Need some help.

kristirobinson1
kristirobinson1 Posts: 48 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I saw a ton of posts about cheat meals and such and my question is that many of you stated you don't have cheat meals, but you do have days you eat over but are still in a deficit. How do I find out how many calories how big of a deficit I am in? I guess I'm asking how do you know how many calories your body needs in the first place. I've been doing 1200 a day and losing, but if I wanted a "cheat" meal, how do I know how much I can go over and still be in a deficit? Thank you!! I know there are some online calculators but I don't know if they're accurate.

Replies

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    you have to figure out your maintenance calories. if you go into your settings to update your goals and select ' maintain weight' - it will tell you what your maintenance is.
  • kristirobinson1
    kristirobinson1 Posts: 48 Member
    Thank you so much.
  • Debmal77
    Debmal77 Posts: 4,770 Member
    You can't go over your deficit and still be in a deficit. You are either in your deficit (the amount MFP gives you) or over your deficit by eating too much. I'm a little confused about what you are asking. Are you still trying to lose or are you now maintaining?
  • kristirobinson1
    kristirobinson1 Posts: 48 Member
    I'm trying to lose. I was just trying to figure out how much I could eat if I wanted to have a cheat meal and still be in a deficit. The number my fitness pal gives me right now is for two pounds a week weight loss so I knew it was possible to log a "cheat meal" once a month and still lose
  • kristirobinson1
    kristirobinson1 Posts: 48 Member
    I didn't want to go out to eat somewhere and eat way over and not have a deficit at all for that day
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
    kristirobinson1 wrote: »
    I didn't want to go out to eat somewhere and eat way over and not have a deficit at all for that day

    Eating at maintenance for one day is fine. IYou don't have to eat at a deficit every single day, so long as overall you are in a deficit. Many people track weekly deficits rather than daily.
  • Debmal77
    Debmal77 Posts: 4,770 Member
    Sometimes the restaurants have a menu on line. You could check their site and pre log. Remember it takes 3,500 calories over maintenance to gain 1pound. You could always eat less the next day to compensate or a little bit less for the rest of the week. Lots of ways to do it. However, it is only one meal. Go out and enjoy.
  • jdleanna
    jdleanna Posts: 141 Member
    Debmal77 wrote: »
    You can't go over your deficit and still be in a deficit. You are either in your deficit (the amount MFP gives you) or over your deficit by eating too much. I'm a little confused about what you are asking. Are you still trying to lose or are you now maintaining?

    Of course you can be over what MFP gives you and still be in a deficit. You just won't be in as much of a deficit.
  • Debmal77
    Debmal77 Posts: 4,770 Member
    jdleanna wrote: »
    Debmal77 wrote: »
    You can't go over your deficit and still be in a deficit. You are either in your deficit (the amount MFP gives you) or over your deficit by eating too much. I'm a little confused about what you are asking. Are you still trying to lose or are you now maintaining?

    Of course you can be over what MFP gives you and still be in a deficit. You just won't be in as much of a deficit.

    really.....lol
  • Dreamyriver
    Dreamyriver Posts: 91 Member
    Debmal77 wrote: »
    jdleanna wrote: »
    Debmal77 wrote: »
    You can't go over your deficit and still be in a deficit. You are either in your deficit (the amount MFP gives you) or over your deficit by eating too much. I'm a little confused about what you are asking. Are you still trying to lose or are you now maintaining?

    Of course you can be over what MFP gives you and still be in a deficit. You just won't be in as much of a deficit.

    really.....lol

    Well.. yes, lol.

    For example: MFP gives you a target of 1400 Calories per day, which represents a 500 Calorie deficit from maintenance (the typical 1lb a week weight loss)

    You eat 1500 Calories - 100 Calories over the MFP target but still a 400 Calorie deficit.

    lol.

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    Debmal77 wrote: »
    jdleanna wrote: »
    Debmal77 wrote: »
    You can't go over your deficit and still be in a deficit. You are either in your deficit (the amount MFP gives you) or over your deficit by eating too much. I'm a little confused about what you are asking. Are you still trying to lose or are you now maintaining?

    Of course you can be over what MFP gives you and still be in a deficit. You just won't be in as much of a deficit.

    really.....lol

    ??? Yes, really. If you are set to lose 1 lb per week, you are at a 500 calorie deficit. So if you eat over your MFP goal by 300, you are still in a deficit of 200 calories. It will slow down your rate of loss, but you will still lose.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    To figure out what your numbers are, you really need to pay attention to how much you eat and exercise then compare that with how much you gain and lose. You need to do that over a long period of time, when eating different amounts. There are computers that will do math for you and spit out numbers, but those are general, average numbers. There are tests you can have done, but even that is a bit of guesswork. It really requires notes, attention and seeing what comes out in the wash.

    This is one thing I've never done. I'll probably figure it out when I stop losing. Maybe. I just don't care that much about it now. I know what I need to do to lose and for right now, that's good enough for me. :)

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