Calorie deficit question

Lorilynn_37

Hi everyone!
I feel like a dork but can someone explain to me using simple example/words what exactly a calorie deficit is?
Is it eating with calories left over which is the deficit? Or is it something else?
I've been on mfp for a little less than a year and have lost 31 pounds but haven't lost successfully in almost 3 months.
I think I'm doing something wrong and the weight came off easy because I was overweight..?

37 years old
Sw 192
Cw 160
Gw 145

CoachJen71

Your body needs X calories to function. A deficit is eating fewer calories than you require to stay at your current weight.

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My story.

shadow2soul

Deficit is the difference between your maintenance and your calorie goal.

If you maintain on 2000 cals a day for example and tell MFP you want to lose 1 lb per week you will get a goal of 1500. Your 1500 calorie goal would put you at a 500 calorie deficit.

cwolfman13

If you set up your profile with your stats and activity level and desired rate of loss target, the calorie goal you get is your deficit...the calculator does it for you. Your calorie goal isn't maintenance...

Using my numbers...MFP will give me a calorie goal of 1,900 calories before exercise if I want to lose about 1 Lb per week...this means MFP is estimating my non exercise maintenance level to be around 2,400 calories. 2,400-1,900 = 500 calorie deficit.

NorthCascades

I make $10 a day. But I like expensive burritos, and I spend $15 a day on my lunch. It's the only money I spend all day because I live in prison. You don't have to be a math genius to realize I'm running my savings down, at the rate of $5 a day.

If I go into a coma, I'll burn around 1,500 calories a day. But I'm not in one now; I kind of have to pee, the bathroom is way over there, and the only way to get there from here is walking. Now walking to the bathroom isn't exactly a workout, but it's activity, and that burns calories. It's not the only thing I'll do today, either; I'll walk to my car so I can drive home. Maybe I'll work in the garden. For sure my heart will beat all day long and this muscle called a diaphragm will expand and contract my lungs to make me breathe ... all of this burns calories. If I don't exercise today, I might burn 2,500 of them. If I exercise, it might be more. Let's call it 2,500 for today. That's like my $10 income.

I'll eat 2,000 calories today. And I burned 2,500 without deliberate exercise. That leaves me with a 500 calorie deficit. That's how much more I burned than I ate. You remember the part about running my savings down? We're talking about calories now, so my savings are fat deposits in my body.

(I don't really live in prison, by the way.)

Lorilynn_37 wrote: »

I think I'm doing something wrong and the weight came off easy because I was overweight..?

When people first get started with most of their weight to lose, their bodies burn more calories at rest (just because they're bigger!) and exercise often burns more calories (because you're moving more weight) so it's really easy at first. You can make fairly sizeable mistakes and still make progress. As the weight comes off, your margins for error go down, and you have to be more and more careful to lose weight. It sounds like you've made a lot of progress, though, so you must be doing something right.

middlehaitch

Have you reassessed your caloric needs since losing the 30 lbs?
The goal MFP started you with is too high now you are 30lbs lighter.

Go into MFP and redo your goal with your weight now. If you have less than 15 lbs to go to your goal change your rate of loss to .5 lbs a week.

Cheers, h.

Lorilynn_37

middlehaitch wrote: »

Have you reassessed your caloric needs since losing the 30 lbs?
The goal MFP started you with is too high now you are 30lbs lighter.

Go into MFP and redo your goal with your weight now. If you have less than 15 lbs to go to your goal change your rate of loss to .5 lbs a week.

Cheers, h.

Thank you! I will do that

Tacklewasher

@Lorilynn_37 I hope you got your question answered. Too bad about the sidetrack, but please ignore what the new poster has posted. It's not helpful and not based in reality. If you still have questions, post them and hopefully they can be answered in a reasonable fashion.

GottaBurnEmAll

OP, I hope you had your initial question answered as to what a deficit is and understand. Wrapping my mind around it was life-changing. I used to be a bookkeeper and understanding that managing calories was like balancing books (or a checkbook or budget) made a huge difference for me.

veganbaum

OP - I hope you got your answer.

Having a deficit simply means you are eating less than your body needs to maintain its current weight. You said something about "having calories left over" - I hope that doesn't mean you are eating under the goal that MFP gave you. If you told MFP that you want to lose weight at "x" lbs/week, then the calorie goal MFP gives you is just that - a goal. It's a number to meet, not go under. It is generally not beneficial to make your deficit as big as you possibly can.

If you have stopped "losing" weight for about 4-6 weeks, then it's time to adjust. I say "losing" because sometimes people say that when they're just not losing every week like they used to, or are losing half a pound a week, etc. Also, if you only weigh once a week, you may have missed a low weight day. If you have stopped losing for about 4-6 weeks, readjust your goal, and take a look at the accuracy of your food logging. Accuracy with logging is most often the culprit, and that includes ensuring that the foods you choose in the database are accurate as there are a lot of terrible entries.

Finally, please understand that calorie counting is not CICO. All CICO means is calories in, calories out. If your calories in (what you eat) are more than your calories out (what your body burns), you will gain weight. If your calories in are equal to your calories out, your body will maintain weight. If your calories in are less than your calories out (you are eating at a deficit of calories), your body will lose weight. Makes sense, right? It doesn't need to be more complicated than that. Realize that the number MFP (or any other calculator gives you) is just an estimate. You may find that the estimate is slightly off for you and you need to adjust. Give yourself 4-6 weeks before adjusting.

Beyond that calculation, you just need to work off of your personal data to find out which foods/food combinations are most satiating for you, and for health reasons it's of course a good idea to eat a balanced diet. I know you didn't ask about that, but I'm just posting that because of the other information posted in this thread.

Alex

Note: this discussion got seriously derailed and has been split in two. If you are looking to debate calorie deficits, go here. Otherwise please get back to the OP's questions. Thanks to everyone who has already chimed in to offer guidance.