How do I accurately calculate my calories to be in a deficiency?

melpidal

This might be obvious but there's so many counters and info and I'm just unsure what's the most accurate?

janejellyroll

Do you mean how do you get a calorie goal or are you asking how do you accurately measure your intake to meet your goal?

melpidal

How to get a calorie goal

janejellyroll

melpidal wrote: »

How to get a calorie goal

This website has a pretty good one. I lost over 40 pounds using MFP's calorie goal.

rybo

Pick one of the calculators and go with it. Adjust as needed, up or down based on weight gain or loss. The calculators are a starting point.

toxikon

I like to use this TDEE calculator, seems pretty accurate: http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

Calculate your TDEE then subtract 500 from it if you want to lose 1lbs a week. So if your TDEE is 1800, you should consume 1300 to lose a lbs a week.

I like to use my sedentary TDEE (I have a desk job) then manually add exercise and eat back 50% of my exercise calories.

So a normal day for me might look like this:

Daily calorie goal = 1300 cals (based on Sedentary TDEE - 500)
Brisk walk = 100 calories burned (50% = 50 calories)
Calories I can eat today: 1350 cals

cmriverside

Yeah, like rybo says. ^^

I used Myfitnesspal's numbers all the way, added back in my exercise calories, ate every delicious one and lost my 70 pounds in 2007. I made a couple adjustments along the way depending on how I was doing. It's your experiment to run. Keep good records, adjust when needed.

Just start.

TeaBea

rybo wrote: »

Pick one of the calculators and go with it. Adjust as needed, up or down based on weight gain or loss. The calculators are a starting point.

This^

Weight loss numbers won't be exact. There are lots of averages and estimates. Activity level is a range but websites use one number. People with a higher % of lean muscle mass use more calories; websites can't know your %. When you log food and/or exercise those are going to be estimates as well.