Calories & Deficit

evdenapoli

Hello!

Please forgive me if this sounds stupid. I just read on MFP on a thread that MFP already includes in my calorie deficit. Do I undersstand this correctly? EX: MFP tells me to eat 1260 cals / day. I have been eating that or just below. PLUS I excersize and I don't eat my excersize calories. I thought that my exersize cals were my deficit. I hav ebeen loosing since I joined but very slowly. Considering I eat 1200 cals a day and excersize 4-5 times a week I only lost 27lbs in 1 year.. anyoen else find that wrong? Help!!

LoraF83

The deficit is created from the calories you burn just living - that's called your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). You tell MFP how much you want to lose per week and it creates a deficit for you. This does not include any exercise calories. So, if you exercise, you should eat those calories back (or at least most of them).

JesterMFP

You are correct in that MFP gives you a calorie goal with a built-in calorie deficit so you should lose even if you never do any exercise. The way that MFP is designed, it gives you that goal on the assumption that you will eat back exercise calories. Otherwise, it would have given you a larger goal to start with, with your predicted exercise factored in. Some people customise their own goal on MFP and don't eat back their exercise calories, but they are using a different method. 1260 is a pretty low number of calories to sustain, so I would definitely recommend eating back your exercise calories.

It's hard to say without more information, but if you have maintained a large calorie deficit for a long period of time, it is possible that you have lost more muscle mass than is optimal, and that your metabolic rate has adjusted downwards, which could lead to you not losing as much as you would expect. Pretty much everyone loses some lean mass when they lose weight, but if you have a more extreme calorie deficit, then that is more of a risk.

evdenapoli

OMG I didn't make that connection. Thank you!

deksgrl

See on your food log where it says at the bottom:

Total: This is the amount you actually ate so far today.
Your Daily Goal: This is your MFP goal PLUS exercise you logged. (people also call that Net calories here)
Remaining: This is the amount you still should eat.

MinnieInMaine

First, stop saying "only". You lost weight and made healthy choices over the last year - be proud of that accomplishment!

Second, in addition to the above info, it's possible that your expectations are too high. Without a signature ticker or being able to see your profile, I'm not sure what your personal data is (height, weight, etc) or your ultimate weight loss goal is but here is a good guideline to go by.

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

With this in mind, you may need to reset your weight loss per week goal.

Keep up the good work!