How do you determine your calorie deficit?

mgring01

Hello! I'm pretty new to this. I gained weight after suffering a life-threatening car accident that left me in a wheelchair for four months.

My recovery is 12-18 months, and it's only been about 8, but I can move again, and I really want to lose about 30 pounds. I'm 5'7" and currently weigh about 160-165 lbs. I'm a 22 year old female. I don't have my measurements, I apologize.

My goal is to lose 1-2 pounds a week, and MFP told me my calorie intake should be at 1,200 a day.

Today I burned roughly 400 calories and only ate 400 calories worth of food (I'm a little under the weather and have no appetite).

Should I be TRYING to eat 1,200 calories and THEN trying to burn that much? What is an accepable amount of calories to have at the end of the day? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

Ready2Rock206

You burn calories just by being alive. So MFP is telling you to eat 1200 calories to lose weight. If you exercise you get to eat the number you burned too. So if you went to the gym and burned 400 calories you could eat 1600 and still lose weight.

With only 30 lbs to lose your goal of 1-2 a week may be a bit aggressive. Also since you're still in the healing stages you don't want to deprive yourself of the nutrients you need to get healthy. One day of eating low isn't a huge deal but consistently eating so little can have major impacts on your health, especially in your situation. Best of luck to you.

mgring01

This was very helpful. Thank you for your advice!

red99ryder

mgring01 wrote: »

Hello! I'm pretty new to this. I gained weight after suffering a life-threatening car accident that left me in a wheelchair for four months.

My recovery is 12-18 months, and it's only been about 8, but I can move again, and I really want to lose about 30 pounds. I'm 5'7" and currently weigh about 160-165 lbs. I'm a 22 year old female. I don't have my measurements, I apologize.

My goal is to lose 1-2 pounds a week, and MFP told me my calorie intake should be at 1,200 a day.

Today I burned roughly 400 calories and only ate 400 calories worth of food (I'm a little under the weather and have no appetite).

Should I be TRYING to eat 1,200 calories and THEN trying to burn that much? What is an accepable amount of calories to have at the end of the day? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

I have been in your shoes and gained weight because i was immobile and frankly didnt care , just ate what i wanted . I have just been using numbers from MFP to get my calories to eat . i dont track any exercise but i dont do alot anyway right now . 1200 is the lowest MFP will set a woman as far as i know . Do a search for TDEE sites to calculate calories as well , but from what i seen they all line up with MFP pretty close . i had to drop my goal of 2 pounds to 1.5 pounds a week , i just needed more food was always going over so i changed it . Pretty soon ill have to drop down to 1 pound a week i HOPE .

To answer your question , yes you need to eat the 1200 calories , your body needs that , and that is after exercise , so for example your goal 1200 ,, plus you exercise 400 calories ,, equal 1600 .. you should eat 1600 calories to net 1200 .. now some cut back eating all exercise calories .. its a good ball park to get you going in the right direction

Some other advise , read the thread at the top of the page , they explain thing way better than i can ,, Just a rookie here . I do know it seems slow and it is i guess , but for me as long as my weight is going in the direction i want it too and i can live with what im eating is what i care about .

good luck

afatpersonwholikesfood

I wouldn't go for more than 1 pound per week at your size. You'll be cranky and lose muscle. MFP is setting you at 1,200 because that's the lowest it will go. You likely will not lose 2 pounds per week eating 1,200, and you shouldn't be going below that. Like someone else pointed out, that 1,200 is your net amount after eating back exercise calories. You don't have to eat back all of them, but you should eat back some. Just go by the MFP goal, log your exercise, and carefully log what you eat.