Daily Calorie Deficit?

just4me46

When I set my goals on MFP, it states my daily calorie deficit should be 640. My daily goal for calories is 1200. I'm don't mean to sound stupid, but are the 640 calorie deficit the amount of calories I should be burning everyday to reach my goal weight? I'm not sure I know or understand what this is?

Toddrific

Just breathing you probably need 1840 calories a day. So eating 1200 calories a day would cause your body to consume itself to fuel itself.

Also:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

joejccva71

MFP is trying to tell you that to lose whatever weight loss goal you set that your deficit should be 640. Being that it says 1200 it's trying to tell you that your TDEE (total daily energy expedenture) is 1840 calories. 1200+640.

Please note though: MFP drastically underestimates TDEE and weight loss goals.

More often than not, 1200 is too low of a number. If you ate that much you might lose some quick weight but then you'll most likely stall and left wondering what went wrong.

Do some reading on these sites to get a better idea of what to do.

- www.bodyrecomposition.com
- www.leangains.com
- body-improvements.com


That should get you started.

jwil1231

Thanks for this information because I had the exact question but someone else explained it much better than I. So, thanks to the both of you.

I don't really understand the comment that MFP underestimates the two caloric numbers though.

joejccva71

Thanks for this information because I had the exact question but someone else explained it much better than I. So, thanks to the both of you.

I don't really understand the comment that MFP underestimates the two caloric numbers though.

You'd be surprised how many people on MFP get the same amount of calories to eat (1200).

Hint: Almost everyone.

It's just a base guideline but for most people it's way off. It causes people to undereat.

nickyrobinson

The main reason MFP comes up with 1200 so much is that 1200 is the minimum MFP will allow, and so many people try to set to lose 2 lb/week. Unless your maintenance (i.e. TDEE) is more than 1200 calories, you are going to get 1200 calories as the guide to eat.

Examples:

Maintenance: 2400
2 lb/week loss: -1000
Total: 1400
MFP calories: 1400

Maintenance: 2100
2 lb/week loss: -1000
Total: 1100
MFP calories: 1200 (minimum allowed)

Maintenance: 2100
1 lb/week loss: -500
Total: 1600
MFP calories: 1600

Try switching to 1 lb/week (or 0.5 lb/week).