Advice on calorie deficit

sarski77

Hi everyone,

Just a quick question regarding the daily calorie deficit.
MFP recommends I stick to 1200 calories of food daily in order to lose an average of 1 1/2 lbs per week.

If I burn more calories through exercise, is it always recommended to balance them out with more food or only do that if/when I feel hungry?

If you recommend balancing them out with food, would you say it's important to do that on a daily basis or, say, save them all for the weekend for a treat meal?

Thanks in advance!

jjrichard83

If you're trying to lose fat, replace them if you're hungry. Your body will tell you what you need. Make sure it's hunger and not boredom tho. drink a few glasses of lemon water first.

sarski77

Thank you!

I've read a lot about going below a certain level of calories and therefore damaging your body but can't really see the point in eating if I'm not really hungry. Given the little time I have left from work, I'm not even talking about huge workouts to begin with so your advice makes perfect sense.

Faye_Anderson

If you only have a low amount of weight to lose you should probably change your settings to lose 0.5 to 1lb per week. It's not a race to lose weight, go slow and steady for a permanent loss.
Details such as height and weight might help to answer your question.

If you're adamant you are sticking to 1200 calories invest in a heart rate monitor (apparently the Polar FT range are very good) and eat back most of the calories you burn, if you're going off the MFP calorie burns eat back at least half of the number (MFP calculations have been known to be particularly generous)

The best advice comes from Helloitsdan:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

You should definitely read this :flowerforyou:

amruden

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

Please read this.
It will answer all you questions.

Plus find out some useful information. :-)

sarski77

Thanks everyone,
I'll have a read at those posts you mentioned, much appreciated.

bdamaster60

I lose weight at 2600 calories with no cardio and I think I may need to up it to 2700 because im losing too fast. go by trial and error. Experiment with your calorie ranges.