Calorie surplus to lose a pound?

TMcSter

Went to 24 Hour Fitness. They said if you have a surplus off 3500 calories in a week you will have a lb loss. Is that really true and if so is it feasible to have a 7000 calorie deficit and not starve yourself?

How do you earn extra calories so you have a surplus?

Mokey41

You want to have a deficit of 3500 calories a week to lose about a pound. If you have more than 100 lbs to lose then getting a 2 lb per week lose is feasible but less than that you shouldn't be aiming for more than a pound.

First your figure out your TDEE and your BMR. Be honest with figuring TDEE because exaggerating how active you are will just come back to bite you in the butt with no weight loss later. Now take a percentage off the TDEE for your loss but not so much that it takes you below your BMR. That's the calories you need in a coma to survive.

KJLaMore

The way I understand it is that you should eat a minimum of 1,200 calories/day. I think that changes for men/women and perhaps your size and amount of calories you normally burn/day. To get surplus calories you can add more exercise/activity and you can cut calories. It is kind of a balance that you have to find for yourself. Exercise and cutting calories vs. feeling hungry/starving yourself. I find certain activities (like swimming) make me ravenous. So I try to have something like a bowl of cereal or some fruit or veggies right after. A glass of milk will sometimes do the trick. Good luck!

annwyatt69

Would be nice if it actually always worked that way. It's not written in stone. Scientific theory, but honestly does NOT work for everyone. If that were true, then I must have a seriously low BMR and TDEE.

helenrosemay

I've been loosing 2lb a week for the last 2 months eating 1200 - 1400 cals a day and exercising. so yes it can be done.

Charliejl82

Work out your caloric needs using an online calculator, take 500 cals off it - so that's 1lb a week lost then burn 500 a day in exercise - like a spinning class. Job done!

zyxst

24 Fitness needs to learn the difference between surplus and deficit.

From my understanding of chemistry, it takes about 3500 calories to burn off a pound of fat.

milesbrockovich

I think you have "surplus" and "deficit" confused.

3500 calories is the equivalent of 1 lb. Safe weight loss is about 1 lb per week, or 500 calories per day. This is doable, for instance, by cutting out 250 calories of food (about a latte) and exercising for 250 calories (about 1 hour of walking) every day.

SailorKnightWing

I think you mean a deficit of 3500 calories per week. And yes, that's the standard that works for most people. To lose a pound a week you need to use 500 more calories than you consume per day. Your body requires a certain amount of calories simply to be alive, which is called your TDEE. You can calculate what yours is based on your height and weight here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ Once you find that, you subtract 500 calories and that should be your goal. When you set up your account here at My Fitness Pal, the calorie goals are set for you when you put in your information.

You can choose to either just eat the amount of calories you're told, or you can do cardio exercises to "burn" more calories so you can eat more. Be sure to log any exercise you do that isn't part of your standard daily routine! This will tell you how many extra calories you've "earned" and you should eat most if not all of them back to maintain your optimal weight loss.

1PatientBear

I've been loosing 2lb a week for the last 2 months eating 1200 - 1400 cals a day and exercising. so yes it can be done.

This also depends on how much you have to lose. If you have a lot to lose, then yes, it can be done that way. For those who have less to lose, this formula will absolutely not work. And yes, OP definitely has "surplus" and "deficit" confused.

MinnieInMaine

Yes, that's the theory, that there is roughly 3500 calories in a pound of human fat, therefore a calorie deficit of 3500 caloires per week will make you lose a pound a week. However, there are several other factors, mostly having to do with water weight.

Unless you're severely obese, a 7000 calorie per week deficit is probably going to be too much. Try for more like 1.5 pounds per week and as you get closer to goal, lower again to 1 pound per week.

Another factor to consider is quality of diet. Plenty of people will tell you to just eat whatever as long as you're within your calories. And I agree with that for the most part as deprivation has led to diet failure for me in the past. However, I also found that if I my calorie intake consists mostly of processed carbs, I'll be hungry and miserable and will likely go over my calories. But if I eat more filling things like plenty of protein and healthy fat, I'll do much better on the same amount of calories.

P.S. You can either create the calorie deficit through diet or exercise or a combination of the two. Say your maintenance calories are 1800 so to lose 1 pound per week, your daily goal would be 1300. You could just eat 1300 calories per day and lose 1 pound. Or you could eat 1800 calories but burn 500 calories per day and lose a pound. Or you could eat 1550 calories and burn off 250 to lose a pound. Hope that makes sense.

boredlimodriver

they meant deficit of 3500. ~3500 cals is 1 pound of fat.

TMcSter

Thank you all so much. It is for this reason that I appreciate having the MFP "community". It looks like I need to figure a few things out. Thank you all so much.