calorie deficit help

utellmeaname

Hi, I'm new to fitness pal, this subject I'm sure has been discussed but I can't find it so hopefully someone will correctly explain the whole deficit thing, tried to google and that didn't help either, so many conflicting answers.

If my daily BMR is 1513 and my average daily burn (according to charts) is 2315 and I burn one thousand calories daily in exercise and eat 1,200 calories am I under eating (should I be eating back burned calories) or is this a good deficit. I want to lose 3 lbs per week, yeah I know should be no more than two a week but last minute me wants to be down 10 in a month.

I have thyroid issues (low) and take synthroid and adderall (ADD) and still can't lose weight... HELP, Thank you !!!


5'4" 174 lbs - female

BMR - 1513
daily burn - 2315
exercise - 1,000
eat - 1,200 (eating this much is an issue, I'm never hungry and guessing the adderall is the reason)

nazi123445

ok your saying you only eat 1200 calories and your bmr after your workout is about 2315 and you say you burn 1000 calories a day in excerise? so your only taking in 200 calories a day from food? you need 2315 to maintain if you continue to workout the way you do and a healthy calorie deficit is about 500 less then your bmr so that would be 1815 that you would need to eat a day to lose about 1lb a week if you wanna lose a little more i would maybe go as low as 1500 but thats still cutting it to low if you burn that many calories you will lose at 1200 but you will lose muscle and if you lose muscle the chances of you gaining the weight back and faster will be very high do it the healthy way lose 1-2 lbs a week and it will be worth it why would you wanna lose so much and lose muscle to just gain it back and gain back more fat?

diannethegeek

Your deficit sounds too high to me. We all want to lose the weight fast, but you risk losing more muscle than fat at this rate and that's not what you want. Not only will losing muscle slow down your metabolism, but you'll also have a higher body fat % and may not like the way you look as much when you get to your goal weight.

TeaBea

A 3 pound (per week) weight loss goal might make sense for someone with well over 100 pounds to lose.

There is weight loss and there is HEALTHY weight loss. Healthy weight loss is moderate and allows you to keep the most muscle mass.

Pounds per week
75+ lbs to lose 2 lb range
Between 40 - 75 lbs to lose 1.5 lb range
Between 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lb range
Between 15-25 lbs to lose 1.0 lb range
Less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs range

You BMR is the number of calories required if you were in a coma ..... netting below this regularly (eat 2013 less exercise 500 = 1513) ...... promotes muscle loss.

How are you calculating calorie burns for exercise? ...... charts are estimates. HRM (for cardio) will be more accurate.

utellmeaname

Hi Nazi, I'm not sure if my BMR is 2315, that's what the chart said, it took my daily BMR of 1513 and told me to multiply by 1.55, which is actually 2345 (typo sorry). I do know that my exercise (Turbo Jam) burns 1,000 calories an hour and I do eat 1,200 calories a day, exercise 4-5 days per week, I also do moderate weight training activity those days to keep from losing muscle. I am confused, not sure if the chart added my exercise in and came up with 2345 or if I have to add the 1,000 to the 2,345. Thanks for your help !!

TeaBea

Hi Nazi, I'm not sure if my BMR is 2315, that's what the chart said, it took my daily BMR of 1513 and told me to multiply by 1.55, which is actually 2345 (typo sorry). I do know that my exercise (Turbo Jam) burns 1,000 calories an hour and I do eat 1,200 calories a day, exercise 4-5 days per week, I also do moderate weight training activity those days to keep from losing muscle. I am confused, not sure if the chart added my exercise in and came up with 2345 or if I have to add the 1,000 to the 2,345. Thanks for your help !!

This topic is really, really helpful

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map


There are 2 methods:

1. I'm guessing your TDEE (total daily expenditure .... which should INCLUDE exercise) is 2,345. Then you would take a percentage away from that number & eat those calories.... you don't the log exercise because it's built in UP FRONT. That % is based upon how close you are to goal (not >20%) ...... and above your BMR calories at all times

2. The MFP method does not give "credit" for exercise until you log it ......and then expects you to eat those calories back. This is because the calorie deficit is built in BEFORE exercise. By exercising you create a much larger deficit than is healthy.

KatieHall77

I know it can seem counter-intuitive to up your calories if you're trying to lose weight, but there are hundreds of similar threads you can find on MFP- use the search if you're interested- people puzzled by not loosing much weight and they're eating around 1200. Your body will burn fat better if you're getting a reasonable amount of calories. Bumping that number up can actually make you loose faster, feel great, and will help you keep the weight off when you're in maintenance. Try 1600 a day for a while and see how you feel, and what it does. If you start loosing better, you will know it's a good number for you.

Good luck!

utellmeaname

Thanks all.... I'm not one for reading, I get very confused, was hoping to find a calculator that calculated all my normal daily activities plus my calories burned from exercise and my food calorie intake and tell me how much to deficit to lose the weight. I'll try Katie's suggestion and start at 1,600 calories a day with exercise and see how I feel.

diannethegeek

Thanks all.... I'm not one for reading, I get very confused, was hoping to find a calculator that calculated all my normal daily activities plus my calories burned from exercise and my food calorie intake and tell me how much to deficit to lose the weight. I'll try Katie's suggestion and start at 1,600 calories a day with exercise and see how I feel.

What you want is a TDEE calculator (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). There are tons of them online, but I'll save you the trip to Google: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

utellmeaname

I'll check it out, thanks !!

heybales

Thanks all.... I'm not one for reading, I get very confused, was hoping to find a calculator that calculated all my normal daily activities plus my calories burned from exercise and my food calorie intake and tell me how much to deficit to lose the weight. I'll try Katie's suggestion and start at 1,600 calories a day with exercise and see how I feel.

As you wish. Stay on the Simple Setup tab and just enter your stats.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717858-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-and-deficit-calcs-macros-hrm

And track your progress.