What Does 1,000 Calorie Deficit Mean????

I go for a 1000 cal deficit daily...If you eat say 2500 cals during the day, you need to have burned off 3500 cals...Hence the deficit. This is for a 2lb per week loss...500 cals a day= 1 lb a week loss...The way you burn cals on your elliptical trainer, you`d need to eat around 4000 cals a day for a 1000 deficit..

Looking at your cals burned i`d say your way way over 1000 cal deficit...You need to either eat more or slow down on the elliptical..:bigsmile:

Hi, I was wondering if someone could explain this to me (Please see below). I really have no idea what it means. Does a 1,000 calorie deficit mean I have to burn 1,000 calories more than what I eat? For instance, if I consume 1400 calories today, does that mean I have to burn 2400 because 2400 - 1400 = 1000? Or does it mean that I have to have a 1,000 calorie deficit at the end of the week? I'm asking because I work really hard and I burn massive amounts of calories...I just want to make sure I'm understanding everything correctly. However, I am losing weight. I lost about 13lbs in 30 days and I increased my fitness level drastically. I typically eat between 1400 - 1700 calories per day and burn between 2000 - 3000 calories (whenever I work out; about 5 6 days per week (give or take)). When I do burn this many calories (today I burned 3625 and ate over 2700) I don't feel weak, tired, or hungry, but some people say I'm supposed to eat back those calories. I don't understand this...why would I eat back all those calories? How would I ever lose weight if I did? Any comments, suggestions, opinions, or advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!



Calories Burned

From Normal Daily Activity 2,430 calories/day


Net Calories Consumed*

Your Daily Goal 1,430 calories/ day


Daily Calorie Deficit 1,000 calories

Projected Weight Loss 2.0 lbs/ week

First we need to define some terms: BMR is you Basal Metabolic Rate. This is what your body needs to survive if you do absolutely nothing but lie in bed all day, neither gaining nor losing weight. Then there is your TDEE, which is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is your BMR multiplied by an Activity Multiplier that considers how much you exercise in a day. It ranges from 1.2 to 1.7. Again, your TDEE is the amount of calories you need daily to neither gain nor lose weight. It is to the TDEE that your calorie deficit is applied.

Okay, so when you use something like Katch-Mcardle to figure how much to eat per day, it ALREADY ACCOUNTS FOR YOUR EXERCISE. This is where MFP is very misleading!! You don't "eat back" your exercise calories, because they're already in your target! That is what happened when you put in the multiplier.

The ideal way to lose fat (notice I didn't say lose weight, because it is the fat you want to shed, not lean tissue) is to do it at a sustainable rate of 1 lb to 2 lbs per week. Find a better calculator than MFP's (google Katch-Mcardle) and manually enter your requirements. Personally, I never track exercise in MFP. Then, adjust your exercise to achieve the 1 - 2 lb loss. If you feel it's not coming off fast enough, spend more time at the gym. If it's too fast, take a day off here and there.

I use exercise like a gas pedal - I determined my target calories and than increase or decrease my workouts to maintain fat loss at 1 to 2 pounds per week. Otherwise you're just shooting all over the place, I did this much here, I ate that much there..... that's not a plan, that's called "guessing".

One more thing that must be stressed: You need to eat a diet that is high in protein, at least 40% of calories and 50% if you really want results. A high protein diet is the absolute basis of any serious fat-loss plan. Yeah, everyone says that it doesn't matter just so long as you hit your targets - but that's bull****. Ask any bodybuilder getting ripped for a competition and you will hear the same thing - high protein, because it works. Chicken breast, turkey breast, egg whites, white fish, lean red meat. Your carbs should be complex, preferably fibrous - broccoli, beans, asparagus, cauliflower, spinach, etc.

And finally - your exercise. You have to strength train! You have to preserve lean tissue when in a calorie deficit - it's the engine that burns your fat and every pound of lost muscle just makes the goal harder to achieve. Cardio is great and all, but remember this: cardio is like ketchup. Yeah, ketchup makes a lot of foods taste better - but ketchup isn't a meal. Pour it on here and there where you can, but never try to make it the meal.

:-)

What did you do today to burn 3600+ calories? That does not sound accurate. You would have had to run a marathon. Or swim the English Channel.


Be careful- overestimating your burn can be just as detrimental as overeating.

awesome this answers my question