Calorie deficit? Confused

adampierce142

Hi all,

I'm trying to lose a bit of stomach and chest fat, i am around 177 lb and would like to get down to 168 - losing weight and body fat is my aim and thereafter start bulking at the gym.
Anyway my calorie intake is around 1,800 to 2,000 on a daily basis. My aim is to lose maybe 1lb every week.
I run 3.5 miles x 5 times a week thus burning approx 350 calories per run.
This means that my calorie deficit is around 1450 - 1650 on 5 days a week.

My question is do i need to 'eat' the calories that i have lost which doing cardio (350calories) or what in order for me to be on the right track?
or do i need to consume around 2350 calories (2000 my daily intake + 350 i will have burnt doing cardio)

im really confused??

IllustratedxGirl

What you are already doing sounds about right.

Try plugging those numbers into MFP and set your goal to lose .5 - 1lb per week. It sounds like you might already be hitting that range

I would eat back your exercise calories because 1450-1600 is probably where you want to be

However, if you are a male, I think guys have higher BMR's and TDEEs so not sure. This can also change based on weight / height

It's hard to say without a little more detail

itsbasschick

i eat about half my exercise calories back, and only eat them if i get hungry between meals, which i do on workout days. if you don't get hungry between meals, don't feel weak or dizzy and you're not losing faster than 2 pounds a week, you should be good.

the bottom line is you need a calorie deficit of an average of 750 per day (about a 5250 calorie deficit per week) in order to lose about a pound and a half a week. if your calories are too high or low, or the burn from your runs are higher or lower, you'll need to adjust the number of calories you're eating.

adampierce142

thanks for both of your replies - i dont mean to sounds stupid, but i can understand what your trying to explain

itsbasschick

do you know what your average calorie intake was per day? eating 500 calories less than your regular calories you've been eating would be eating at a 500 calorie per day deficit.

adampierce142

itsbasschick - i haven't got a clue what my daily calorie intake was before. i've just began eating healthy and i knew i consumed so much junk food prior to this.

Kalikel

I think the MFP allowance for calories burned is way too high. I don't really count them.

Some people do eat them back. Some eat half or some other percentage.

Do what you feel like doing. Eat them back if you want and see how that goes. You can always change whenever you want.