Guide to calorie deficits

parvati

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cometnurse

Thanks!! Some of my friends are new to MFP and this will really help them!!

ThaPoeticRose

Thanks for helping me understand this better, I was totally at a lost with the reason for eating you calories lost through exercise...THANKS>>>>>:bigsmile:

Mande_G

Bump!

Thanks for the great information, O MFP guru!

Essence320

bump

geicko

How about when you record you workout under exercise and eat your exercice calories ? Would you still consider yourself lightly active or even active if you have a desk job ?

Said differently, if you have a desk job and workout, do you
A) consider your cardio workout when defining your activity level so you don't add it under exercise, or
consider you are sendentary on the goal page but add exercise calories when you workout, or
C) use both "calorie increasers" so you set activity to Lightly Active, or even Active AND add exercise when your workout ?

I'm curently set as B, but this discussion kind of leaves me wondering...

DeeDeeLHF

Thank you Banks! I really needed to read this. I am getting closer to my goal. My BMI is 24.9 and my BMR is only 1,181. (45 yr old female, 5 ft 1" current weight is 132. I use a HRM so I am pretty accurate on my excercise calories and usually do not eat below 100 calories net and seldom do I go more than 50 above. I am kind of stuck...up a pound or two then down based on water, tmo, etc.

Not discouraged just disappointed but reading this helps! I will really focus on the muscle building and toning and let the weight take care of itself.

I have often wondered about what a realistic goal is for me anyway. Everyone who sees me says I look great and shouldn't lose anymore including my husband.

Thanks for all of you VERY helpful posts!!

GoodGollyMolly

Bump!

xonophone

I have learned so much from the website, thanks to informative posts by people such as you who care enough to share your knowledge with the rest of us. Thanks for explaining it so clearly and helping me reach my goals in a safe, healthy way! Now my next step is to get a HRM so that I can eat my ACTUAL exercise calories!

FrankyOsage

bumpo! needed the encouragement!

Relaeh

I have a triumph to proclaim....last week I did not loose any weight and I THOUGHT I had the best week ever (keeping within my minimum calories and exercising)!! Then I read your post on eating your exercise calories, and voila...down 2lbs this week! I'll admit I didn't eat every single exercise calorie...but I ate 50-75% and it seemed to be the answer...I am now a believer!

arewethereyet

I have a triumph to proclaim....last week I did not loose any weight and I THOUGHT I had the best week ever (keeping within my minimum calories and exercising)!! Then I read your post on eating your exercise calories, and voila...down 2lbs this week! I'll admit I didn't eat every single exercise calorie...but I ate 50-75% and it seemed to be the answer...I am now a believer!

lotusfromthemud

bump!:flowerforyou:

lvfunandfit

Nicely explained! (as always)

krissybohaczyk

BUMP!:flowerforyou:

toots99

Excellent advice...thanks!

stroutman81

Nice post, Banks. Are you a professional in the industry?

I just blogged about this very topic today, funnily enough, before seeing this.

Nice to see you spreading the good word.

natspoiledbrat

Thank you for the great explanation!

SHBoss1673

Nice post, Banks. Are you a professional in the industry?

I just blogged about this very topic today, funnily enough, before seeing this.

Nice to see you spreading the good word.

I'm a PT, but I wrote this before certified, I've just been on here a long time, and have done a heck of a lot of research is all.

thanks!

pitapocket

bump

stroutman81

I'm a PT, but I wrote this before certified, I've just been on here a long time, and have done a heck of a lot of research is all.

thanks!

Gotcha. Nice to see a PT who actually goes out of his way to research. Far too few of them in this field, nowadays.

cmriverside

this keeps coming up. hmmmmm. BUMP

eepidee

Hello Folks,

So often people personal message me asking me if I think their calories are correct. It seems that people think there is some magical formula that only a very few can figure out. I see so many people on here just popping in numbers and following them heedless of what the numbers mean. I feel it's ULTRA important to know why MFP (and me, and a few others) gives you certain numbers. To that end I will try to empower YOU to be able to understand the basics about calories, calorie deficits, and why we recommend eating exercise calories. With this knowledge you should be able to easily figure out what your calories should be at for reasonable, healthy weight loss. So without further ado, lets get started.

1st things first, a few givens must be stated:

-Everyone's body is slightly different. ALWAYS keep in mind your numbers may not be exactly what MFP thinks simply because everyone's bodies all burn energy at a different rate. Tweaking may be needed.

- MFP's goals wizard is a "dumb" tool. That means it doesn't care whether a specific goal is healthy and/or right for you, it just subtracts the goal deficit from projected maintenance calories. This means that even if you shouldn't be trying for a 2 lb a week loss, MFP won't care, it will still try to help you get there.

-1200 calories is a generic number. It's not right for everyone. It's a baseline minimum given out as a floor by MFP based on prior research by the medical community. NOT everyone will need a minimum of 1200, very small people can go under, and bigger people need more.


OK with those facts firmly set in your mind (please go back and re-read the givens until you have them firmly planted in your skull!), we can continue. Figuring out your perfect deficit isn't magic, it's a few simple formula's base on some basic, worldwide standards, and generally with slight modefication, will work for just about anyone who (besides weight) is generally healthy.

Here's what you need:
Height, weight, age, activity level, sex

NOTE: activity level isn't as mysterious as it sounds. If you have a desk job, and do very little walking throughout the day and don't really perform any sports or physical activities, then you are sedentary, if you do some walking every day (or at least 4 days a week) or other light activity for at least 30 minutes cumulative at least 4 times a week, you are lightly active. If you do 60 minutes of light activity 5 days a week or do some kind of sport that requires walking or light jogging (say swimming or mailman or warehouse employee) then you are active, If you do a physically demanding activity (one that makes you sweat) for 4 days a week or more and for more than 1 hour a day, you are very active (like a coach that runs drills or you play volleyball). When in doubt, go down 1 level, you'd rather burn more than you think than less.

With all these numbers you can generate your BMI. Now I realize BMI is flawed, but for what we're doing it's good enough. After years on here, and doing lots and lots of research, I've been able to associate general BMI ranges with approximate goal levels. This works for about 80 to 85% of people out there (there's always a few that are outside the curve).

So now we can figure out where your goal should be.
Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle tone, and reducing fat. This means is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode)

With this quick guide you can figure out your goal rather easily. I know many people will say "I can't eat my exercise calories, I gain weight when I do". Well I have news for you, that's not correct. I submit this, if you eat your exercise calories and gain weight 1 of 3 things happened:
1 you were previously in starvation mode, and you upped your calories, and had an immediate weight gain, that's normal, to be expected, and necessary to get your body on track. Give it a month, that will stop, and you, once again, will begin to lose, but this time, in a healthy manner.
2 you incorrectly calculated something, either your exercise calories, your calorie intake, or you put in to large of a goal. Go back and check all your numbers.
3 you haven't given it enough time to work. This site promotes HEALTHY weight loss people. Healthy weight loss doesn't happen in days or weeks, it takes months and years. Each change you make in how you eat needs a month or more to work, be patient, give it time. It will happen.

And to everyone who has a trainer that doesn't agree with eating your exercise calories. I also submit this: In 90% of the cases (and I have talked to a LOT of trainers about this exact topic) they actually DO agree with this method, you just explained it wrong.
Just saying to a trainer "should I eat my exercise calories?" isn't enough, you have to explain to them that MFP already generates a deficit prior to any exercise, therefore the deficit will remain whether you exercise or not. Once you give them that idea, and you are relatively sure they understand the concept then I'll bet they change their tune.

I hope this helps, it's pretty straight forward if you've been here a while, and to you new guys, I recommend going to the message boards link, clicking on the "general diet and weight loss" area, and clicking on those first few posts that have the little mouse trap next to them, they are sticky and will always be there, and are a wealth of knowledge about this site, exercise calories, starvation mode...etc.

regards,

-Banks

SHBoss1673

I'm bumping for someone who wanted to figure out their activity levels.

SHBoss1673

I'm performing a self-bump here, cuz I think this is a useful tool, hopefully others do as well.

Kamila02

Love reading your stuff man! AND I especially love that you share it with the masses. It helps keep us on track and keep us better informed...

You're such a blessing!

lotusfromthemud

You know what, I frickin love this post.

SHBoss1673

why thank you viv!

lotusfromthemud

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