Deficit Clarity

cdgabbert
cdgabbert Posts: 55 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay - so I've read stuff on here and asked questions before - but my mind doesn't work if it involves any type of math or % or anything about they way people make some of this technical...

I have my daily intake at 1200...

for the past few days if I exercised and burned 400, I ate more food for the deficit to be 1200 at the little bar on the home page.

Today I did zumba and it said I burned 816 calories... I am running out of things to eat! LOL.. (Actually my issue is I don't eat enough, so I gain!!)

So do I keep eating to the 1200 deficit??

Is that the goal here?? What if I don't?? (Or can't?)

And what about when that number goes to a negative in red??

Replies

  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
    That 1200 is not your deficit ...its your calorie goal. Eat to that...but keep in mind that MFP is very generous with the calorie burns it lists, so if you're using that for your exercise logging, don't use more than half or so. A deficit is how many calories under maintainance you're eating. For example...if your perfect msintainance calories are 1500 (which they are NOT), but you eat only 1200, you have a 300 calorie deficit. Do that every day and you will lose. Clearer?
  • cdgabbert
    cdgabbert Posts: 55 Member
    Thanks - but NO... the deficit on the MY HOME that is a bar - and says = I've researched and researched this on here and other sites and it says it should be 1200 the BMR for women...



    CALORIES REMAINING
    Add FoodAdd Exercise
    1200
    GOAL
    1692
    FOOD -
    816
    EXERCISE =
    876
    NET

    So do I want this to be 1200 where it's the NET - and what if I can't eat the remaining 400 calories ????

    As for the MFP... with a heart monitor I used one day some are actually lower on here and some are higher and some are pretty spot on... I didn't do a heart monitor today - but I double check on a couple sites and go for the average or the lowest.
  • snazzyjazzy21
    snazzyjazzy21 Posts: 1,298 Member
    Is that the number MFP gave you when you entered your information? How much weight do you have to lose? 1200 is generally considered the absolute minimum and almost all women can comfortably lose while eating more than that. You should be getting a NET of 1200 at the end of the day, to match your original goal.
  • obsidianwings
    obsidianwings Posts: 1,237 Member
    1200 is not the BMR for women, everyones BMR is different. You need to be eating less than your TDEE to lose weight, the most accurate way is to work out your own calories and make custom goals on MFP. But if you prefer to use the 1200 calories MFP gives you thats fine. Yes you do need to eat your cals back so you net that 1200, but as the other replier mentioned MFP tends to overestimate calorie burn, so if you are using MFP to estimate your burnt calories I would eat no more than half back. It may look like you are netting under 1200, but you likely are not. If you are using a HRM eat them all back so you reach 1200.

    It is highly unlikely that you got overweight by not eating enough calories as you mentioned in your first post, so if this is what you think it also suggests you may not be tracking your calories very well. Make sure you weigh all solids, measure all liquids, and use an accurate entry in the database.
  • rm33064
    rm33064 Posts: 270 Member
    The first number that says GOAL is where you want to end up. Your goal is 1692, that is where you want to end up when you add up everything you ate and drank and subtracted the exercise calories (Mfp does this for you). Your actually short 816 calories today. Yes you should eat that back and try to get within 100 calories or so of the 1692 every day. If you're not that hungry them don't eat so clean all the time. Have a candy bar or something.
  • cdgabbert
    cdgabbert Posts: 55 Member
    snazzy - yes, that is what MFP gave me - from all I've read, it does it to all women in general or a good portion of them and that is what I have to loose - I was less but gained after losing my job and not paying attention and yes, some depression set in...

    Other sites are higher when I researched it, but just stuck with what MFP said and try to eat about 1500 with a 300 burn ths week (starting over this week)... but I want this to be right!! Last time I had so many telling me so many things and they all conflicted and then add the math stuff and it was awful!! I never really lost much over three months - I was only losing inches but coudn't take off pounds and it wasn't much in inches either... Essentially I was starving myself with the burn... and not eating them back...

    So I do want to eat the last 400 somehow today? And try to keep that number at my start of 1200???
  • cdgabbert
    cdgabbert Posts: 55 Member
    the dr is the one who told me I was storing what I ate, therefore not loosing weight!!!
  • cdgabbert
    cdgabbert Posts: 55 Member
    The first number that says GOAL is where you want to end up. Your goal is 1692, that is where you want to end up when you add up everything you ate and drank and subtracted the exercise calories (Mfp does this for you). Your actually short 816 calories today. Yes you should eat that back and try to get within 100 calories or so of the 1692 every day. If you're not that hungry them don't eat so clean all the time. Have a candy bar or something.

    Thanks - the goal is 1200 the 1692 the way it copy and pasted is what I've ate at that time I copied it.
  • obsidianwings
    obsidianwings Posts: 1,237 Member
    the dr is the one who told me I was storing what I ate, therefore not loosing weight!!!
    Your doctor told you that you are definitely eating under 1200 calories and therefore you have managed to get 83lb overweight? If this is true then you need to see a new doctor when you want to talk about weight issues (a dietitian would be even better). If that was how it worked we would be seeing overweight anorexics.
    Not trying to be overly harsh, but an understanding of how things work will help you in the long run.
    Are you weighing all your solids and measuring all your liquids?
  • snazzyjazzy21
    snazzyjazzy21 Posts: 1,298 Member
    snazzy - yes, that is what MFP gave me - from all I've read, it does it to all women in general or a good portion of them and that is what I have to loose - I was less but gained after losing my job and not paying attention and yes, some depression set in...

    Other sites are higher when I researched it, but just stuck with what MFP said and try to eat about 1500 with a 300 burn ths week (starting over this week)... but I want this to be right!! Last time I had so many telling me so many things and they all conflicted and then add the math stuff and it was awful!! I never really lost much over three months - I was only losing inches but coudn't take off pounds and it wasn't much in inches either... Essentially I was starving myself with the burn... and not eating them back...

    So I do want to eat the last 400 somehow today? And try to keep that number at my start of 1200???

    Yes, that's how MFP is designed. Do your best to get your net to 1200.
    the dr is the one who told me I was storing what I ate, therefore not loosing weight!!!

    And no, you're not 'storing' what you eat if you're in a deficit. The only way your body will ever store fat is when you give it excess calories. Eating too little can be harmful in the long run and can result in loss of muscle/bone density/etc, but it will never cause you to store fat or gain weight.
  • sodakat
    sodakat Posts: 1,126 Member
    FWIW, if you want to follow the general advice here which is to eat half of your exercise calories back each day, then when you log the exercise on MFP and you see the total calories earned for that particular exercise after you enter the minutes you exercised, CHANGE the number of calories in the box before you submit the entry. I.E., if it reads 840 and you want to eat back half, change the amount to 420 right then. That way only 420 calories will be added onto your goal that day. Same if you decide to eat 75%, etc.

    Edit to add: this way you will still be able to track your exercise minutes over time, but won't confuse yourself with how much you still have to eat that day. This is good for challenges when you are trying to meet an exercise minute per week/month challenge for example. You can make a note on that day's entry to remind yourself you took away half of the calories but kept the minutes accurate.

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