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CALORIE DEFICITS- CLARIFICATION Please!

connieciasullo1977
connieciasullo1977 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, This is my first time on these boards so please forgive me if this has already been asked. I was just having some difficulty with understanding a calorie deficit... I will give a couple of examples if someone can help me wrap my head around it that would be great.
My Calorie Goal Daily is 1402- on Monday I consumed 1596 and burned 183 through exercise, Tuesday I consumed 1453 and burned 317... can someone explain how I calculate calorie deficit using these numbers?
I really appreciate your help with this!!!
Thanks,
Connie

Replies

  • 100_PROOF_
    100_PROOF_ Posts: 1,168 Member
    Mfp already factors your Deficit in
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    If your calorie goal is coming from MFP and you set "lose weight" as your goal, then you're already at a deficit. You just need to hit that goal consistently and you'll be at a deficit consistent with your goal rate of weight loss per week.

    If you burn additional calories through activity, MFP is designed for you to eat those back. So if your goal is 1,402 and you burn 183, your new goal is 1,585 (1,402 + 183).
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    MFP has already calculated a deficit for you, taking 250 calories off of your maintenance total for every half pound you wish to lose per week down to the minimum intake of 1200 calories. Because exercise isn’t included in MFP’s original calculation, this is the reason that you log and eat back at least a portion of those calories...to both keep your deficit consistent and fuel your body.
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
    If you are plugging the information into the app, your deficit is already calculated for you. If you're using MFP correctly, you've plugged in your age, sex, height, weight, and goal. If you gave a goal of 2lbs per week, that's a 1000 calorie daily deficit. Which means MFP expects that going off of the activity level you told it, without intentional exercise you'd burn 2402 calories each day. Without exercise, to hit your goal, eat 1402.

    When you add intentional exercise, MFP adds calories to what you can eat because you should fuel your activity. Many people only eat a percentage, 50-75% is the common recommendation. So on Monday, you added 183 to your 2402, for a total of 2585 (estimated), and ate 1596 for a deficit of 989. MFP probably told you you were over your goal, but this is still a good deficit. Tuesday, 2719 would be your approximate calorie burn for the whole day, and you ate 1453. This would put you at a deficit of 1266.

    But again, MFP will do all this math for you.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,283 Member
    From Help at the top of every page comes this: How does MyFitnessPal calculate my initial goals?

  • connieciasullo1977
    connieciasullo1977 Posts: 4 Member
    Everyone is so helpful here! Thank you:)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    connieciasullo1977 wrote: »
    Hi, This is my first time on these boards so please forgive me if this has already been asked. I was just having some difficulty with understanding a calorie deficit... I will give a couple of examples if someone can help me wrap my head around it that would be great.
    My Calorie Goal Daily is 1402- on Monday I consumed 1596 and burned 183 through exercise, Tuesday I consumed 1453 and burned 317... can someone explain how I calculate calorie deficit using these numbers?
    I really appreciate your help with this!!!
    Thanks,
    Connie

    For starters, your calorie deficit has already been calculated...that's what this calculator does...it calculates a calorie target for you based on your stats and activity level and desired rate of loss.

    Secondly, you require XXXX calories to maintain the status quot. For me, that's around 3,000. If I eat about 3,000 calories per day I will maintain my weight. If I eat less than that, I'm in a deficit.
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
    You don't need to. If you want to keep things simple just eat the calorie target mfp gives you plus a good chunk of any that you have earned through exercise. If you do that you will be in deficit (subject to accurate logging) and you will lose! 😁

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