Base goal and calorie deficit

Krish_Y_

hi, I’m new to MFP and I don’t understand how the “base goal” works. My base goal is 1790 and I have connected my Garmin app so when I do a workout this number goes up so as of now I have 966 left. How would I go into a calorie deficit?

AnnPT77

If all those calorie needs and exercise estimates are accurate for you, you'd keep the same calorie deficit either with or without exercise.

Let me give a simplistic round-numbers example:

Let's say I burn 2000 calories daily doing my daily life stuff before exercise. I want to lose a pound a week, which means eating 500 calories daily below that 2000, on average. That would make my base goal 1500 calories to lose a pound a week. OK so far?

Now let's say I do some intentional exercise in addition to that daily life stuff. Whatever it is, lets say that exercise burns 250 calories. That implies that my calorie burn that day has gone up to 2250, right? That's my usual 2000, plus the 250.

Now, to keep on track with my pound a week loss intention, I still need to eat 500 calories fewer than I burn. Subtracting 500 calories from 2250, my eating goal that day would be 1750, right? And that's the same as the starting weight loss goal of 1500 plus the 250 of exercise, 1750.

Make sense?

Like I said, that's simplistic: There are lots of wrinkles. The base calorie estimate is pretty much the average calorie need for people of similar demographics, but we as individuals can vary from average. (Most people are close to average, but a few aren't.) The exercise calories are somewhat easy to overestimate, too. Also, if a person pushes too hard on total exercise load - total of frequency, intensity, and duration - they can become fatigued, rest more, move less in daily life, effectively wiping out part of the exercise calorie benefit. On top of that, even meticulous logging isn't going to be totally exact, realistically: One apple is sweeter than the next, food labels are rounded/averaged, etc.

Fortunately, we don't need our estimates to be perfect, just workably close. What experienced folks here usually suggest is to follow MFP's recommended calorie goal for 4-6 weeks, or a whole menstrual cycle for people who have those. The average weight change over that whole time period, from a generally consistent eating/activity routine, can then be used to adjust the calorie goal if necessary to somewhat correct for potential estimating imprecision from any of those sources.

Some people are especially concerned about exercise calories being overstated, so will recommend eating back 50% of the exercise calories, or something like that. Personally, I've always eaten back all of my exercise calories - through just under a year of loss and 9+ years of maintenance since - after estimating them quite carefully and perhaps conservatively. As long as a person doesn't lose weight so fast that it unacceptably increases health risk, or so slowly that they can't achieve goals in a finite time period, IMO it can be fine to make individual decisions about that.

If a person decides to eat back only a fraction of exercise calories, I'd suggest that they stick to some standard percent of them every time, because that will make the arithmetic after the 4-6 week trial period easier to interpret. Varying habits during the trial kind of messes up the data quality.

Best wishes! 

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48524086#Comment_48524086

You've interpreted what I wrote correctly, yes, assuming you told MFP you want to lose X pounds or kilos per week.

Keep in mind - like I said - that's an estimate, so follow it pretty closely for that 4-6 weeks or one whole menstrual cycle, then adjust the base goal if necessary.

If you eat less than the base goal, you'd expect to lose weight faster.

Losing weight faster is not necessarily a good thing. On the less-scary end, it can cause weakness and fatigue. (Noting that fatigue makes a person rest more, move less so burn fewer calories in daily life possibly wiping out that supposed benefit of the extra calorie cut). Losing weight aggressively fast can cause unnecessarily much loss of lean tissue like muscle alongside fat loss, result in hair thinning/loss a few weeks later, impair the immune system so we get infections or illnesses easier and heal more slowly, cause gallbladder disease, and more that may be even worse. On top of that, there's no getting adequate nutrition on too-few calories, and reasonable nutrition is also important for best health and energy level.

So: Avoid fast loss, that would be my advice. It isn't a big deal to eat below goal on a rare day if less hungry. A few calories under more often, maybe 50-ish calories under, isn't a big deal if balanced by other days that are maybe 50-ish calories over base goal. It's the average that counts. Eating below base goal is also less of a worry if the target loss rate is very moderate/slow.

But treating base goal as a score to beat by lots is generally not a path to thriving good health.

I feel ultra-fortunate to have lost a meaningful amount of weight (50-ish pounds) that I'd carried for decades to my health detriment, and to have stayed at a healthy weight for nearly a decade since. It's been a huge quality of life improvement, no exaggeration. I want that for everyone.

In that context, I'd encourage you to adopt a sensibly moderate weight loss goal - half a percent to one percent of current weight per week, tops, with a bias toward the half percent unless severely obese and under close medical supervision for deficiencies or complications. Focus on finding and practicing positive new eating and activity habits that ideally keep you happy, but at minimum are tolerable and practical. That will make it easier to stick with the loss process, and set you up for maintaining the loss - a double win.

It's a different mindset from "lose weight fast then go back to normal" which is the recipe for yo-yo cycles of loss and regain.

A slower loss rate and an easier plan can get a person to goal weight in less calendar time than some aggressive approach that causes bouts of deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or even giving up altogether.

Wishing you success, and encouraging you to find a plan that will take you there!

Krish_Y_

Thank you so much, that is very helpful! So MFP basically already calculates the calories which you should eat to be in a calorie deficit which is the “base goal”? And what happens if I eat less than the base goal?

Krish_Y_

Thank you! I really appreciate the support and your 50 pound weight loss has really encouraged me to do the same. Grateful for the time you have taken to help me.

Wishing you all the best too!