What's your caloric deficit, how did you calculate it, how easy is it to stick with it?
ElJefeChief
Posts: 650 Member
So I've been playing around with this. I'm six-foot-three, 225 pounds, and my TDEE, assuming a sedentary baseline of activity, is about 2416 per day. I therefore have calculated in a deficit of 604 calories per day, which is exactly 25% of my sedentary TDEE. Then, I add back (and optionally eat back) my exercise calories - I run typically 6-7 days per week, usually about 5K a session or more. I'm looking to lose 30 pounds.
I always try to deliberately overestimate my food calories, and underestimate my workout calories. I'm looking forward to buying a fitness watch (I have my eye on the Fitbit Surge) and a food scale to boost my accuracy as far as my input-outputs go.
Anyways, I've been seeing others on this forum with deficits topping 1000 calories. I find that amazing - I initially tried to do a 1000 calorie deficit and found myself getting extremely hungry. Even now, I find I'm hungry on this much more modest deficit.
Anyways, onwards.
I always try to deliberately overestimate my food calories, and underestimate my workout calories. I'm looking forward to buying a fitness watch (I have my eye on the Fitbit Surge) and a food scale to boost my accuracy as far as my input-outputs go.
Anyways, I've been seeing others on this forum with deficits topping 1000 calories. I find that amazing - I initially tried to do a 1000 calorie deficit and found myself getting extremely hungry. Even now, I find I'm hungry on this much more modest deficit.
Anyways, onwards.
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my caloric deficit is 1800 max. Any below this, I'll starve. 1800 allows me to lose 1-2 pounds a week.0
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My average deficit for the past 30 days has been approx 585 calories per day.
My Fitbit has proved to be fairly accurate with my calorie burn so far. Well, I guess I should say my newest Fitbit has been fairly accurate. I've used the Flex and Zip models in the past and they were always under estimating. Currently I have the Surge (have had it since Feb).
After adding lifting to my workout routine, I started to find it harder to stick to my calorie goals if I followed the MFP's method. At the beginning of May, I switched to a manual goal of 1800 every day. While my goal is set to 1800, I am actually allowing myself a range of 1800-2000 a day. It's helping a lot with the hunger issue I was experiencing and honestly, my average intake when following MFP's method was just over 1900. So I'm not really eating any more than I was before, I'm just spreading it out more equally through out the week.-1 -
A healthy, sustainable loss is .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight. A 1,000-calorie deficit is appropriate for someone with 100+ lbs. to lose.
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) includes exercise—so you're double dipping your calories by eating them back. To understand how MFP works, read the Sexypants post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p10 -
My TDEE is 2,511, assuming a sedentary lifestyle. I consume under 1,506 calories per day.
That's a daily deficit of at least 1,005 or a weekly deficit of at least 7,035 calories.
My goal is to lose 1 kg. (2.2 lbs.) per week.
I do not calculate or count calories burned from exercising/working out/swimming/walking into this. I take them as a "bonus."0 -
editorgrrl wrote: »TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) includes exercise—so you're double dipping your calories by eating them back.
What I do is just assume a sedentary activity level when I calculate my TDEE. That way, when I enter in exercise calories (e.g., my running) they aren't already being factored in. Make sense?
On the other hand, I don't run my deficit using my basal metabolic rate as a baseline (which is about 2000, as opposed to 2400 with a sedentary activity factor figured in). So perhaps there is some double dipping there? Not 100% sure, but I think I'm still doing it right?
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I entered my information into the profile, goals, etc. of MFP.
I set a goal to lose 0.5 kg/week.
MFP gave me my maximum calories.
After I lost 5 kg, MFP readjusted my max calories lower.
After I lost 10 kg, MFP readjusted my max calories lower.
I tried that for a while, and just couldn't sustain it, so I manually upped my calories by 50 calories per day. That extra 50 just gave me a tiny bit of extra flexibility.
I have now lost over 12 kg.
Oh yes, I add the exercise I do into MFP, often dropping the calories burned a bit ... and sometimes I don't eat any of my exercise calories back ... sometimes I eat some of my exercise calories back ... on the odd occasion I've eaten pretty much all my exercise calories back.
My deficit ends up being about 500 cal/day on a low-exercise day. But on a day where I put in a lot of exercise, my deficit can reach somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1000 cal.0 -
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If you run a deficit of 1800 per day for an entire week, you'd lose just over 3.5 pounds per week!!!!
Probably not. Chronically undereating won't get one to goal any more quickly. Also, deprivation usually leads to bingeing.
Read the Sexypants post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
We should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose weight—never the minimum.0 -
editorgrrl wrote: »We should all be looking for the maximum number of calories at which we lose weight—never the minimum.
Agreed. I won't be able to keep this up if I'm dying of hunger pangs the entire time.
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My TDEE is 2,511, assuming a sedentary lifestyle. I consume under 1,506 calories per day.
That's a daily deficit of at least 1,005 or a weekly deficit of at least 7,035 calories.
My goal is to lose 1 kg. (2.2 lbs.) per week.
I do not calculate or count calories burned from exercising/working out/swimming/walking into this. I take them as a "bonus."
How do you *do* that? That's a 40% caloric deficit from your baseline. Out of curiosity, can you tell me if you have a lot of weight you're trying to lose?
I'm starting to think I'm only able to run a 250-500 calorie daily deficit and be reasonably comfortable at it.0 -
So I've been playing around with this. I'm six-foot-three, 225 pounds, and my TDEE, assuming a sedentary baseline of activity, is about 2416 per day. I therefore have calculated in a deficit of 604 calories per day, which is exactly 25% of my sedentary TDEE. Then, I add back (and optionally eat back) my exercise calories - I run typically 6-7 days per week, usually about 5K a session or more. I'm looking to lose 30 pounds.
I always try to deliberately overestimate my food calories, and underestimate my workout calories. I'm looking forward to buying a fitness watch (I have my eye on the Fitbit Surge) and a food scale to boost my accuracy as far as my input-outputs go.
Anyways, I've been seeing others on this forum with deficits topping 1000 calories. I find that amazing - I initially tried to do a 1000 calorie deficit and found myself getting extremely hungry. Even now, I find I'm hungry on this much more modest deficit.
Anyways, onwards.
DrEnalg my TDEE is in the same ballpark as yours. I lost my first 20 pounds by eating at a deficit and was hungry doing so. The last additional 20 pound lose was done by laying off most any form of carbs (<50 grams daily) without going hungry. Currently they are baking brownies and I enjoy the smell but have no desire to taste one.
From what I can read being reality carb free in my eating lifestyle at rest I burning 300+ more calories when living mainly on carbs. From the protein that I eat 58% is converted to carbs and 10% of the fats that I eat coverts to carbs. 75-80% of my calories come from fat that I eat.
For the last 8 months I have been in a state nutritional ketosis for pain management so the weight loss is a nice side effect of now being relatively pain free. Pain levels dropped from 7-8 to 2-3 on a 1-10 scale within 30 days after I went off carbs cold turkey Oct 2014. The weight loss started after about 60 days of being off carbs but I was losing inches long before the scales showed any net weight loss.
While I did not go Very Low Carb Very High Fat to loose weight but to keep from having to start Enbrel injections for pain management I found MFP when looking at how to measure my ketone levels. LCHF was cool because for the first time in my 63 years I had a way to lose weight and not get hungry.
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I am cutting down 7kg, hopefully more fat than muscle mass. My TDEE is around 2000, weight training: 4 times/week. I initially put myself on a medium aggressive weight-loss: TDEE-20%. Which is a weekly calorie allowance of 11200kcal, and a daily calorie allowance of 1600kcal, losing 1.3kg/month. After 3 weeks on that calorie goal, I averaged 1500kcal/day, and my everyday eating felt pretty normal, just more disciplined. I revised my calorie goal to 11000kcal/week, 1571kcal/day, with a projected weight loss of 1.4kg/month. Time to goal: 5 months.
I will not revise my calorie goal again. Getting to my ideal weight in 5 months with minimal negative impact on my eating habits is very reasonable.0 -
My TDEE is 2,511, assuming a sedentary lifestyle. I consume under 1,506 calories per day.
That's a daily deficit of at least 1,005 or a weekly deficit of at least 7,035 calories.
My goal is to lose 1 kg. (2.2 lbs.) per week.
I do not calculate or count calories burned from exercising/working out/swimming/walking into this. I take them as a "bonus."
How do you *do* that? That's a 40% caloric deficit from your baseline. Out of curiosity, can you tell me if you have a lot of weight you're trying to lose?
I'm starting to think I'm only able to run a 250-500 calorie daily deficit and be reasonably comfortable at it.
I do have a lot of weight to lose - 160 lbs. total. I've lost 16 lbs. so far. So that's another 144 lbs. left to go.
I'm one of those people who feel hungry extremely rarely... but I do love to eat though.
1,500 calories can be a lot if you're careful how you use them.
I've been at a healthy weight of around 135-150 lbs. my entire life up until 4 years ago. So I was used to eating "healthy" before. I just had to get back to my old habits of measuring, cooking, etc. I try to incorporate smoothies into my diet. I don't like greasy meat.
I also don't have any food restrictions with the exception of soda (mostly for health reasons) and bacon (too much cholesterol.)
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editorgrrl wrote: »A healthy, sustainable loss is .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight. A 1,000-calorie deficit is appropriate for someone with 100+ lbs. to lose.
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) includes exercise—so you're double dipping your calories by eating them back. To understand how MFP works, read the Sexypants post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
Yes I wish folks would quit saying they are calculating TDEE at sedentary. That is NEAT method same as MFP uses.
For me I took my own data and did this calculation.
Total calories consumed+(lbs lost x 3500)/28 (number of days) this gives me a TDEE (actual TDEE) of 2k during the winter and anywhere between 2200-2500 in the summer and when I want to cut I take 200-250 off one of those numbers and I comfortably lose 1/2lb a week.
How do I stick to it...easy it's not a huge deficit. I don't believe in starving myself to lose weight. I refuse to be hungry.
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editorgrrl wrote: »A healthy, sustainable loss is .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight. A 1,000-calorie deficit is appropriate for someone with 100+ lbs. to lose.
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) includes exercise—so you're double dipping your calories by eating them back. To understand how MFP works, read the Sexypants post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
Yes I wish folks would quit saying they are calculating TDEE at sedentary. That is NEAT method same as MFP uses.
For me I took my own data and did this calculation.
Total calories consumed+(lbs lost x 3500)/28 (number of days) this gives me a TDEE (actual TDEE) of 2k during the winter and anywhere between 2200-2500 in the summer and when I want to cut I take 200-250 off one of those numbers and I comfortably lose 1/2lb a week.
How do I stick to it...easy it's not a huge deficit. I don't believe in starving myself to lose weight. I refuse to be hungry.
Why do you you wish "folks would quit saying they are calculating TDEE at sedentary"? Why is that a problem? How does the concept of NEAT (Non Exercise Activity-level Thermogenesis) matter when you're calculating your TDEE?
I think I don't need, or want, a large deficit in absolute numbers - I'm fairly active to begin with and I don't have a large amount to lose, so if I go too big it would probably not be sustainable.0 -
I'm trying something new just now. I set my calories at maintenance for my goal weight, with Fitbit exercise adjustments only, which is about 20 pounds away. I expect to lose slowly, as I'm not in a particular hurry, but this will allow me to not be terribly hungry and adjust my lifestyle to eating what I'll need once I reach my goal. As I am quite short, pretty much any of the weight loss settings that MFP generates, even half a pound per week, leave me trying to eat 1200-1300 calories, which is really difficult to sustain. I'll give it a month to six weeks and see how it goes.0
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Currently I am just getting back into the swing of things, and have found a seemingly consistent way to achieve approximately a 1200-1300 deficit. Plus or minus a few items this is basically what I'm trying to do:
https://i.imgur.com/pexa5G7.png
I am quite heavy so I think this is feasible. I used the standard MFP TDEE calculation -1000 as my goal. It seems a little low, but so far I haven't felt awful or starved like that time I tried keto. Could probably be better, but compared to my normal routine anything that attempts to hit all the food groups is good enough for me.0 -
10-20% lower than your TDEE if cutting.
10-20% higher than your TDEE if bulking.
Attempting to lose/gain more drastically can be counter-productive and harmful in the long run. 10-20% is a very safe, achievable range that will offer quick results if you are accurate with your calorie and macronutrient counting. Striving for a more active lifestyle will also help.0 -
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editorgrrl wrote: »A healthy, sustainable loss is .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs. you're overweight. A 1,000-calorie deficit is appropriate for someone with 100+ lbs. to lose.
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) includes exercise—so you're double dipping your calories by eating them back. To understand how MFP works, read the Sexypants post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
Yes I wish folks would quit saying they are calculating TDEE at sedentary. That is NEAT method same as MFP uses.
For me I took my own data and did this calculation.
Total calories consumed+(lbs lost x 3500)/28 (number of days) this gives me a TDEE (actual TDEE) of 2k during the winter and anywhere between 2200-2500 in the summer and when I want to cut I take 200-250 off one of those numbers and I comfortably lose 1/2lb a week.
How do I stick to it...easy it's not a huge deficit. I don't believe in starving myself to lose weight. I refuse to be hungry.
Why do you you wish "folks would quit saying they are calculating TDEE at sedentary"? Why is that a problem? How does the concept of NEAT (Non Exercise Activity-level Thermogenesis) matter when you're calculating your TDEE?
I think I don't need, or want, a large deficit in absolute numbers - I'm fairly active to begin with and I don't have a large amount to lose, so if I go too big it would probably not be sustainable.
Because it's a complete misuse of the terms.
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I strive for a 1000/day deficit, which means eating ~1200 calories and burning 700 - 800 over BMR, which isn't THAT hard.0
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It really depends. I use the IIYFM calculator and it recommends that I eat 1515 calories a day with 5 days of exercise a week. My calories deficit has been between 436-1244 this week. I've had a back injury in the last half of the week and that has limited the exercise I could do.0
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Try http://1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ and play around with the different formulas.
For example:
30 yrs.
6 ft.
180 lb.
sedentary male
=
2181 TDEE calories for maintenance.
Eat 10-20% less than 2181 to cut, or 10-20% more than 2181 to bulk.0 -
I try to maintain between 500 to 1,000 calorie deficit per day. I just don't look at it like a science project. I exercise and move as much as I possibly can throughout each day. I under estimate my exercise burn and over estimate my calories consumed. I don't eat and/or snack based on the preconceived notion of meal times e.g., breakfast, lunch dinner, snack, etc. I eat when I feel hungry and I stop when I feel full. I weigh and measure everything. I know that food choices don't make a difference as long as you're at a deficit but I keep two things in mind when prepping meals. One, what purpose is my food going to serve my body and athleticism? If there answer is "nothing", I don't eat it. I eat to perform meaning I try to plan all of my food around the activities of the day (my scheduled exercise classes). Another thing I keep in mind is I am not doing this just to lose weight, I am doing this to fuel my performance and increase my athletic ability. The weight loss just comes naturally after that. A little over two years ago I was close to 200 lbs. Today I am around 120-125. I'm consistently losing and plan to get to around 115 which is my rock bottom number. I had tried going by TDEE a while ago and it just didn't work for me. My body and mind both function better with less calories / nutrient dense and consistently slightly hungry.0
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a_stronger_me13 wrote: »
Because it's a complete misuse of the terms.
It would be really helpful to explain why? I'm starting to get a little frustrated here - I've had a couple people suggest I'm doing things wrong and then fail to provide any explanation as to why.
Again, here's what I did:
Went to http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/
Entered my vitals - 225 pounds, six foot three, 41 years old.
My BMR is 2013.
HOWEVER, I am reasoning that a BMR is a fairly useless baseline for calculating total daily energy requirements, as virtually no one (Including me!) lies motionless all day.
Using the Mifflin St-Jeor formula, if I assumed exercise of around 5 days per week, my TDEE would be 2945. HOWEVER, in that case it would make perfect sense to NOT add back exercise calories (as that would be straightforward double-dipping).
If I assumed just a sedentary activity level, my TDEE is 2416. Taking that, I subtract 25% of that figure (604 calories) and then use 1812 as my net caloric intake goal. That allows me to subtract exercise as well - which I like to do, since I personally like counting everything.
Please, someone tell me where my reasoning may be incorrect (don't just assert it).0 -
I think it's probably because TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. If your calculating it a Sedentary TDEE when your not Sedentary, it's not your TDEE. It ends up being similar to MFP's method of using NEAT (calculating your daily burn without exercise and then adding exercise in).a_stronger_me13 wrote: »
Because it's a complete misuse of the terms.
It would be really helpful to explain why.0 -
Try http://1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ and play around with the different formulas.
For example:
30 yrs.
6 ft.
180 lb.
sedentary male
=
2181 TDEE calories for maintenance.
Eat 10-20% less than 2181 to cut, or 10-20% more than 2181 to bulk.
That makes perfect sense. And it would also make sense for you to add back exercise calories as you do them, since you assumed no exercise was taking place when you calculated your initial TDEE.0 -
Try http://1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ and play around with the different formulas.
For example:
30 yrs.
6 ft.
180 lb.
sedentary male
=
2181 TDEE calories for maintenance.
Eat 10-20% less than 2181 to cut, or 10-20% more than 2181 to bulk.
That makes perfect sense. And it would also make sense for you to add back exercise calories as you do them, since you assumed no exercise was taking place when you calculated your initial TDEE.
TDEE includes your activity level, so there is no need to add back exercise calories. It would be counter-productive to do so. This is why I feel that MFP is only good for tracking food calories. I don't use it for exercise since my TDEE already accounts for calories burned from exercise.0 -
shadow2soul wrote: »
I think it's probably because TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. If your calculating it a Sedentary TDEE when your not Sedentary, it's not your TDEE. It ends up being similar to MFP's method of using NEAT (calculating your daily burn without exercise and then adding exercise in).a_stronger_me13 wrote: »
Because it's a complete misuse of the terms.
It would be really helpful to explain why.
THANK YOU. Good. This is telling me my reasoning is correct, then.0
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