Tracking Calorie Deficit

justinejacksonm
justinejacksonm Posts: 75 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've written and submitted this question three times already and I don't know where it goes. Tired of writing it out it's a long story short I'm going to calculate what my calorie deficit should be each day to lose weight. I'm tracking calories in and calories out using MyFitnessPal and Fitbit, both of which only show me how many calories I have left to eat each day. at the end of the day I don't want to know this I want to know what my deficit was for the day. Unless there is a way to see this and I don't know where to find it, I can't believe I can't do that on here. If so where would I find that on either MyFitnessPal or Fitbit?

I feel like back in the good old days when it was just my fitness pal I had a lot more success when it was simple- entering calories in and calories out through my workouts, and that's it. I let it so it's magic, listened to what it said, and I had real success losing weight. Fitbit seems to really complicate the situation. What MyFitnessPal and Fitbit each say I have left to eat during the day are different it's been explained to me a million times but still I don't understand it how it's calculated or trust that after working out and being real good now I need to go eat 500 calories? I thought the goal was have a calorie deficit not eat burn it off and then eat it back. Seems like a backwards logic to me. the first time I embraced this concept and explained it to my boyfriend he thought I was nuts.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    use MFP, set it to an appropriate loss, net that amount.

    the weight loss rate you choose will dictate your deficit. if you choose to lose 1lb per week, your deficit is 500 cals. if you choose 2lb per week it's 1000 cals.

  • 23rochelle23
    23rochelle23 Posts: 269 Member
    If you want to know what your deficit is then set your goals on MfP to maintain weight rather than lose - whatever your balance of calories is at be end of the day is your deficit - I sometimes have mine set like this :)
  • justinejacksonm
    justinejacksonm Posts: 75 Member
    23rochelle23 wrote: »
    If you want to know what your deficit is then set your goals on MfP to maintain weight rather than lose - whatever your balance of calories is at be end of the day is your deficit - I sometimes have mine set like this :)

    Thank you for your reply! Will it mess my settings up if I switch it over to that and then back to weight loss later?
  • justinejacksonm
    justinejacksonm Posts: 75 Member
    In surprised there isn't a way for MFP to calculate this and tell us, in addition to having it set for weight loss. They have all the information...
  • 23rochelle23
    23rochelle23 Posts: 269 Member

    justinejacksonm wrote: »
    23rochelle23 wrote: »
    If you want to know what your deficit is then set your goals on MfP to maintain weight rather than lose - whatever your balance of calories is at be end of the day is your deficit - I sometimes have mine set like this :)

    Thank you for your reply! Will it mess my settings up if I switch it over to that and then back to weight loss later?

    It does make you reset your goals (macros etc if you have those set) each time you change it -
    I change mine on a fairly regular basis. It maintains progress chart though :-)
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Member
    If you set mfp to maintenance then you're only in deficit when you exercise.

    If you set it to loss then you're always in deficit and eat more when you exercise.

    Should equal out the same.
  • 23rochelle23
    23rochelle23 Posts: 269 Member
    kami3006 wrote: »
    If you set mfp to maintenance then you're only in deficit when you exercise.

    If you set it to loss then you're always in deficit and eat more when you exercise.

    Should equal out the same.

    OP isn’t asking about the numbers as such but just what it’s tracking- if you want to lose 1lb a week you want a 3500cal deficit - if you set your numbers to maintain and eat at 3500cal below the calorie number/week you are just tracking your deficit.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Member
    23rochelle23 wrote: »
    kami3006 wrote: »
    If you set mfp to maintenance then you're only in deficit when you exercise.

    If you set it to loss then you're always in deficit and eat more when you exercise.

    Should equal out the same.

    OP isn’t asking about the numbers as such but just what it’s tracking- if you want to lose 1lb a week you want a 3500cal deficit - if you set your numbers to maintain and eat at 3500cal below the calorie number/week you are just tracking your deficit.

    Gotcha.

    Sounds like OP would do better with a Tdee goal. No worrying about exercise calories if exercising regularly.

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