doubt about deficit calories

Amb_er100

Alway wondered what "Eat less than you burn to lose weight" means.
I mean,i've always thought that this means that for example my BMR is 1500 calories more or less since i do exercise 3-4 times a week and in order to lose weight i should eat around 1500 calories and burn some calories to have my net calories under that to create a deficit?

neanderthin

BMR is what your body burns before you actually get out of bed or stayed in bed, all concurrent movement from that point on which includes all exercise needs to be added to the BMR # to give you whats called TDE, Total Daily Energy and it's from that number you create a deficit, not BMR.

Mokey41

I don't buy the eat more to weigh less theory. You need to eat enough to keep your body fueled for the day. The easiest way is to either choose the sedentary option and add your exercise in separately, it's up to you if you choose to eat that, I don't. Or you can take your BMR plus about 200 calories and log your exercise.

neverstray

It doesn't matter what anyone buys or believes its math and science..cals in, cals out. It's a very simple concept that gets so easily confused.

If your BMR is 1500, that is the amount you need to eat if you were in a coma, for instance. But, you're not. So, you move around all day. It takes additional calories above your BMR to move around. The combination of BMR and the additional calories are called your TDEE. If you eat at exactly your TDEE everyday, you will maintain your weight. So, the goal is, find your TDEE and subtract calories, a typical amount is 500. Since it takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose 1lb, a 500 calorie deficit puts you in the range to lose 1 lb per week.

Now, here's where everyone gets all screwed up. If you exercise, you create a bigger deficit. More than the 500 calories per day. Lets say you exercise 4 days a week and you estimate that you burn 500 calories during your exercise. Now, at the end of the week, you've created a 2000 calories deficit, or 5500 total calorie deficit for the weeks, instead of the 3500 you planned. This may or may not be problematic. Where this does become problematic is when you are not eating enough in the first place. If you are on a ridiculous 1200 calorie a day diet, the burning 500 calories in exercise and not eating back your exercise calories, you wind up with a 1000 calorie deficit for the day (keep in mind, the assumption on a 1200 calorie diet is that your TDEE is 1700). Since you're only eating 1200, that leaves you with netting only 200 calories for the day. It's an unhealthy way to try and be healthy. You are putting your body in a battle for resources. It's not good at all. No one wins in war. Everyone loses.

The idea in eating more to weigh less is not really eating more. It's to get rid of the stupid idea that people, especially women, have to starve to lose weight. It's just not true. Creating a small deficit is how you lose weight. That's it, period, the end (that's super literal right there. Lol).

So, there one more important detail. When you create your calorie deficit, you have to make sure that it is not below your BMR. So, it's important to know what that is. And, always eat above it. This is the other reason that exercise can create issues if you don't eat enough. Some people operate below BMR. Thus, their weight loss stalls and they can't figure out why. It's because their body is starving and isn't going to let go of anymore.

Weight loss is slow, it does not happen in a straight line, you might gain some weeks. Just keep on trucking and you'll get there. Slow and steady always wins.

I hope this explains it well enough in plain English.

Cheers.