Daily Calorie Deficit

SweatpantsRebellion

So does anyone know how much we should be shooting for in terms of a daily calorie deficit? I've been using the online software for The Hacker's Diet that someone posted a link to as a way to track my weight loss trend. When I pull up my chart it tells me I have a daily deficit of 919 calories. I've been eating roughly 2600 calories a day (2300 is my goal + 300 breastfeeding calories). Does 919 sound high? I was thinking the deficit was supposed to be more 500ish a day? I can't remember where I saw that. I'm losing weight at roughly 1 pound a week, so a nice and slow rate. Although the chart says 1.8lbs a week, but that's including numbers from when I first started and dropped a bit more rapidly. I was eating too little at first, so I'm wondering if my chart has been thrown off from that? Anyways, any idea what the deficit should be?

Here's a link to the software I'm u sing in case you're interested.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html

Editing to add that I tried just looking at this last month since upping my calories and the deficit is even greater now - 1257 and it says I'm losing 3.07 lbs a week. Perhaps I'm not understanding how to use/interpret this?

This is the pseudonym it gave me so that my information is public - Tau South So I think you can go on there and search and see my chart??

Editing again - Okay - There is a way to search. You have to go into utilities and enter Tau South - it's case sensitive!

klalaw

I'm using the same program, and I don't fully understand it yet, but here is my guess, based on my information:

It's telling me that I'm losing .96 lbs a week and that my daily deficit is 480. That is awfully close to 1 lb and 500 calories, which would be consistent with the well-known fact that 3500 calories = 1 pound. So, if you reduce your weekly calories by 3500 (or 500/day), you should lose one pound, if you reduce by 7000 calories (1000/day), you should lose 2 lbs, etc. This makes sense, because the program only has our weight info, not our calories in or calories out, so it's just saying that, based on how much we're losing, on average we must be at a deficit of x calories per day. So if I wanted to increase my rate of loss to 2 lbs/week, I'd have to increase my daily deficit by another 500 calories (I can't do this, however, as I'd be eating below my BMR).

alesnie

Could you explain a little more what this program is? Is it just a way to track calories burned/what you ate for the day vs. your weight?

SweatpantsRebellion

Could you explain a little more what this program is? Is it just a way to track calories burned/what you ate for the day vs. your weight?

I've just started using it, so I'm still a bit confused as to what it does...lol. I wonder if someone else who's been using it for awhile might pipe in with some good information? I mean, what you mentioned, is kind of the gist of it...but there's no tracking of food or anything.

SweatpantsRebellion

I'm using the same program, and I don't fully understand it yet, but here is my guess, based on my information:

It's telling me that I'm losing .96 lbs a week and that my daily deficit is 480. That is awfully close to 1 lb and 500 calories, which would be consistent with the well-known fact that 3500 calories = 1 pound. So, if you reduce your weekly calories by 3500 (or 500/day), you should lose one pound, if you reduce by 7000 calories (1000/day), you should lose 2 lbs, etc. This makes sense, because the program only has our weight info, not our calories in or calories out, so it's just saying that, based on how much we're losing, on average we must be at a deficit of x calories per day. So if I wanted to increase my rate of loss to 2 lbs/week, I'd have to increase my daily deficit by another 500 calories (I can't do this, however, as I'd be eating below my BMR).

That's a really good explanation. I'm still confused as to why my stats say what they do, but you've helped me to understand it better. I'm wondering if breastfeeding is using more calories than I thought. I can't really imagine eating more food. ???

ANewLucia

Ok ladies, don't use the hacker spreadsheet to alter your intake or to determine if you taking in the correct amount. You used the TDEE calculator and that is what we are going by.....I suggested using it just to watch for trending, so you can see that fluctuations occur and for you to note activity and such so you can see how you are trending. It is a spreadsheet that is calculating based soley on your loses and gains, it is NOT going to be consistent with your true deficit because it can't take water fluctuations into account. So again, only use it to watch that blue line to track how your weight loss progressing, so you see your lows and highs. By noting what is happening with you daily you will start to notice the reason behind most of the ups and can truly rejoice is seeing your lows....I hope that clears that up a bit:-)

SweatpantsRebellion

Ok ladies, don't use the hacker spreadsheet to alter your intake or to determine if you taking in the correct amount. You used the TDEE calculator and that is what we are going by.....I suggested using it just to watch for trending, so you can see that fluctuations occur and for you to note activity and such so you can see how you are trending. It is a spreadsheet that is calculating based soley on your loses and gains, it is NOT going to be consistent with your true deficit because it can't take water fluctuations into account. So again, only use it to watch that blue line to track how your weight loss progressing, so you see your lows and highs. By noting what is happening with you daily you will start to notice the reason behind most of the ups and can truly rejoice is seeing your lows....I hope that clears that up a bit:-)

Thank you so much. I think I tend to obsess a bit. Your explanation makes sense! I'm done obsessing over the proper calorie deficit and will now just watch for trends!