Tell me if this sounds crazy - - it probably will!

SLLRunner

Hey guys, I was just calculating how much of a deficit I would need each day to get down to about 175 by the time I move back to school ( August 23). So I calculated this all out and according to my calculations I'd need a 1,750 calorie deficit each day to reach this goal, and since my minimum calorie intake is 1250 (according to MFP), I'd need to do all of this through exercise. Do you guys think this goal is achievable without burning myself out completely?

According to MFP, I burn about 700ish calories in an hour of biking at about 14mph, soooo yeah. Opinions and tips would be very nice!

Thanks, all!

No. Just no. That is indeed a crazy plan. Dangerous too.

So, you say MFP has you set at 1200 calories, which means you want to start losing 2 pounds a week. Add your exercise calories in (if you use MFP or gym machines to track calories, eat only about 75% of them back since those numbers are generally overestimated), which would give you that 1200 PLUS your 75% or so of your exercise calories.

The caveat is you need to make sure you are ensuring correct portions by weighing your food an choosing correct entries, as well as logging everything you eat. You don't know how much you will lose in the four weeks coming up until school starts, but you will be on your way to your goals because you will be eating at a calorie deficit. Keep it up and you will lose weight.

EDT: wait a minute, you've lost quite a bit of weight already. Congratulations. Now I"m convinced you KNOW your plan is not a good one, and maybe you just needed people to tell you so.

JG762

"Tell me if this sounds crazy - - it probably will!"

Yes, yes it does...

Erilynn93

Hey guys, I was just calculating how much of a deficit I would need each day to get down to about 175 by the time I move back to school ( August 23). So I calculated this all out and according to my calculations I'd need a 1,750 calorie deficit each day to reach this goal, and since my minimum calorie intake is 1250 (according to MFP), I'd need to do all of this through exercise. Do you guys think this goal is achievable without burning myself out completely?

According to MFP, I burn about 700ish calories in an hour of biking at about 14mph, soooo yeah. Opinions and tips would be very nice!

Thanks, all!

No. Just no. That is indeed a crazy plan. Dangerous too.

So, you say MFP has you set at 1200 calories, which means you want to start losing 2 pounds a week. Add your exercise calories in (if you use MFP or gym machines to track calories, eat only about 75% of them back since those numbers are generally overestimated), which would give you that 1200 PLUS your 75% or so of your exercise calories.

The caveat is you need to make sure you are ensuring correct portions by weighing your food an choosing correct entries, as well as logging everything you eat. You don't know how much you will lose in the four weeks coming up until school starts, but you will be on your way to your goals because you will be eating at a calorie deficit. Keep it up and you will lose weight.

EDT: wait a minute, you've lost quite a bit of weight already. Congratulations. Now I"m convinced you KNOW your plan is not a good one, and maybe you just needed people to tell you so.

Pretty much! Haha!
I do measure and record all of my food and everything I consume 97% of the time. I've also been forcing myself to eat about 1300 calories most days since I do exercise, but I find it very difficult to eat back most of my calories. I'm usually not hungry enough to do that unless I start binging on bad foods haha. I guess I'll just keep going the way I am and be patient!

Thanks everyone!

editorgrrl

I've also been forcing myself to eat about 1300 calories most days since I do exercise, but I find it very difficult to eat back most of my calories. I'm usually not hungry enough to do that unless I start binging on bad foods haha. I guess I'll just keep going the way I am and be patient!

Undereating will not get you to your goal any faster. As you've already discovered, chronic undereating leads to bingeing.

Set your goal no higher than 1.5 lb. per week and be patient.

SLLRunner

Hey guys, I was just calculating how much of a deficit I would need each day to get down to about 175 by the time I move back to school ( August 23). So I calculated this all out and according to my calculations I'd need a 1,750 calorie deficit each day to reach this goal, and since my minimum calorie intake is 1250 (according to MFP), I'd need to do all of this through exercise. Do you guys think this goal is achievable without burning myself out completely?

According to MFP, I burn about 700ish calories in an hour of biking at about 14mph, soooo yeah. Opinions and tips would be very nice!

Thanks, all!

No. Just no. That is indeed a crazy plan. Dangerous too.

So, you say MFP has you set at 1200 calories, which means you want to start losing 2 pounds a week. Add your exercise calories in (if you use MFP or gym machines to track calories, eat only about 75% of them back since those numbers are generally overestimated), which would give you that 1200 PLUS your 75% or so of your exercise calories.

The caveat is you need to make sure you are ensuring correct portions by weighing your food an choosing correct entries, as well as logging everything you eat. You don't know how much you will lose in the four weeks coming up until school starts, but you will be on your way to your goals because you will be eating at a calorie deficit. Keep it up and you will lose weight.

EDT: wait a minute, you've lost quite a bit of weight already. Congratulations. Now I"m convinced you KNOW your plan is not a good one, and maybe you just needed people to tell you so.

Pretty much! Haha!
I do measure and record all of my food and everything I consume 97% of the time. I've also been forcing myself to eat about 1300 calories most days since I do exercise, but I find it very difficult to eat back most of my calories. I'm usually not hungry enough to do that unless I start binging on bad foods haha. I guess I'll just keep going the way I am and be patient!

Thanks everyone!

It's not necessary to eat back all your cardio exercise calories if you use internet sources, such as MFP, or the gym machines for estimates, because they are pretty high anyway. However, I agree that you need to reset your goals to lose 1.5 pounds a week instead of two and eat more calorie dense foods instead of increasing the amount you eat. Chuck all foods labeled as "low fat" if you eat those as well.

Erilynn93

I don't understand what resetting my calorie goal to 1.5 is going to do exactly except give me more calories that I can eat. I can still be patient with it set to 2 pounds a week, especially since it doesn't seem to be working for me right now anyway (however, I do notice that my clothes are a bit looser since I work out more).

I know you're supposed to eat back your calories for health reasons generally, but it just kind of seems like it defeats the purpose of burning so many calories in the first place. I like to do my work out and settle for about 1400ish consumed calories a day, any more and I feel uncomfortable and tend to gain somehow. These are really just my thoughts.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I don't understand what resetting my calorie goal to 1.5 is going to do exactly except give me more calories that I can eat. I can still be patient with it set to 2 pounds a week, especially since it doesn't seem to be working for me right now anyway (however, I do notice that my clothes are a bit looser since I work out more).

I know you're supposed to eat back your calories for health reasons generally, but it just kind of seems like it defeats the purpose of burning so many calories in the first place. I like to do my work out and settle for about 1400ish consumed calories a day, any more and I feel uncomfortable and tend to gain somehow. These are really just my thoughts.

If your clothes are looser you're losing fat. Sometimes it just takes a bit to register on the scale.

MFP has your deficit built in. It's a bad idea to have a deficit that's too large, so in general you want to eat back at least some of them.

Are you using a food scale for logging? If not your deficit may not be as large as you think it is. People tend to underestimate their calories; in some studies women underestimated by 400 calories when eyeballing portions.

As for starting to gain on more than 1400 calories, it's extremely unlikely that you're gaining fat. When you increase calories, especially carbs, you can see an increase in water weight, but it's temporary.

Erilynn93

I don't understand what resetting my calorie goal to 1.5 is going to do exactly except give me more calories that I can eat. I can still be patient with it set to 2 pounds a week, especially since it doesn't seem to be working for me right now anyway (however, I do notice that my clothes are a bit looser since I work out more).

I know you're supposed to eat back your calories for health reasons generally, but it just kind of seems like it defeats the purpose of burning so many calories in the first place. I like to do my work out and settle for about 1400ish consumed calories a day, any more and I feel uncomfortable and tend to gain somehow. These are really just my thoughts.

If your clothes are looser you're losing fat. Sometimes it just takes a bit to register on the scale.

MFP has your deficit built in. It's a bad idea to have a deficit that's too large, so in general you want to eat back at least some of them.

Are you using a food scale for logging? If not your deficit may not be as large as you think it is. People tend to underestimate their calories; in some studies women underestimated by 400 calories when eyeballing portions.

As for starting to gain on more than 1400 calories, it's extremely unlikely that you're gaining fat. When you increase calories, especially carbs, you can see an increase in water weight, but it's temporary.

I do measure my food, but I only use measuring cups as my scale is broken I've been doing the whole measuring thing for a quite a while now though so I'm pretty good at eyeballing with my more common foods. And I hope I am gaining muscle but I still hope I start losing again soon. I've been trying really hard to eat back some of my calories but it's hard for me to do sometimes (unless I go eat junk food, haha).

editorgrrl

Buy a new scale and weigh everything you eat—even packaged foods.

If you're using measuring cups, you are underestimating your food.