Calorie Deficits...How much is too much?

katrina1025

So I am currently trying to lose weight. How much of a calorie deficit is too much? I am shooting for 1000 calories per day. But some days I am over that.

Anyone have any experience?

MissAnjy

as long as you're eating your 1200 calories a day, the bigger the deficit the better.

Mindful_Trent

there is no magic number as far as how much is too much - it varies from person to person. The general rule is that the more you have to lose, the higher the deficit your body can tolerate. So someone with 100 lbs to lose will tolerate a higher deficit than 40 lbs, who will tolerate a higher deficit than someone with only 20 lbs to lose. Generally it's not recommended to go over 1000 calorie deficit per day (2 lbs/week) unless you're under strict doctor supervision...

lordofultima

No, it's not "the bigger calorie deficit the better," please don't take that advice. You should eat close to your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), that is the minimum amount of calories required for your body to function properly. I'd say 10-20% less than your TDEE is a good calorie deficit to lose a healthy and steady amount of weight.

Weight loss is not a race, people act like if they don't lose 100 lbs. in a year they have failed or something. Slower more natural weight loss will get you much better looking results.

porcelain_doll

Logic tells us that the fewer calories we consume/the bigger deficit we create, the more weight we will lose. This is not the case, however. If you don't eat enough - and especially if you are very physically active - your metabolism will slow down and begin clinging to every calorie you eat. If your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate - the calories your body uses just to function) is 2000/day, you'd need to eat that much just to maintain. If you are trying to lose weight, you'd want about a 500 cal deficit. Meaning you'd consume 1500 cal/day. If you exercise that day and burn 500 calories during your workout, you would need to eat 2000 cal that day. If you just ate 1500 after exercising and burning 500, you're only consuming 1,000 calories which is low enough for your metabolism to get paranoid that it's not going to get enough fuel, and begin hanging onto every calorie coming in. Does that make sense?

How do I know? It happened to me.

porcelain_doll

Not to mention, if you are using this site then your daily caloric intake and daily deficit needed to lose weight has already been calculated for you; all you have to do is fill in your diary and eat as many calories as it tells you! That includes when you get extra calories from exercise.

Egger29

Healthy Long-term Weight loss should be no more than 1-2 lbs / week max. Anything above that is crash dieting and will not give you long term results and generally bring more weight gain after the fact.

Considering there are apprx 3500 calories in a lb, taken over 7 days (1 week) a 1lb / week loss is a calorie Deficit of 500 calories /day. 2lb / week being 1000 calories/day.

This deficit is counted AFTER meeting your Basic metabolic needs for the day and varies from person to person based on your activity level and current weight.

As well, this deficit should be a combination of both cutting calories and increasing exercise (I,E, A 500 calorie deficit would be cutting 250 calories a day and doing an additoinal 250 calories of activity above and beyond your daily norms (lifestyle)).

MFP will automatically calculate your daily needs accounting for your goals and lifestyle so whatever your settings are, it will give you the number of calories you require each day to meet that goal. It also accounts for exercise.

Again...the 500 or 1000 calories deficits are ALREADY accounted for in the majority of people's profiles so it's unadvisable to be under by large number of additional calories than recommended for your daily needs.

katrina1025

Thanks for all the great info!!


How does one calculate BMR?

edorice

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/139500-basal-metabolic-rate-bmr-calculator?hl=bmr+calculation#posts-1899175

GiGi76

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

SHBoss1673

FYI, to a poster higher up. You don't subtract your deficit from your BMR, BMR is considerably less than maintenance calories, you subtract your deficit from maintenance.


To the OP, check this thread out that I created, it should give you a rough idea of where to begin when determining your goals


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

BoresEasily

Great post SH.

TrainingWithTonya

No, it's not "the bigger calorie deficit the better," please don't take that advice. You should eat close to your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), that is the minimum amount of calories required for your body to function properly. I'd say 10-20% less than your TDEE is a good calorie deficit to lose a healthy and steady amount of weight.

Weight loss is not a race, people act like if they don't lose 100 lbs. in a year they have failed or something. Slower more natural weight loss will get you much better looking results.

This is what I have been taught in my nutrition certifications and university classes for my nutrition minor. TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It is the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR, or calories burned doing absolutely nothing just to maintain organ function) + Daily Activity (not counting exercise here. This is your house cleaning, walking to and from your car, taking the stairs, etc. calories.) + Exercise calories. MFP uses the BMR and activity calories and subtracts a deficit based on what you want to lose per week then adds in the exercise calories so that you are eating them but are still getting a deficit. When I do a plan for my clients, I go ahead and add an estimate of exercise calories and then multiply the total by 80% to get a minimum calorie intake. From everything I've been taught, this is the "starvation line" for lack of a better term. The 1200 calorie thing is a generalization for the masses that isn't accurate for everyone, but is a population average of an estimate of accurate, if that makes sense. Its just too difficult to do all the math for a large population, so the recommendation of 1200 calories is used for simplicity. Here's an example if you want to try and figure your own TDEE and calorie needs.

100 kilogram person (220 pounds), 25% body fat, moderately active (walks around at work and takes care of the house when they get home from work), workout 5 days a week burning approximately 500 calories per workout.

100kg x 0.25 = 25kg fat
100kg - 25kg = 75kg lean body mass
75kg x 24 hours x 1 calorie = 1800 BMR estimation
Moderately active = 1.5 activity estimate
1800 x 1.5 = 2700 RMR (resting metabolic rate, meaning not doing planned exercise but doing their normal daily activity, not a complete resting state of laying around) or TDEE on non-exercise days
2700 x 0.80 = 2160 minimum calories on non-exercise days

2700 + 500 = 3200 TDEE on exercise days
3200 x 0.80 = 2560 minimum calories on exercise days.

They shouldn't go over TDEE to keep from gaining weight, so there is a range they can eat from 2160 to 2700 on non-exercise days and 2560 to 3200 on exercise days.