Male, 30, is my calorie deficit too big?

jfrenk2017

Hi all,

I've been on MFP for about two weeks now and want to make sure I'm setting myself up for success.

Background - With the goals I entered MFP says my net calories should be 1,750, playing around I found that to maintain my weight would require 2,250 so already I'm starting with a deficit of 500. I'm 190 lbs, not sure what my body fat % is but I'd guess it's high 20s or low 30s, highly concentrated in my gut!

My concern - I'm rarely getting to the 1750 net as I've been averaging about 1500 thus far, so with an additional 250 deficit there I'm 750 under compared to maintenance. No issues with energy or anything along those lines as I feel good throughout the day as well as during workouts/sports, I guess I'm just wondering if being consistently lower than 1,750 will have an adverse impact on my goal of getting rid of my belly. If the info provided is too vague I'm happy to provide more, just let me know.

Thanks in advance!

janejellyroll

1,500 is the absolute lowest that most men should go, so you're potentially putting your nutrition at risk as well as your lean muscle if you're logging accurately (sometimes people think they are having trouble meeting their goal due to logging issues and they're actually eating more than they think they are).

If you have extra weight, it shouldn't be an issue for you to meet your goal unless you've cut too many foods out of your diet. Why is it hard for you to eat 1,500?

serindipte

What did you set your goal weight loss to? One or two lbs per week?

VintageFeline

What's your gross? We don't know how many calories you think you're burning during workouts so we don't know if 1500 net is a problem.

That said, pretty easy to just have a snickers or protein shake with fruit or even a soda to bring your calories up.

jfrenk2017

My goal was to lose 1 lb per week. So far my gross calories are averaging around 2000, I've had a couple big workout days where food was over 2000 and I hit my 1750 net but most days I hover around 2000 and get to 1500 net. I'm much more confident in my food logging than my exercise logging which brings me to my next bit.

One thing I should've noted is that my calories burned is taken from my garmin forerunner with a heart rate monitor. I've read that these aren't necessarily very accurate but it's all I've got to measure calories burned during my hockey games, I estimate a conservative number for my gym workouts since I typically don't wear the gear doing weights. So I'll admit that it's possible I'm burning less than I think and my net may actually be higher.

If need be I could add a snack to narrow the gap, I've just never had the hunger or felt the need for it.

KimberHenry3

I wouldn't add a snack and keep doing what you're doing. Eat what you feel comfortable eating. Exercise calories are usually massively overestimated, so eating them back is risky as the net can't be trusted. Atm your net is probably closer to 1700 anyway.

janejellyroll

KimberHenry3 wrote: »

I wouldn't add a snack and keep doing what you're doing. Eat what you feel comfortable eating. Exercise calories are usually massively overestimated, so eating them back is risky as the net can't be trusted. Atm your net is probably closer to 1700 anyway.

Overestimation would mean that eating them all back (without checking for accuracy) would be risky. But just because we can't be sure how much we're burning doesn't mean we should assume we aren't burning *anything*. Eating a portion back would not be risky, especially if one was logging carefully and paying attention to results.

If you were unsure of how much fuel your car was using per mile, would you assume you never had to fill the tank?

TimothyFish

It sounds to me like you are doing fine. Don't go below 1,500 on a regular basis, but if you aren't hungry then 1,500 isn't hurting you.

lemonychild

Keep doing what u doing, don't change now, eventually you'll have to though in order to make this sustainable

KimberHenry3

janejellyroll wrote: »

KimberHenry3 wrote: »

I wouldn't add a snack and keep doing what you're doing. Eat what you feel comfortable eating. Exercise calories are usually massively overestimated, so eating them back is risky as the net can't be trusted. Atm your net is probably closer to 1700 anyway.

Overestimation would mean that eating them all back (without checking for accuracy) would be risky. But just because we can't be sure how much we're burning doesn't mean we should assume we aren't burning *anything*. Eating a portion back would not be risky, especially if one was logging carefully and paying attention to results.

If you were unsure of how much fuel your car was using per mile, would you assume you never had to fill the tank?

Don't try to correct me without reading my post. I didn't say don't eat anything back. OP said he is eating 2000 cals so obvi he is eating a portion of them back and he should keep doing what he is doing.

janejellyroll

KimberHenry3 wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

KimberHenry3 wrote: »

I wouldn't add a snack and keep doing what you're doing. Eat what you feel comfortable eating. Exercise calories are usually massively overestimated, so eating them back is risky as the net can't be trusted. Atm your net is probably closer to 1700 anyway.

Overestimation would mean that eating them all back (without checking for accuracy) would be risky. But just because we can't be sure how much we're burning doesn't mean we should assume we aren't burning *anything*. Eating a portion back would not be risky, especially if one was logging carefully and paying attention to results.

If you were unsure of how much fuel your car was using per mile, would you assume you never had to fill the tank?

Don't try to correct me without reading my post. I didn't say don't eat anything back. OP said he is eating 2000 cals so obvi he is eating a portion of them back and he should keep doing what he is doing.

I was responding to this: "Exercise calories are usually massively overestimated, so eating them back is risky as the net can't be trusted." If you didn't mean that eating exercise calories back was risky, I apologize for misunderstanding you. I assumed the "them" you were referring to were calories burned through activity.

red99ryder

I think it sounds like your doing good .. watch the scale and it will tell you what correction you may need to make if any ... then make adjustments

Now if I could figure a way out that would let me have your extra calories!!!!!!#

Good luck