No deficit one day, high deficit the other - does it affect anything?

OrangeWhiteBlue

Is it only the total caloric deficit that matters, or is daily variation very important? I seem to either have a non-existent deficit or a rather large one.

I have recently started logging, and here is the picture for my first week. My BMR is about 1800, according to the gym service.

Unknown

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GottaBurnEmAll

I think you mean your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), not your BMR Your BMR is part of your TDEE.

Yes, it's fine to do what you're doing, it's a form of intermittent fasting and you're creating an overall deficit that has you on a path for slightly over a pound a week loss. There's a popular diet called the 5:2 diet that does pretty much exactly what you're doing. Some people call it alternate day fasting (they don't really fast, they just eat very low calorie on some days like you do).

cmriverside

Yeah, it's an average. I find trying to stay at a range over/under of a couple hundred to work best for avoiding over-eating. So for instance, my calorie goal is 1700. I try not to go too far over or too far under because then I get into a yo-yo pattern of over eat then under eat. It messes with my moods.

Why not just enter your stats into MFP and use the numbers it gives you for a while.

Your BMR is 1800? Or is that your TDEE?

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

OrangeWhiteBlue

Thanks everyone for the clarification! It is good to know that I am not doing anything massively wrong, and it is nice to be on such a friendly forum.

I'm pretty sure ~1800 is my BMR. At least, that's how Wikipedia translates it. I'm male, 189 cm, 84 kg, 21.7% BF, and that's the figure I was given at the gym. I have no idea about my TDEE other than BMR+calories burned at cardio, but the only other significant physical thing I do is moderate resistance training, so I just count BMR+cardio-food when thinking about deficit.

I do enter my numbers into MFP and follow the macros, though I am often a bit low on carbs and high on fat. I generally aim for 1300 kcal a day with 40% carbs, 25% fat, and 35% protein, with the latter evenly portioned into 30g at least 4 times a day. I exceed it sometimes due to social eating, usually at noon, which is when I get fat spikes.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

I go by weekly average.

1500 average for a male of your size and body fat is WAY too low. I'd go at least 2000. Set your goal to 0.5lbs per week.

MegaMooseEsq

I've been losing weight on a similar alternating diet since the beginning of the year (no formal fasting program, I just like going out to eat a couple of times a week). Some people find eating like this leads to binging, while other people find it helps stick to their deficit over time. It's really a personal preference, although there is some fascinating stuff out there on the benefits of eating at maintenance for more extended periods - look for the refeed/diet break thread lower on this page if you're interested.

My net calories last week looked like this:
3050
1454
1376
4169
1547
1713
1223

Total: 14532

My TDEE is about 2650 so I ended up with an overall 4018 deficit for the week and a bit over a pound of fat lost.