Deficit?!?

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KNArzoian
KNArzoian Posts: 11 Member
in Getting Started
Can someone please explain the deficit thing to me? Like you're talking to a four year old would be good.

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  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    eat less than you burn = calorie deficit
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    When you set up your goals in MFP, you select how much weight you want to lose. From that, MFP calculates your deficit and gives you a calorie number that you should eat per day to reach that deficit (except that it will not give you a goal below 1200 calories per day). If you eat the calories that MFP gives you, you will lose weight. Use a food scale, and weigh and log everything to ensure accurate logging, or you will eat more than you think.

    If you work out, I would recommend only eating back 50% of your calories as most people overestimate their burns, as does MFP usually.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    A defecit just means the amount by which something is too small

    So say you went to the shop and you wanted to buy something that was $200 but you only have $150, your defecit is $50

    In terms of calories ...they are what your body uses during the day for energy...so say your body uses in total 2000 calories but you only feed it 1500 calories, your defecit is 500 calories

    Your body still needs to use 2000 calories so it takes the extra 500 from your fat stores (mainly)

    Roughly 3500 calories defecit (all these 500s added over the week) = 1lb weight loss
  • KNArzoian
    KNArzoian Posts: 11 Member
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    Thank you so much. It makes sense now!

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