Calorie deficit

allenmedina

Hi. I have setup my calorie at ~2500 with 220g of protein. Now when I get steps and workout in, there are calories added to my daily intake. Are these to maintain my 2500 calorie deficit? I don't trust the calorie count because it seems high for just steps. TIA

cmriverside

Here:
https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

Short answer is, yes. Eat more on days you do purposeful exercise above and beyond what myfitnesspal thinks you should eat according to your setup Goals (weight loss and activity level.) Your daily routine is factored into your deficit.

With that said, tracking devices have their own set of issues when it comes to myfitnesspal.

What tracker are you using? If it's Fitbit, here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

tomcustombuilder

The only way to find the correct amount of calories for a goal is to pick a weekly amount and stick with it for a month and at that point review the results and adjust accordingly if necessary. The calculators are a suggested starting point.

westrich20940

As far as how many calories are being added based on your activity - I can't help with that. Are these being added automatically by a fitness watch or something? That *can be inaccurate....the only way for you to know is to do it - and see what happens after like 3-4 weeks.


MFP calculates your maintenance calories based on your lifestyle/activity *without* intentional exercise. So any additional activity you do (like going to the gym, going for an intentional walk/hike/run, etc....) that burns calories (logged as cardio in MFP) will ADD to your daily goal. The goal MFP gave you is *already at a deficit from your maintenance if you told MFP you wanted to lose weight*....therefore if you eat the calories you burned on top of that, it will give you them to eat back and you will still be in a deficit.

However, this works when your food intake is logged fairly accurately and your calorie burn is calculated fairly accurately --- so yeah if you think your fitness watch calorie burn is inaccurate it will be an issue.

How many calories is your watch saying you burned through steps alone?

pridesabtch

I had similar issues. I un-linked my fitness watch so I didn't get credit for everyday activity and just manually log my intentional exercise. Just one way to do it.

AnnPT77

allenmedina wrote: »

Hi. I have setup my calorie at ~2500 with 220g of protein. Now when I get steps and workout in, there are calories added to my daily intake. Are these to maintain my 2500 calorie deficit? I don't trust the calorie count because it seems high for just steps. TIA

Good advice above.

To the bolded: I want to be sure you're aware the calorie adjustment isn't necessarily just steps. It depends a little on what your device can measure, but it may take into account other types of movement.

I'd also add that some people are surprised by their calorie goal simply because there's a lot of nonsense in the blogosphere (and elsewhere in popular culture) suggesting that we universally need ultra-low calories in order to lose weight. It's not the case. We simply need somewhat fewer calories than it takes to maintain our current weight.

Someone who's some combination of tall, overweight/obese, with active job or daily life, exercises regularly, is male, is relatively more muscular than average, isn't very old, etc. - they may have quite a high calorie goal, and still be able to lose weight. Heck, I lose slowly at 1850+ exercise as a 5'5", 67-year-old, not materially overweight woman. I'm not demographically typical, but someone who hits a lot of those characteristics listed at the top of this paragraph may need more even if pretty typical.

Run the one-month experiment, then you'll know.

1BlueAurora

I had a Garmin fitness pedometer thing, which calculated steps for my Zumba class. I'd eat back the calories I burned and still lost weight. I've also just relied on the MFP calculations (for instance, if I walk for 40 minutes and MFP says I can eat another 140 calories, I eat them). So I don't always rely on the Garmin. Either way, I lose the weight!