eat at a calorie deficit WHAT DOES THIS MEAN AAA HELP

shelley234

Help I dont know what "eat at a calorie deficit" mans

peaple keep suggestion this but im not sure what it means.

thanks xx

kenazfehu

That means you need to eat fewer calories than you burn off.

autumnblade75

It means that you need to eat less calories than your body burns in a day. If you are maintaining a steady weight, you can log your food for a week or two and take an average to find out how many calories you're eating in a day, and then subtract however many you want for a deficit (500 for a loss of 1 pound per week, 1000 for a loss of 2 pounds per week - but not less than 1200 calories per day.) If you don't lose a pound after a week of eating at your deficit, (and you're over 1200) subtract another hundred calories and try again for another week or two.

shelley234

ooo thanks i think iv been doing that, if my work out burns off 500 cals ill only eat back 250.

is that right or should i not eat any back ????

shelley234

ooo thanks i think iv been doing that, if my work out burns off 500 cals ill only eat back 250.

is that right or should i not eat any back ????

Also im on 1200 cals a day

skylark94

You should be looking at your deficit for the entire day, not just your exercise because the TDEE is not only the calories you burn while exercising, it also includes your BMR, the calories you burn just by living (breathing, heart beating, etc)

Go here for a great explanation of how it all works and how to set a calorie goal.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

shelley234

You should be looking at your deficit for the entire day, not just your exercise because the TDEE is not only the calories you burn while exercising, it also includes your BMR, the calories you burn just by living (breathing, heart beating, etc)

Go here for a great explanation of how it all works and how to set a calorie goal.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Thank you iv just had a look and omg i sound realy thic but its sooo confusing

shelley234

THICK )))

skylark94

If Dan's post is a bit overwhelming for you, try this calculator

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

I set my daily calorie goat at my sedentary number, then eat back about half to 2/3rds of my exercise calories. It has worked beautifully for me.

Edit to add- I use the sedentary number because I spend a great deal of my non-workout time sitting on my butt. If you are more active, choose a higher base number.

wolfchild59

It's looking at the day as a whole.

So if you burn 1800 calories without exercise and you are trying to lose 1 pound a week, eat 1300 calories.
If you then workout and you burn 2300 calories that day, and you are trying to lose 1 pound a week, eat 1800 calories.

You will never know exactly how many calories you burn in a day (though there are devices like FitBit and BodyMedia Fit that can give you a good estimate), so you need to use the calculators that people have linked you to to figure out your approximate daily calorie burn (total daily energy expenditure or TDEE) and then subtract either a set number of calories like 500 a day, or a percentage, like 15% of your TDEE to find out what you should be eating each day.

Just don't confuse BMR with TDEE, TDEE is BMR + what you burn by moving around throughout the day. There are tons of resources here and via Google searches that will be able to get you going in the right direction.