Calorie deficit

sgod0905

I do 16:8 IF and eat Lunch and dinner and nothing in between.
If I burn 600 calories according to my Apple Watch fitness ring and basal metabolism is 1300 calories, how many calories should I be eating daily to create a deficit and see 1-2 pounds weight loss weekly?
Also, I am vegan so how much should my Carb:Fat:protein ratio be?
Thank you so much.

AnnPT77

How much do you weigh now? Unless well over 200 pounds, 2 pounds a week is probably too fast to lose, for best health outcomes.

Being vegan doesn't change the amount of nutrients you need, macros or micros. (NB: I'm vegetarian, not inexperienced.) As long as you don't cut calories too far for your current size, the MFP default macros aren't terrible for most people. If you want to be more refined, estimate your macro goals in grams.

One common scheme for that would be 1g protein daily per pound of healthy goal weight as a minimum, 0.35-0.45g fat per pound as a minimum, let carbs fill in the remaining calories. It's OK to be close, averaging out around goal over a small number of days - no need to be exactly exact every day.

You haven't given enough data to estimate your total calorie needs. Put your personal information into your MFP profile, and tell it you want a weight loss rate in the range of 0.5-1% of your current weight per week, with a bias toward the lower end of that unless you're severely obese and under close medical supervision for complications or deficiencies. Set your activity level based on your life excluding intentional exercise. MFP will give you calorie goal that's better than any estimate we could give you.

Then log exercise when you do some, and eat those calories, too, on days when you exercise (or save them over for a day or few, no big deal).

Follow that calorie goal closely (say +/- 50 calories) for 4-6 weeks, or 1-2 whole menstrual cycles if you're female and of that age. Then compare your actual weight change to your target weight loss. If it's noticeably different from expected, adjust your calorie goal using the assumption that 500 calories per day is roughly a pound of fat.

StaciInGa

If your BMR is 1300, then losing 2 pounds per week is probably NOT a realistic goal. How active is your job, hobbies, home life? If you're mostly sitting other than intentional exercise, try setting MFP to .5 pounds per week loss rate. If you're on your feet a decent amount, then try 1 pound. And log your exercise and consider eating some of those earned calories back if you feel you need them.

Personally I'm not familiar with how Apple tracks/counts calories burned or if it syncs w/ MFP.

For comparison my BMR is about 1311. I walk some each day, and between intentional walks and random errands and such I make an effort to hit 10,000 steps daily. I'm eating 1300-1400 most days, more on days I'm extra active, and losing on average 1 pound per week. I'm 48, 5'5" and 150ish heading for about 130ish. I use a Fitbit but I'm careful because I know it likely overestimates burn. Example: this past Saturday I walked a half marathon in 3 hours, 17 minutes. Fitbit showed 1898 calories burned for that time which is NOT realistic. Other online estimators have it much lower. I logged it here as a 4 mph walk, and MFP credited me 1113 calories burned. More realistic, but even with that level of activity I didn't feel the need to eat an additional 1100 calories. I did eat an extra 300 or so though.

kshama2001

I think it's simplest to just let MFP do its job and suggest you use its math and defaults for now.

I agree with the others that your weekly weight loss goal is likely overly aggressive.

sgod0905

I am 54 year old female, height 5ft1inch and weigh 143 pounds. I would like to be 132-133pounds as when I was at that weight pre Covid I looked and felt fit.

StaciInGa

SEnding a friend request, because we are similar. I am not vegan however.

Set up your MFP profile and set it to lose .5 pounds per week. You will probably get a calorie goal of around 1400 daily. Then if you exercise, cardio in particular, consider eating a little additional if you feel you need to. But if the exercise is not too intense, you may not need to eat more - and the additional burned would just increase your deficit.

I am also set to .5 pounds per week. And my theory is that because my scheduled deficit is small, and because my activity is generally not strenuous, this works for me. If you activity/exercise changes, reassess.

sgod0905 wrote: »

I am 54 year old female, height 5ft1inch and weigh 143 pounds. I would like to be 132-133pounds as when I was at that weight pre Covid I looked and felt fit.

kshama2001

sgod0905 wrote: »

I am 54 year old female, height 5ft1inch and weigh 143 pounds. I would like to be 132-133pounds as when I was at that weight pre Covid I looked and felt fit.

With only 10 pounds to lose, do chose a weekly weight loss goal of a half pound per week, and prepare for the loss to be slow.

If you get a weight trend app such as Happy Scale (iphone) or Libra (Android) you'll get a better sense of your progress, as some weeks you may not see a change on the scale but the overall trend will show progress.