Daily Calorie Deficit?

Krizzle4Rizzle

Can someone please explain to me what the whole Daily Calorie Deficit thing is about? Thanks!

mzenzer

Well, to lose weight you need to eat less calories then you burn, hence the calorie deficit. Is that what you were asking?

CoryIda

OK - you have your BMR and your activity level, which determines how many calories you burn on average each day. Let's say for the sake of keeping things simple that this is 2000. You have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound. Let's say your goal is one pound a week and you aren't planning to exercise. That means you need a daily calorie deficit of 500 calories (500 calories x 7 days = 3500 calories/week), making your daily goal 1500 calories/day. You should try to get close to that number every day.

Now, if you are going to exercise 30 minutes/day 5 days/week and anticipate burning 250 calories each day, you can expect to lose an additional 1/2 pound per week.

Now the daily goal and leftover calorie thing:
You really should try to get close to your calorie goal every day (make sure you get plenty of protein and fiber too) without going over. Most poeple recommend that you eat your exercise calories as well. I don't eat all of them - I sometimes eat them, sometimes don't.

The big thing is you don't want a huge deficit every day (under 1200 calories) because 1) it's hard to get adequate nutrition on so few calories, and 2) your body may think you are starving it and will hold onto/store all of the fat and calories you have consumed.

I hope this helps!

tolygal

To lose one pound, you need a deficit of 3500 calories. That means you need to burn 3500 more calories than you eat. So if you burn 500 calories more than you consume every day for one week (7 days), you should lose about 1 pound! If you want to lose 2 pounds a week, you'd need an average deficit of 1000 calories a day (or 7000 calories a week).

Krizzle4Rizzle

Thanks guys. I saw it on my goals and I mistook what that column meant. I get it now!

morganadk2_deleted

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits