Calorie Deficit

teresa011
teresa011 Posts: 101 Member
edited September 20 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all, I just wanted to let you all know about something called the calorie deficit that i've learned so much about in this past week....Now as everyone on here know, it takes a person to burn 3500 calories in order to lose 1 pound of fat.....Also many have wondered if they should be eating their exercise calories........What I have found out is this......sure you can eat your exercise calories, but you should have at least a total of a 500 calorie deficit everyday, this way you would lose one pound a week. How do you get that deficit you might add........you figure all the calories you burn, with the calories you consume.....the difference between the two should be 500 or more.......and there you have it.......I have recently got a new device that they use on the biggest loser called The body bugg, and I must say, i've been wearing it for a week, and i've lost 4 pounds in that time......its a great tool and puts everything in perspective..........just thought I would share this little bit with you as I know many are wondering about if they should be eating their exercise calories or not.............Hope this helps........have a great day!!!

Replies

  • FabiolaEnvy♥
    FabiolaEnvy♥ Posts: 730
    thanks for posting this :) really cleared out what i wanted :)

    and thanks for your time of understanding it too so other can too :)
    and congrats on your weight loss :)
  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
    That doesn't make any sense to me. Are you talking about calories left from exercising should be 500 or more? WHAT number is supposed to be 500 or more?

    Nobody explains what a "deficit" is. What is it??
  • teresa011
    teresa011 Posts: 101 Member
    Ok Arielle, here is the easiest way I can explain it............say you exercise and the total amount of calories you burn is 2400 in a day, and just say that the calories you eat equal 1900.......if you take the 2400 and subtract 1900 that leaves you with 500 calories, that is your calorie deficit, thats what you need everyday for a week in order to lose one pound..........the deficit is the difference between the amount of calories you burn and the amount of calories you take in......
  • xecila
    xecila Posts: 99
    Ok Arielle, here is the easiest way I can explain it............say you exercise and the total amount of calories you burn is 2400 in a day, and just say that the calories you eat equal 1900.......if you take the 2400 and subtract 1900 that leaves you with 500 calories, that is your calorie deficit, thats what you need everyday for a week in order to lose one pound..........the deficit is the difference between the amount of calories you burn and the amount of calories you take in......

    Are you talking about exercising away 2400 calories? Let's not forget the calories you burn by simply existing.
  • lisa811
    lisa811 Posts: 363
    Keep in mind when you sign up with MFP and put in your goal and activity level, and how much per week you want to lose, it already has that calorie deficit accounted for. Be careful...you may be giving yourself 1,000 calorie deficit.

    (If I tell MFP I want to lose 1 lb. per week, it subtracts 500 from what it would take to maintain my current weight, and that's the daily allowance.)
  • LOVESFITNESS
    LOVESFITNESS Posts: 52
    All this means is that say you are suppose to consume 1400 calories a day then lets say you exercise and burn 300 calories so that equals 1700 calories that you can eat but if you only eat 1200 calories you will lose a a pound a week if you continue to do so.
  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
    So what's the point of everyone saying eat your exercise calories then?? So...I'm going to burn 600 or so calories today but I'm only eating 1,300. Am I supposed to subtract from the calories burned? Because the number is bigger...this still doesn't make sense.
  • lilmissy2
    lilmissy2 Posts: 595 Member
    Luckily, MFP actually does all that work for you. ie they have already subtracted your deficit depending on how much weight per week you nominated to lose. So, for example - my goal before exercise is 1200cal/day. Now my body should burn somewhere between 1500 and 2000cal/day (without exercise) so even if I don't exercise, if I stick to the goal MFP gives me then I should lose weight. If I exercise, it adds these calories which you can then eat and still have the original deficit that MFP had accounted for. Hope this helps you Arielle.
  • byHISstrength
    byHISstrength Posts: 984 Member
    Very helpful, thanks for taking the time to post this information.
  • drp121274
    drp121274 Posts: 34 Member
    So what's the point of everyone saying eat your exercise calories then?? So...I'm going to burn 600 or so calories today but I'm only eating 1,300. Am I supposed to subtract from the calories burned? Because the number is bigger...this still doesn't make sense.

    The way I was explained this is:

    I use 2200 calories a day in my every day life and I am only allowed 1200 because I want to lose weight (2200-1000=1200). So 1200 is my goal number each day. However say I burn 300 calories at the gym, then my goal for that day is actually 1500, because I need the extra calories that I used at the gym. Otherwise I am not eating enough and my body can go into starvation mode.

    Some people don't eat their burned calories - they stick with their numbers, say 1200 and it doesn't matter if they burned 800 calories at the gym that day, they don't eat extra food....

    My suggestion would be to talk to your doctor and see what they think is best for your body with your medical history.
  • HorpelKrufkin
    HorpelKrufkin Posts: 3
    Arielle,
    Forget about the way it's being worded.

    If you consume 1800 calories in one day, and in the same day you exercise for 45 minutes burning 400 calories, you have essentially only consumed 1400 calories for the day. 400 calories is the deficit and your body must make up for that by burning fat, thus the weight loss.

    The Original poster is simply saying that if you make sure to either eat 500 calories less than you need in one day (7 days = 3500 - she didn't go into the detail) OR to eat the number of calories you need but exercise to burn 500 calories, then you can expect to lose at least one pound every week.

    Of course this may not work for everyone, but it's a general guideline according to the original poster.

    :)
  • gabyp0716
    gabyp0716 Posts: 351 Member
    Arielle - I think that is why some people say not to eat ALL your exercise calories. So you can little by little figure out what works for you. But with the number you provided below I think this might work for you.
    You are suppossed to eat 1300 calories per day
    You exercise an additional 600 calories per day
    That's a total of 1900 calories per day
    1900 - 500 = 1400 calories you should be able to eat per day to lose a lbs per week.
  • gabyp0716
    gabyp0716 Posts: 351 Member
    Arielle - I think that is why some people say not to eat ALL your exercise calories. So you can little by little figure out what works for you. But with the number you provided below I think this might work for you.
    You are suppossed to eat 1300 calories per day
    You exercise an additional 600 calories per day
    That's a total of 1900 calories per day
    1900 - 500 = 1400 calories you should be able to eat per day to lose a lbs.
  • lisa811
    lisa811 Posts: 363
    The Original poster is simply saying that if you make sure to either eat 500 calories less than you need in one day (7 days = 3500 - she didn't go into the detail) OR to eat the number of calories you need but exercise to burn 500 calories, then you can expect to lose at least one pound every week.
    I don't think anyone is disagreeing with this...the point is MFP agrees with this as well, and already puts the deficit in for you. So you may be making your deficit larger than you intended (and possibly larger than it should be). Bottom line: no math needed! MFP makes it easy. Put in your initial settings, log your exercise, then eat the amount of calories MFP says to (or at least close to it).
  • nehtaeh
    nehtaeh Posts: 2,849 Member
    Example.

    Your body burning calories by just being - 1500 calories
    You burn calories by exercising - 500 calories
    Total calories burned today 2000 calories

    Deficit of 500 cals to lose 1 lbs/week - 500 calories

    You can eat this... - 1500 calories

    You can adjust the numbers where needed. If you burn more exercising, you can eat more. You can create a larger deficit by eating the same and exercising more, or exercising the same and eating more.

    Just be aware that there is a "starvation mode" point. I would think this would be different for each person, but it seems the average rule of thumb seems to be to eat no less than 1200 calories a day.

    ETA - MFP calculates all this in the required calories. When you input your exercise you also change the calculations. So, if you just go by the numbers that MFP gives you - you will have the same outcome.
  • teresa011
    teresa011 Posts: 101 Member
    Yes it is a general guideline, and I didn't put the 500 X 7 = 3500 because I assumed most people would be able to figure that out, since I did say that you would need 500 a day for a week...........hence 7 days in a week..........but I do hope this helps....and if you want to have more of a deficit then you would lose more in a week then just a pound......i'm happy I was able to clear things up for some of you
  • lisa811
    lisa811 Posts: 363
    Arielle - I think that is why some people say not to eat ALL your exercise calories. So you can little by little figure out what works for you. But with the number you provided below I think this might work for you.
    You are suppossed to eat 1300 calories per day
    You exercise an additional 600 calories per day
    That's a total of 1900 calories per day
    1900 - 500 = 1400 calories you should be able to eat per day to lose a lbs.

    BUT...in this example, if you are supposed to eat 1300 calories a day according to MFP, the 500 has already been deducted. This means MFP calculated you need 1800 per day to stay where you are, assuming no exercise. So it gives you 1300 per day, with no exercise, to lose 1 lb. per week. So, in the example above:

    1800 to stay put - 500 to lose + 600 burned in exercise = 1900 you should eat to fuel your body for that exercise AND lose about 1 lb. per week. Obviously this is a guideline, but it makes perfect sense to me and frankly has worked beautifully for me.
  • lilmissy2
    lilmissy2 Posts: 595 Member
    The Original poster is simply saying that if you make sure to either eat 500 calories less than you need in one day (7 days = 3500 - she didn't go into the detail) OR to eat the number of calories you need but exercise to burn 500 calories, then you can expect to lose at least one pound every week.
    I don't think anyone is disagreeing with this...the point is MFP agrees with this as well, and already puts the deficit in for you. So you may be making your deficit larger than you intended (and possibly larger than it should be). Bottom line: no math needed! MFP makes it easy. Put in your initial settings, log your exercise, then eat the amount of calories MFP says to (or at least close to it).

    This is what I am saying as well. If MFP tells you to eat 1300cal/day then you are really burning about 1800cal/day but they want you to lose weight so they have subtracted the 500. So if you exercise 600cal then you should be able to actually eat 1900 because your total energy burnt for the day would really be 2400.
  • Lisa1971
    Lisa1971 Posts: 3,069 Member
    My calories are set at 1200. For a minute I thought I could only eat 700 a day if I don't exercise. I'm glad I read the entire thread!:noway: :laugh:
  • irunwithscissors
    irunwithscissors Posts: 89 Member
    I understand it. When you set up your account you tell them what kind of life style you have, and how much you want to lose. To maintain, I need 2270 calories a day, and that is with a life style of exercising weekly and burning 1170 calories a week, through exercise. To lose 1.5lbs a week, still burning 1170 calories a week with exercise I need to only consume 1520 calories a day, which is a deficit of 750calories a day than maintaining. Which takes away 5250 calories a week which then equals 1.5lbs. Because a pound is 3500 calories. Which is why I choose not to eat my exercise calories, unless I have like 1000 calories burned, I will then try to eat some back, like 200-300.
  • sassyg
    sassyg Posts: 393
    This seems to be confusing more people than it is helping!

    It needs to be made clear that the daily goal MFP gives already has the defecit built into it, based on your chosen target (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 lb/week) And is already below what you need to consume to maintain yourself from day-to-day.

    PLEASE no one go subtracting a further 500calories off their daily target...






    Think of it this way:


    you have a nice surplus of a bank balance (your excess weight)
    You go to the store with $100 (your calories consumed today)
    You buy goods worth $150 (what your body burns in calories, to maintain day-to-day)
    You need to take $50 from your bank account, to add to your $100, to pay for your goods. (your daily defecit)

    Your friend asks you to pick up a few things for them, worth $20 (your exercise)
    Now, so that you don't need to take any more than $50 from your bank (your daily defecit), he needs to give you another $20 (more calories to consume).

    So, you go to the store with $120 (calories consumed), buy $170 worth of goods, yours and your friend's (your daily maintenence, plus your exercise) and still need to take $50 from your bank (daily defecit)


    If you do this, every week without adding to your bank balance, eventually you will have a $0 bank balance - i.e no excess weight.

    MFP is working out what your total store bill is based on what you are purchasing (burning), calculating that you will take $50 from your bank (the defecit, to lose weight), and telling you how much cash to take to the store (what you can consume in order to keep that defecit relatively constant).
  • 2playhockey
    2playhockey Posts: 65
    Wow--so much information. I think it would start to get scary if a lot of people had a 500+ deficit at the end of every day. Your body may start to hold onto weight because it thinks you're starving yourself. I'm going to just keep on doing what MFP tells me.
  • fiendiish
    fiendiish Posts: 186
    A deficit of 500-1000 is considered healthy. 1200 calories a day is the LOW end of healthy weight loss. No one should go below that. That means that if you take in 1200, burn 500...you need to eat the 500 so your body has 1200 calories to live on.

    I'm not sure why this is so confusing to people.

    Also, please remember that your BMR is what you would burn if you did absolutely nothing but rest (with a BMR of 1765, which is mine). Even if you are "sedentary" I will burn somewhere in the range of 2100-2300 calories per day BEFORE exercise. THIS is what your deficit should be figured on...NOT your BMR. The goals section of MFP has this mapped out pretty well.
  • FabulousFifty
    FabulousFifty Posts: 1,575 Member
    Luckily, MFP actually does all that work for you. ie they have already subtracted your deficit depending on how much weight per week you nominated to lose. So, for example - my goal before exercise is 1200cal/day. Now my body should burn somewhere between 1500 and 2000cal/day (without exercise) so even if I don't exercise, if I stick to the goal MFP gives me then I should lose weight. If I exercise, it adds these calories which you can then eat and still have the original deficit that MFP had accounted for. Hope this helps you Arielle.

    This helps so much! Thanks!
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
    Wow--so much information. I think it would start to get scary if a lot of people had a 500+ deficit at the end of every day. Your body may start to hold onto weight because it thinks you're starving yourself. I'm going to just keep on doing what MFP tells me.

    Yep just do what MFP tells you.

    It's already done the work for you! Knowledge is a good thing, but no need to overthink this. Let the fancy computer do the thinking for you, peeps.

    MFP is doing the math for you, that's the beauty of it.
  • brendac72
    brendac72 Posts: 109 Member
    Thanks Teresa!
  • heathersmilez
    heathersmilez Posts: 2,579 Member
    This is a good website to calculate your BMR, required calories and your deficit. It goes into details about your deficit, why too big is also bad. I’m guilty of that since I eat the minimum 1200 calories but burn 2200 a day – too much of a deficit but I’m slowly trying to increase to 1400 cals daily as recommended to prevent the desire to go hog wild with food on weekends, lol.

    http://www.phord.com/cc/
  • feeny
    feeny Posts: 110 Member
    Keep in mind when you sign up with MFP and put in your goal and activity level, and how much per week you want to lose, it already has that calorie deficit accounted for. Be careful...you may be giving yourself 1,000 calorie deficit.

    (If I tell MFP I want to lose 1 lb. per week, it subtracts 500 from what it would take to maintain my current weight, and that's the daily allowance.)

    exactly what i was going to say. You can still eat your exercise calories, the way the OP worded the post makes it sound like you shouldn't
This discussion has been closed.

Categories