Deficit confusion

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healthyred4me
healthyred4me Posts: 1 Member
in Getting Started
If I eat 1250 cal today do I need to exercise and burn 1260 cal in order to have a 10 cal deficit? If that's true I don't think I have enough time or energy to work out that much. Can somebody help explain calorie deficit

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  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Your body already burns plenty of calories through day to day activities and functions. The amount MFP gives you already has 250-1000 calories taken off what it believes you burn outside of exercise.
  • emodavis
    emodavis Posts: 44 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Your basal metabolic rate tells you the numbers of calories you burn just by sitting there and doing absolutely nothing. For instance, my BMR is 1735. Because I'm not trying to lose weight at a rapid pace, I aim for 1700-2200 calories consumed per day. The amount I eat varies according to what kind of physical and mental activity I'm doing that day.
  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
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    Yep, as these ladies said, your body burns a ton of calories every day just keeping you alive :) When you set up your MFP goals, it calculated a deficit for you already. If you eat what MFP tells you, you should lose weight, whether or not you exercise at all. If you DO exercise, you will log that exercise and MFP will give you "extra" calories to eat. That's because you created an even bigger deficit by exercising, so you can eat extra that day and still be in your original deficit plan. Hope that makes sense!

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