Question...

FitnessFreak1821

If my maintenance calories is 2197. I only eat 1435 today. I'm deficient of 700 calories. I work out for 40 minutes burn 300 calories. Overall calorie burn should be 1062 for the day? So technically if I keep going at this rate I could lose just over 2 pounds ? Am I doing the math right ?

lgfrie

Yes, that is correct. But with two caveats:

- Eating under 1200 "net calories" (food calories minus exercise calories) is unhealthy and never a good idea. There's strong general agreement that 1200 is the rock bottom minimum net calories for women, 1500 for men, for the body to do basic functioning, maintenance, and repair.

- Most people here eat some or all of their exercise calories back and it's a good habit to get into. It means using exercise to get healthier, not to drive fat loss even harder, which doesn't really work over the long term. tbh I only eat 40 % of my exercise cals and that'd put me on the low end of what most people do, but my machine estimates calories way too high. It gives me 500/hr for light cardio, which is ridiculous. I eat 200 of them everyday.

You have to find what works for you, but I think you will find 40 mins of exercise on 1435 cals of food to be difficult to maintain over time.

But yes, to answer your question, your #'s are correct as far as figuring out how much fat you lost today.

FitnessFreak1821

lgfrie wrote: »

Yes, that is correct. But with two caveats:

- Eating under 1200 "net calories" (food calories minus exercise calories) is unhealthy and never a good idea. There's strong general agreement that 1200 is the rock bottom minimum net calories for women, 1500 for men, for the body to do basic functioning, maintenance, and repair.

- Most people here eat some or all of their exercise calories back and it's a good habit to get into. It means using exercise to get healthier, not to drive fat loss even harder, which doesn't really work over the long term. tbh I only eat 40 % of my exercise cals and that'd put me on the low end of what most people do, but my machine estimates calories way too high. It gives me 500/hr for light cardio, which is ridiculous. I eat 200 of them everyday.

You have to find what works for you, but I think you will find 40 mins of exercise on 1435 cals of food to be difficult to maintain over time.

But yes, to answer your question, your #'s are correct as far as figuring out how much fat you lost today.

Thanks I only got alittle to lose. I'm in a plateau and it doesn't seem to help if I eat anymore so I cut more calories and increased work outs. Once I lose I'll be eating my maintenance calories and continue to work out.

yirara

If you only have little to lose it will come down slowly. Also, if you go too fast you'll lose muscles and will in the end look flabby instead of how you wanted to look. Thus please eat enough. If you really weigh all your food on a scale and use the right database entries the weight will come down. More workouts however will likely mean that you're temporarily storing more water weight. That's not fat but completely normal. Also, there are about 50 other reasons why your body might temporarily store more water, or 500 reasons if you're a woman.