what in the heck am i not getting

bblue656

I am just so confused.
So is the base calories that MFP gives me, my deficit?
And should i be eating all my calories back from exercise, i usually leave about 300-400.
Im just so confused as to what a deficit is, but does MFP calculate that for you already when you sign up? Or where do i implement it??

T0M_K

so when you put in your stats...MFP gives you a calorie level based upon your age/weight/gender/activity level and your desired weight loss per week. this is the amount you should eat to lose at that rate.

If you exercise and log it , you can eat more calories and MFP should show you exercise calories added to your previously stated level. I'd recommend eating only 50% of those until you see how things are going and you are losing at the appropriate level. then you can adust.

T0M_K

o and you can go to your home page, then settings and select update diet/fitness profile and make adjustments there to get you to the correct calorie intake amount.

bblue656

Thank you! I've been reading everything and couldnt get a good answer!

courtneyfabulous

You input your weight, height age, activity level AND the amount of weight you want to lose & how fast- myfitnesspal will set your calories for you and this DOES include your deficit (a deficit is the amount of calories less than you burn which causes weight loss because if you burn more calories than you eat your body uses your body fat to make up the difference).

You should eat the amount of calories it has set for you, not more, and not less either- if you eat 300 to 400 less than it tells you to eat you will be in too much of a deficit and not eating enough calories to be healthy or have enough energy. You will get sick, feel tired, your metabolism will slow down too much... really not a good idea to eat any less than your daily calorie goal.

T0M_K

bblue656 wrote: »

Thank you! I've been reading everything and couldnt get a good answer!

yw. let me know if that works for you and your set. i'm sure a bazillion others with chime in eventually.

RoxieDawn

When you setup your account and entered in all your stats, MFP gave you the calorie goal for you to eat each day to lose weight (already has the deficit in that number). Exercise is to be added to the these calories so yes you eat them back..

Perhaps reading some of the stickies called Most Helpful Posts found at the beginning of the forums will help you out. the link below has a step by step detailed layout to help you and information on the exercise calories as well.

http://fit101.org/the-step-by-step-guide-to-losing-weight-with-myfitnesspal/

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

Spook_Skywalker

Tomk652015 wrote: »

so when you put in your stats...MFP gives you a calorie level based upon your age/weight/gender/activity level and your desired weight loss per week. this is the amount you should eat to lose at that rate.

If you exercise and log it , you can eat more calories and MFP should show you exercise calories added to your previously stated level. I'd recommend eating only 50% of those until you see how things are going and you are losing at the appropriate level. then you can adust.

Tom's got it. From what I've gathered MFP is pretty generous with calories burned. I've worn HRM's and then entered my activity into MFP and seen up to 300 calorie variance. So, I would start with eating half the calories back and just see how things are going.

Make sure you are accurate with your daily activity level to get a accurate TDEE calculation. If that's estimated too high you will be eating at more of a maintenance rather than a deficit.

TeaBea

Let's say a sedentary woman uses 2000 calories a day (this will be based on your height, weight, age, gender and activity level). That 2000 includes basic bodily function + more for activity level. Then you tell MFP you want to lose 1 pound a week. MFP has to take 500 calories away from that (because 7 x 500 = 3500).

So in this example your calories would be 2000 - 500 = 1500 per day.

MFP doesn't assume anyone will exercise, some people can't. So that 1500 includes activity BEFORE exercise. So ideally you eat 100% of your exercise calories and you lose the amount of weight you signed up for. However, calorie burns are estimates. It's best to eat back a percentage (say half)....and then adjust up or down depending upon actual progress.

Sign up, fill in your stats, choose lose weight, maintain, or gain. Then MEET that calorie goal......log exercise & eat a percentage of that too.

T0M_K

RoxieDawn wrote: »

When you setup your account and entered in all your stats, MFP gave you the calorie goal for you to eat each day to lose weight (already has the deficit in that number). Exercise is to be added to the these calories so yes you eat them back..

Perhaps reading some of the stickies called Most Helpful Posts found at the beginning of the forums will help you out. the link below has a step by step detailed layout to help you and information on the exercise calories as well.

http://fit101.org/the-step-by-step-guide-to-losing-weight-with-myfitnesspal/

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

This young lady is a smart one. you'll want to listen to her advice FYI.

cwolfman13

Well..you put all of this info into the calculator and yes...the calculator calculates your target based on that info, including "I want to lose X Lbs per week...that's the whole reason you put all of that info in...so yes, your calorie target is your deficit.

When you enter your activity level, it is sans exercise with MFP...it is therefore unaccounted for activity in your activity level...you account for it by logging it and earning additional calories to "eat back"...

Look at it this way...If I tell MFP I'm sedentary (because I have a desk job) and I want to lose 1 Lb per week...and MFP gives me 1800 calories per day as a target...this means MFP is estimating my non-exercise maintenance calories to be around 2,300 calories...2,300 - 1,800 = 500 calorie deficit per day.

Now let's say I exercise and burn 300 calories...my new target is 2,100 calories but I can still lose that same pound per week because now my maintenance calories would have also moved from 2,300 to 2,600 and 2,600 - 2,100 = 500 calorie deficit.

Spliner1969

BMR = Basal Metabolic Rate = The rate at which your body burns calories just being alive but doing nothing else
TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expendature = BMR + your activity level including exercise

It's important to know both numbers. You can calculate them around the web, but I suggest using iifym.com and using their calculator. You can simply use their TDEE calculator to figure out the amount of calories you can eat to maintain your weight based on your daily burn with or without exercise. I suggest figuring it first without.

So for instance, if I go to IIFYM.com, use their TDEE calculator, plug in that I'm male, 47 years old, 6'2" tall, 183 lbs, select total body weight formula, set my daily activities at sedimentary (I have a desk job), leave it on 0 days a week exercise with 0 minutes of exercise, and select light exercise level and calculate that.. it'll tell me my:

BMR = 1777
TDEE = 2044

So that means that if I lay around on the couch all day, with minimal effort, expend no real effort eating, getting up doing anything, etc. I'd burn 1777 calories a day. But, just walking around, going to work, sitting at my desk, going back and forth from lunch, cooking dinner, etc. etc. I actually will burn around 2044 calories a day. That means that on a normal day without exercising I can eat 2044 calories and not gain or lose weight.

Now comes the deficit.. a pound of fat is roughly calculated to be 3500 calories. So if you want to lose a pound a week, you need to figure in a weekly deficit of 3500 calories.. so that's 3500 divided by 7 days in a week or 500 calories a day.

Now, without exercising, if I want to lose 1 lb a week, I must now subtract 500 calories from my TDEE which is 2044, so my daily calorie goal is now 1544. My "deficit" is 500 calories a day, or 3500 calories a week. My daily goal is 1544 a day or 10808 a week (1544 * 7).

I personally use iifym's calculator to figure my deficit and macros then plug them into MFP, but that's hard to do if you are doing the free version of MFP. MFP's calculator does the same thing when it asks you how much you want to lose each week, it's deducting roughly 500 calories a day for each lb you want to lose and calculating your TDEE and subtracting that number.

Lastly.. comes exercise. If you didn't figure it in to your TDEE (most people don't) by plugging it into iifym.com (by answering those questions about how many days a week you exercise and for how many minutes) or telling MFP that you're anything other than sedimentary, then it'll add calories as you log them to your day.

How accurate are those exercise calories? Well that depends on how you calculated them. Whatever device you use will calculate it for you, some will even link to MFP and enter it for you automatically. I use an iPhone coupled with an app called Endomondo, and pair my phone also with a heart rate strap to try and be as accurate as possible. For me, it is about 85% accurate. So I can easily eat back 85% of my exercise calories it gives me each day. So if it gives me an extra 500 calories, 85% of that is 425. So it would look something like this:

1544 per day goal + 500 exercise = 2044 available to eat today after exercise. But, I only want to eat back 425 calories of that 500, so I would want to make sure I had left 75 calories when I finish the day. It gets more tedious as you add more exercise, or allow MFP to count steps and add calories in for you, but you get the picture. It's not so hard once you've been doing it a while.

So in your original question, your deficit is how much under your TDEE that you have set yourself. Your calorie goal set by MFP after answering questions by it's wizard, is not your deficit, it's what you can eat today and still be IN a deficit to lose weight.