFP does not account for any "exercise" you say you will do when it gives you your calorie goal. It treats your exercise plans that as aspirational, just to give you something to compare the exercise you log to. So if you log exercise, MFP will add calories to your daily goal. Most people find that MFP's estimates for exercise calories are high and will only "eat back" a portion of them, perhaps 50% to 75%, or they will only log half the time they actually exercised, and then eat all the calories MFP gives them for their low-ball exercise logging.

However, MFP does not intend for you to include "exercise" in your activity level, which is only supposed to be your regular daily activity (does your job include a lot of walking, lifting, and carrying, or are you sitting in front of a computer all day? same thing at home -- are you tending a couple of toddlers all day, or are you sitting in a car chauffering older kids for a big chunk of the day?).

If you mentally accounted for the exercise you planned to do when you told MFP what your activity level is (sedentary, lightly active, active, very active), then make sure you're not double-counting by eating the calories MFP gives you when you log exercise. Or go back and edit your profile to use it the way it was designed to be used.