Confused!

Dellie22
Dellie22 Posts: 167
edited September 21 in Food and Nutrition
I'm a little confused. I used to track my calories before i joined this site, but, with the food tracker, do i still need to deficit 500 per day calories to lose 1lb per week or not? Hope this makes sense...

Replies

  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
    No. MFP already figures out your deficit for you.
  • Dellie22
    Dellie22 Posts: 167
    Ok thanks :)
  • Dellie22
    Dellie22 Posts: 167
    Ok thanks :) what deficit does it use ? 500?
  • jdelot
    jdelot Posts: 397 Member
    It depends on what you put in your profile. If you set it for losing 1 lb/week, it will be 500.
  • LittleTwitty
    LittleTwitty Posts: 13
    Silly question but this is new to me. When you guys are talking about a deficit of 500, what does that mean?
  • Dellie22
    Dellie22 Posts: 167
    Oh, i get it now. Thanks x
  • Dellie22
    Dellie22 Posts: 167
    It means you eat 500 calories per day less
  • LittleTwitty
    LittleTwitty Posts: 13
    So mine says to eat 1200 calories per day. So that is already calculated?
    Why do we do it that way?
  • Dellie22
    Dellie22 Posts: 167
    Yeah, stick to 1200 and you'll lose the weight you want to. Makes it easier instead of having to work it out yourself i suppose
  • LittleTwitty
    LittleTwitty Posts: 13
    Oh okay, so I don't really need to think about the defecit? I just follow this?
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
    MFP calculates it for you and tells you how much to eat to lose the goal per week that you set. Quick summary:

    1) It calculates how much you burn on a normal day (before exercise) (based on height/weight/age/gender/activity level that you select)

    2) It calculates what daily deficit you need per day to eat to lose what your goal is per week

    3) It tells you what to eat per day based on #1 and #2

    If you go in "goals" it will have "Calories Burned From Normal Daily Activity" - that's #1.
    and "Daily Calorie Deficit" - that's #2
    and then "Your Daily Goal" - that's #3, which is what shows up in your food log.

    Note: It is considered unhealthy to eat less than 1200 cal/day, so if you look on your goals tab and it shows your estimated weight loss to be less than what you set it, it is because you would have to eat less than 1200/day to lose that much a week (without exercise).
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