Is your calorie deficit 500 or 1,000? Why?

GreatSaltLuke

Hi everyone, I'm not new to the site but new to the boards and am planning to really give the plan my all this year to lose the 100+ excess pounds that I've accumulated over the years. I'm curious to know whether most people here choose the 1,000 calorie or 500 calorie deficit and if there are any disadvantages to the 1,000 calorie deficit other than not being able to eat as much. Why would you want to lose only 1 lb when you could lose 2 lbs per week?

My plan is actually to make the 1,000 calorie route more flexible by doing the 500 calorie deficit and then then just making sure I am a couple hundred calories or so short each day so that I won't get discouraged when I go over a bit and see a red number saying I did something wrong in the tracking log instead of that lovely green number. It's a psychological thing I guess. Also, this way I feel like I will have plenty of extra calories there to compensate for extra exercise calories instead of having to track all my exercise. Is this a sound strategy?

BernadetteChurch

2 lbs a week isn't really sustainable unless you have a lot of weight to lose, in which case it will initially come off quite quickly and then slow down as you get closer to your goal. I think it's also generally accepted that if weight comes off slowly it's more likely to stay off.

I personally monitor my TDEE and am working towards keeping an average deficit of 15-20%. Helps me balance out my low cal days with the days I just can't stop eating.

JTick

Unless you are very overweight, trying to lose 2 lbs/week is setting yourself up for failure.

I started with 120 to lose. At first, the weight was falling off...at least 2 lbs/week. Now though, I've had to accept that I don't have THAT much weight to lose anymore (45ish pounds left), and I've change my goal to only 1 lb/week. I was trying for 1.5/week, and I just couldn't stick with it, and was binging constantly. Now, I try to maintain a 500 calorie deficit, and I'm actually making progress now instead of remaining stagnant because I couldn't stick to my goal.

You say you have 100+ lbs to lose...you could definitely aim for 2 lbs/week to start with, but you should understand that that rate of loss won't last for very long, and don't get discouraged when you find you need to aim for 1 lb lost after a while.

JoelleAnn78

My deficit was 500 until recently (only 5-8 pounds left to goal so I dropped it to 250 deficit) because anything more than that made me so hungry and grouchy I was unable to function.

I was happy losing one pound a week and feeling satisfied and not deprived. It worked for me. I ahve friends with a 1000 calorie deficit that do just fine, though. To each his/her own.

cwolfman13

I'm now in maintenance but when I was losing it was 500 deficit because I only had about 40 Lbs to lose. As I lost weight I had to reduce the deficit to about 250 when I had about 10 lbs to go.

the more you have to lose, the greater the deficit you can sustain...however, you will need to readdress those goals as you lean out. Trying to maintain large calorie deficits when you only have a handful of weight to lose leads to bad things like more loss of muscle than fat.

With 100 Lbs to lose you could safely do a 1000 calorie per day deficit for awhile, but you'll want to dial that back when you get to about 50 Lbs or so remaining. Also, a 1000 calorie per day deficit can be difficult for many to maintain for the amount of time that it's actually going to take to lose the weight...so ultimately they suffer from ill dietary adherence and end up taking longer to lose the weight than if they had just had a smaller deficit and better adherence to their diet. IMHO, slow and steady wins the race...I know numerous people who, had they just set a more realistic calorie goal would have been at goal by now...instead they keep wrestling with huge deficits and then binges and then giving up altogether...and then back on the super restrictive calorie allowance, etc...if they just would have set a reasonable deficit to begin with they could be focusing on maintaining rather than this yo-yo ****.

RozayJones

What equals a lot of weight to lose?

MinnieInMaine

2 pounds per week is a reasonable goal for you now because you have a lot to lose. However, as you go through this process, you need to lower your expectations. Here is a good guide to follow - I'd suggest copying and pasting it somewhere so you can refer to it as you go:

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

I'm sort of the same way with my goal, I tend to do a lot better if my daily goal is a bit lower, that way I have some wiggle room if I go over a bit now and then. My deficit is around 350 cal right now, which is just over where it should be (250) to lose 1/2 a pound per week.

Given the above guidelines, you may also want to rethink your goal of trying to lose all the excess weight in a year. You might be able to but two years is probably more reasonable. We all hit plateaus and stall out for several reasons. I personally don't tend to see losses more than once a month and that seems to mostly be due to hormones. Anyway, point is, it's better to be reasonable about your timing than beat yourself up about not hitting your goal. Slow and steady wins the race!

Best of luck!

GreatSaltLuke

Wow, Joelle, congrats! That is an astonishing amount of weight you have lost! Definitely inspiring for me to see that!

I just realized I wasn't taking into consideration how much your calories probably decrease as you lose the weight. I'm a big guy and am allowed about 2,000 calories even with the 1,000 deficit and was finding it reasonably painless to stay within that range but I can see where that deficit could be huge to a pretty thin person. Out of curiosity does anyone have an example of how many calories you lost from your balance after losing 50 pounds? 100 pounds?

lynn1982

Considering I'm just under 5 feet tall and am fairly close to my goal weight, if I were to lose 2 pounds a week, I'd have to net less than 1000 calories per day. I'd be really hungry and super unhealthy...

RozayJones

2 pounds per week is a reasonable goal for you now because you have a lot to lose. However, as you go through this process, you need to lower your expectations. Here is a good guide to follow - I'd suggest copying and pasting it somewhere so you can refer to it as you go:

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

I'm sort of the same way with my goal, I tend to do a lot better if my daily goal is a bit lower, that way I have some wiggle room if I go over a bit now and then. My deficit is around 350 cal right now, which is just over where it should be (250) to lose 1/2 a pound per week.

Given the above guidelines, you may also want to rethink your goal of trying to lose all the excess weight in a year. You might be able to but two years is probably more reasonable. We all hit plateaus and stall out for several reasons. I personally don't tend to see losses more than once a month and that seems to mostly be due to hormones. Anyway, point is, it's better to be reasonable about your timing than beat yourself up about not hitting your goal. Slow and steady wins the race!

Best of luck!

Thanks for the chart

WendyTerry420

Right now, I am working on being able to maintain without logging. But when I shift into the next phase, I will resume my deficit of about 300 calories. Anything more is too high of a deficit for me. I see no reason to starve myself.

Collier78

Wow, Joelle, congrats! That is an astonishing amount of weight you have lost! Definitely inspiring for me to see that!

I just realized I wasn't taking into consideration how much your calories probably decrease as you lose the weight. I'm a big guy and am allowed about 2,000 calories even with the 1,000 deficit and was finding it reasonably painless to stay within that range but I can see where that deficit could be huge to a pretty thin person. Out of curiosity does anyone have an example of how many calories you lost from your balance after losing 50 pounds? 100 pounds?

I started at the 2lbs a week mark and was getting an allowance of around 2200...I'm down 42 lbs now and still have it set at 2lbs per week and get 1650 now. I leave it set there because I go more by my weekly calorie intake than my daily. I run and I'm hungrier on the day after I run than the day that I actually exercise...So some days I have 700 calories left and some days I go over by 300...I watch my weekly total and knowing that I have it set to the 1,000 deficit I know I have some wiggle room to eat more and still stay at a deficit...I also weigh and measure everything I eat...very accurate and no question as to what my calories are. I saw a significant increase in my weight loss when I started weighing my food.

MikeCopa

The problem is, if you choose a calorie deficit that is to big, your body will eventually switch to some kind of emergency mode. Our bodies haven't developed too much over the last thousands of years, so technically they're still in Stone Age and in order to prevent us from dying, our metabolic rate will seriously be reduced. Choose a smaller deficit (500 should be good) to avoid this.
If your metabolism already works at a decreased rate, I'd slowly increase the calorie intake to get it going again (without gaining too much fat) and pick a smaller deficit the next time. Hope this helps.
Best of luck to you!

btsinmd

Wow, Joelle, congrats! That is an astonishing amount of weight you have lost! Definitely inspiring for me to see that!

I just realized I wasn't taking into consideration how much your calories probably decrease as you lose the weight. I'm a big guy and am allowed about 2,000 calories even with the 1,000 deficit and was finding it reasonably painless to stay within that range but I can see where that deficit could be huge to a pretty thin person. Out of curiosity does anyone have an example of how many calories you lost from your balance after losing 50 pounds? 100 pounds?

When I started I figured it out for me. I looked at how many calories I needed to eat at my starting (then current) weight, at 200lb and at 150 lbs, just to give myself an idea. I used Scooby's http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Yes, I started at a 1000 calorie deficit and have been adjust it to less and less as time has gone on. I started MFP last December, so it's been about 11 months.

GreatSaltLuke

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

That chart is really helpful, thank you!

Collier- So you lost about 25% of your calorie balance after losing just 42 pounds. Yikes! That kind of puts things in perspective and shows why you have to decrease the deficit eventually.

JTick

Wow, Joelle, congrats! That is an astonishing amount of weight you have lost! Definitely inspiring for me to see that!

I just realized I wasn't taking into consideration how much your calories probably decrease as you lose the weight. I'm a big guy and am allowed about 2,000 calories even with the 1,000 deficit and was finding it reasonably painless to stay within that range but I can see where that deficit could be huge to a pretty thin person. Out of curiosity does anyone have an example of how many calories you lost from your balance after losing 50 pounds? 100 pounds?

My calories have actually increased with weight lost. I am currently eating 2000 (5'4" woman), just raised from 1800. I don't eat exercise calories back (TDEE-500). However, as I've lost weight, I've become much more active with my exercise, so I am able to eat more. Once I hit a certain number of calories, it's really hard for me to reduce them again. So my theory is that I'll just make myself more active, I'll run a few extra miles, because I really, really like food.

cwolfman13

2 pounds per week is a reasonable goal for you now because you have a lot to lose. However, as you go through this process, you need to lower your expectations. Here is a good guide to follow - I'd suggest copying and pasting it somewhere so you can refer to it as you go:

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

I'm sort of the same way with my goal, I tend to do a lot better if my daily goal is a bit lower, that way I have some wiggle room if I go over a bit now and then. My deficit is around 350 cal right now, which is just over where it should be (250) to lose 1/2 a pound per week.

Given the above guidelines, you may also want to rethink your goal of trying to lose all the excess weight in a year. You might be able to but two years is probably more reasonable. We all hit plateaus and stall out for several reasons. I personally don't tend to see losses more than once a month and that seems to mostly be due to hormones. Anyway, point is, it's better to be reasonable about your timing than beat yourself up about not hitting your goal. Slow and steady wins the race!

Best of luck!

This is an excellent chart and exactly what I was going to post. Keep in mind also that when you get into that 5-10 cosmetic Lbs, it's about time to throw that scale out the window and really just focus on body composition/re-comp work. This is where people really strugle because they just want to drop that 5 Lbs and get to some arbitrary goal weight that really, isn't going to make one iota of difference in the way they look...really, they would be best served by just eating right around maintenance and really working on body re-comp. It's detail work and slow...but ultimately you're going to look better than if you were just obsess about getting to some specific number.

susannamarie

Hey Luke,

You can calculate your theoretical goal maintenance -- just reset your goals, choose your weight as goal weight and choose maintain my weight. Then of course delete that weight and set your goals back.

I currently have my calorie set to goal maintenance (which is only 80-90 off current maintenance) and try to eat about 3-400 under that. But if I'm having a hungry hungry day I give myself permission to eat all the way up to goal maintenance. I figure I will start eating closer to that when I get closer to goal. My weight loss has slowed significantly but I am still dropping sizes.

tapirfrog

My calorie deficit is about 200. I'd love to make it more but there's that darn problem of how nutrition has calories.

I'm short and I'm old, so my body doesn't need a lot to keep going. I'm injured, so I can't exercise like I want to. Therefore, for me there's a very narrow range between "eating enough for good nutrition" and "eating enough to gain weight."

WalkingAlong

I usually hit right around the middle, which is breaking the MFP forum belief that if you have less than 25 lbs. to lose you have to do it in .5 lb/week goal size bites. I know we all underestimate our intake and I know that I average over 1200 calories even just in what I log (so definitely in what I actually ate), and that aiming for 1.5-2 lbs/week loss doesn't mean you lose that much. I'd rather aim high and not weigh my mustard. Or log it at all.

Safiyandi

I'm using my strength training to determine my deficit right now. If my lifts start slipping, I up the calories a bit. I've got about 20# left to lose, and I manage to maintain strength at a daily deficit of about 350 right now. Not scientific but it seems to work!

erickirb

250, 0.5lbs/week weight loss goal.

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

The reasons: the less you have to lose the less fat stores you have to pull from. The less fat you have to pull from the less your body wants to take any. So if your deficit is too large given your stats you will burn a large % of lean muscle. Doing the above also helps set you up for maintenance without a large increase in caloric intake all at once.

saffron981

In order to create a 1,000 a day deficit, I'd need to consume 750 net calories a day. Needless to say, I don't do that! I try to do a 500 a day deficit, but I'm not devastated if it's smaller on some days.

geekyjock76

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

I have petitioned many times for MFP to include this important information in the weekly weight loss goal section to guide people in selecting the appropriate deficit for them. Alas, MFP has ignored my suggestions which inevitably makes weight loss far more difficult with greater failure rates for a lot of people.

Sedna_51

250.

...I'll go wait in the car.


No, seriously though, I started at a 250 calorie deficit because:

1) I know I react horribly to restriction; if I'm not supposed to eat something, my brain will immediately go "eff you, we're eating all of that thing RIGHT NOW".

2) It's hard to maintain huge changes over the long term, and I want to make this a long-term thing. I personally feel that I'll be more successful if I introduce incremental changes and slowly work towards a goal than if I make drastic changes that I can't sustain long-term.

The side effect, of course, is that it's going to take me a long time to get to my goal weight. Probably two years, by my count. On the other hand, I've been doing this for six months, I'm introducing more changes as I master the old ones (hitting calorie goals? Great! Try increasing your exercise just a skotch at a time!) and I feel like I can keep up what I'm doing indefinitely. Okay, with occasional treat days, but yeah.

Sedna_51

Also, I totally agree with what you mentioned about the psychology of the green numbers- most days I probably end up eating closer to a 350 or 400 calorie deficit, but I like the feeling of coming in a little under my goal. And I like having a cushion available, so I can eat up a little on harder days without feeling like I've broken the bank.

ETA: Oh, oh! And Teh Interwebs informs me that losing weight more slowly allows your skin more time to rebound and become a little less saggy. (as always, YMMV.)

Confuzzled4ever

My TDEE averages 2800ish.. so I end up with a 1,000 calorie deficit unintentionally, more on frisbee days. I'm not really even trying to worry about losing weight so much, more focused on gaining strength and losing inches. I just can't eat that much. I land around 1700-1800 most days.

I am trying to eat more.. but once i'm full i'm full.

as for the green versus the red number. in theory you're already set at a deficit, so if you see red.. you are probably still in deficit, so it's no big deal.. unless you severely overate of course and even then.. unless you do it everyday.. 1 day is not going to stop your progress.

WalkingAlong

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

I have petitioned many times for MFP to include this important information in the weekly weight loss goal section to guide people in selecting the appropriate deficit for them. Alas, MFP has ignored my suggestions which inevitably makes weight loss far more difficult with greater failure rates for a lot of people.

I imagine they don't because this is one of those forum constructs based on an exaggerated belief in the ability to preserve LBM while decreasing fat, in my opinion. If our bodies truly don't want to drop below X% body fat and they start burning up more muscle as we approach that value (and for a lot of us our body fat % never gets very low even at goal weight, so burning up a higher ratio of muscle:fat would be maladaptive), why wouldn't they just burn up the same ratio of muscle using the slow approach as well? It seems like people think this is a way to trick our bodies.

Our bodies do use LBM for fuel but they also are programmed to preserve muscle and prefer fat as fuel. Fat is much more calorie dense and muscle is needed for survival. We burn a mixture of both at all deficit levels. It's ok to lose both because smaller bodies need less muscle. You want your BF% to improve as you drop weight but you don't want your LBM in pounds to remain the same over a large weight loss.

I really don't think there's much we can do to trick our bodies into changing their pre-programmed ratio of how we lose (though we can to some extent build more LBM, especially men) and that's why you generally see the recommendation to 'shoot for up to 2 lbs/week' without any caveats about how overweight you are.

EHisCDN

1000 calorie deficit isn't healthy for some people. In theory I could create that big of a deficit but I definitely wouldn't be getting adequate nutrition. I'm more of a slow and steady type. I have about a 500 deficit right now, and that's sustainable to me.

bettanyloses

My first day on MFP, I set it to 1000 calorie deficit. I lasted until lunchtime before realising there was no way I was going to be able to eat that little. I also started to exercise, specifically because I want to eat more. I am quite greedy.

suziepoo1984

I had a deficit of ~500 in the initial days of losing weight, now its 250 or less as i am nearing my goal(also i am always hungry)