Calories in and out?

hmmm

Nope, you won't be able to lose 10-15 lbs this month. Maybe 2-5?

If you like, eat 1200 and don't eat the exercise calories back. If you're feeling crummy, eat some of them back. But you look quite small to me and your goal ticker says 14 lbs, so I'm guessing you are not big enough for your maintenance calories to be 2200 or more (which would get you 2 lbs a week at 1200 cals). The closer you are to a small goal weight, the lower your maintenance calories are, so the smaller the deficit you can safely create, which means weight loss takes longer. (On the upside, a pound or two on a smaller person LOOKS like a lot more than it does off a larger person!)

Try setting MFP to "maintenance" as your goal and see how many calories it gives you to eat. (Set it back after.) That's the number that would see you neither gaining, nor losing, over time. Anything under that, but not under 1200, will result in healthy weight loss. But your daily deficits need to add up to 3500 to lose 1 lb.

So say your maintenance is 1500. And you burn 200. And you eat 1200. That's 1500 - 1200 = 300 (not eaten) + 200 (burned) = 500 deficit created! That's 1 lb a week. (500 x 7 days is 3500 calories)

On that, you'd be netting below 1200 though and so might feel pretty awful. Many people recommend netting minimum 1200. Meaning, if you eat 1200, but then burn 200, it's sort of like you only ate 1000. So they recommend eating the 200 back, so eat 1400 total (to net 1200 still). That slows the weight loss but is healthier, makes sure you're fueling your body adequately. Your body needs the nutrition not only to get you through the exercise, but to adapt to it and get stronger over time.

10-15 lbs... taking the math at face value, let's walk through this...

Assuming 3500 calories = roughly 1lb, 10-15lbs would be 35,000-52,500 calories. So to lose 10-15lbs, you'd need to cumulative calorie deficit of 35,000-52,500 calories. Averaging that out over 30 days (1 month) gives an average daily calorie deficit of 1167-1750 calories.

OK, so now we know the average daily deficit needed to reach the goal (1167-1750 per day), how many cals do you need to eat each day to achieve that deficit?

Assuming a reasonably average TDEE off 2100 calories, the needed deficit would leave you at 350 - 933 calories per day.

In no situation is 350 cals per day healthy. In VERY VERY few cases is 933 cals healthy.


Hopefully you realize that your goal is not reasonable or healthy. And probably not achievable without negative side effects. Please re-evaluate your goals.

Unless you're willing to hack off a limb, your goal is unrealistic.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition