Guide to calorie deficits

Oh will you help me please!!? I'm, female, 5'6, and weigh153 pounds currently. I have not lost any weight this week and I'm doing everything right, well I thought I was. My BMI is 24.7 and my BMR seems to be 1780, although its different on every site I try. I am sedentary to lightly active.. depends on the day, work out for 20 mins a day and burn 185 calories with that and also pump milk 4 times a day for which I allow 120 calories burned. MFP recommends the usual 1200 and then add the exercise its 1505 calories to consume. I am eating all my calories but still the weight is not shifting.. I would appreciate your advice and help!!

Banks will probably have some better insight than I, but I think he's gone for the day now, so I thought I'd throw my thoughts in. First, any time you're breastfeeding (even for an older baby) you need to be very careful with deficits. That, and the fact that you are already within a healthy BMI and don't have much to lose, mean you want to have a very conservative deficit. A 1/2 lb/week loss goal would probably be best, IMO (which would put you at about 1500 before exercise/milk production).

Also, you may need to play with the activity level. Most moms of little ones are probably at least lightly active. Depending on how much milk you're pumping, you could be underestimating that - so if it was me, I'd try it out at lightly active first; in part to make sure milk doesn't suffer, and in part to maintain a conservative deficit.

Lastly, with being fairly close to goal, you definitely want to be doing some strength training in addition to cardio to maintain muscle mass.

Edit: Oh, and FYI, the 1780 would be your maintenance cals (BMR + activity level), not just your BMR. Your BMR is about 1425.

actually, considering her age, weight, height, and activity level, that does sound like her BMR, and her maintenance seems somewhere around 1950 or so (probably slightly higher considering she is nursing, and nursing mothers burn more calories, although if she's accounting for that separately...) I'd say probably stick somewhere in the 1600 to 1700 range plus exercise. Other than that, right on ladyhawk. I agree that 1200 is far to low for your situation. This is obviously predicated on the fact that we know nothing other than the basic facts you provided, and thus any advice given is very very generic.

NOTE: activity level isn't as mysterious as it sounds. If you have a desk job, and do very little walking throughout the day and don't really perform any sports or physical activities, then you are sedentary, if you do some walking every day (or at least 4 days a week) or other light activity for at least 30 minutes cumulative at least 4 times a week, you are lightly active. If you do 60 minutes of light activity 5 days a week or do some kind of sport that requires walking or light jogging (say swimming or mailman or warehouse employee) then you are active, If you do a physically demanding activity (one that makes you sweat) for 4 days a week or more and for more than 1 hour a day, you are very active (like a coach that runs drills or you play volleyball). When in doubt, go down 1 level, you'd rather burn more than you think than less.

With all these numbers you can generate your BMI. Now I realize BMI is flawed, but for what we're doing it's good enough. After years on here, and doing lots and lots of research, I've been able to associate general BMI ranges with approximate goal levels. This works for about 80 to 85% of people out there (there's always a few that are outside the curve).

So now we can figure out where your goal should be.
Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle tone, and reducing fat. This means is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode)

With this quick guide you can figure out your goal rather easily. I know many people will say "I can't eat my exercise calories, I gain weight when I do". Well I have news for you, that's not correct. I submit this, if you eat your exercise calories and gain weight 1 of 3 things happened:
1 you were previously in starvation mode, and you upped your calories, and had an immediate weight gain, that's normal, to be expected, and necessary to get your body on track. Give it a month, that will stop, and you, once again, will begin to lose, but this time, in a healthy manner.
2 you incorrectly calculated something, either your exercise calories, your calorie intake, or you put in to large of a goal. Go back and check all your numbers.
3 you haven't given it enough time to work. This site promotes HEALTHY weight loss people. Healthy weight loss doesn't happen in days or weeks, it takes months and years. Each change you make in how you eat needs a month or more to work, be patient, give it time. It will happen.

And to everyone who has a trainer that doesn't agree with eating your exercise calories. I also submit this: In 90% of the cases (and I have talked to a LOT of trainers about this exact topic) they actually DO agree with this method, you just explained it wrong.
Just saying to a trainer "should I eat my exercise calories?" isn't enough, you have to explain to them that MFP already generates a deficit prior to any exercise, therefore the deficit will remain whether you exercise or not. Once you give them that idea, and you are relatively sure they understand the concept then I'll bet they change their tune.

I hope this helps, it's pretty straight forward if you've been here a while, and to you new guys, I recommend going to the message boards link, clicking on the "general diet and weight loss" area, and clicking on those first few posts that have the little mouse trap next to them, they are sticky and will always be there, and are a wealth of knowledge about this site, exercise calories, starvation mode...etc.

regards,

-Banks

Hello Banks,

So my BMI is still over 50 and my question is when you say, "Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit, does this mean deficit from ????. Right now I have been trying to keep my net calories between 1200 and 1500, but I know at my size it will not hurt me one bit to keep my calories between 800 and 1200. This is correct right because I still have plenty of stored fat, right.

Mollie

Hi Mollie,

the short answer is probably. The long answer is, I really can't tell you anything for sure because I don't know your numbers. If you want to be more specific, you can PM me and send me all your information (height, weight, age, activity level, exercise, access to your food diary, any medical conditions, anything else you think might be relevant) I can review it all and come up with a more specific answer for you. Please keep in mind that while I've done a LOT of research on this topic, I'm not a Registered dietitian nor am I a medical doctor, so any advice I give is strictly speaking amateur. that being said, I'm sure I could help you to move towards a more healthy life.


-SHBoss1673