Caloric Deficit???

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tiffanyschadow
tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I understand the fundamental thought process of a caloric deficit and why that is critical for weight loss in addition to exercise but how exactly does one understand how much of a caloric deficit they need to create daily and how do you even begin to track it other than specific exercise? So....while I can easily log my workout minutes and calorie loss....about how many calories am I burning just living a "normal day" so that I have a clearer understanding of what my "real" deficit is. Right now, per Fitness Pal, my calorie goal is 1200 a day to get to my 125lb weight goal. I typically eat about 800-1400 calories a day and then exercise resulting in a loss of 800-1000 calories a day 5x a week. If you need to burn (approximately) 3500 calories to lose 1 lb then I should be at or below my goal weight but have plateaued at about 128 lbs for weeks!!! HELP
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  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    tiffanyschadow wrote: »
    I understand the fundamental thought process of a caloric deficit and why that is critical for weight loss in addition to exercise but how exactly does one understand how much of a caloric deficit they need to create daily and how do you even begin to track it other than specific exercise? So....while I can easily log my workout minutes and calorie loss....about how many calories am I burning just living a "normal day" so that I have a clearer understanding of what my "real" deficit is. Right now, per Fitness Pal, my calorie goal is 1200 a day to get to my 125lb weight goal. I typically eat about 800-1400 calories a day and then exercise resulting in a loss of 800-1000 calories a day 5x a week. If you need to burn (approximately) 3500 calories to lose 1 lb then I should be at or below my goal weight but have plateaued at about 128 lbs for weeks!!! HELP

    This is a tough read but if you claim to be eating 800 - 1400 calories per day I think your logging may be off because that is a rather large window.
  • tiffanyschadow
    tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
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    What do you mean by large window so that I can explain. I log everything that I eat down to a tsp of red wine vinegar. I eat less on days I know that I won't exercise so that would be an 800 calorie day and eat more, 1400 calories, on days that I know that I will work out because I can offset that with workouts.
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
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    Can you open your diary?
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    tiffanyschadow wrote: »
    What do you mean by large window so that I can explain. I log everything that I eat down to a tsp of red wine vinegar. I eat less on days I know that I won't exercise so that would be an 800 calorie day and eat more, 1400 calories, on days that I know that I will work out because I can offset that with workouts.

    800 is REAL low. That shouldn't be typical. You don't give enough info and your OP is very hard to read.
  • tiffanyschadow
    tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
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    I think I've opened my diary!
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    edited September 2015
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    tiffanyschadow wrote: »
    I think I've opened my diary!

    Are you weighing your food? From your diary it looks like you aren't.
  • tiffanyschadow
    tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
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    Not weighing....measuring and counting into "serving sizes". Eeeeeks should I be measuring?
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    edited September 2015
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    tiffanyschadow wrote: »
    Not weighing....measuring and counting into "serving sizes". Eeeeeks should I be measuring?

    No. You should be weighing. Everything. Banana included.
  • OsricTheKnight
    OsricTheKnight Posts: 340 Member
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    In my philosophy thread I give a way to work this out with rough numbers, and then you can use a trend graph with your scale for 2-3 weeks to fine tune from there.

    Even I, who believe in eating not much, think that 800kcals/day without a corresponding feed day on the weekend is probably a little low. However, I don't think you really need to eat back your exercise calories, so you can eat a more sustainable quantity throughout the week and let your workouts just drive additional loss, or eat back a fraction of those calories instead of 100% of them.

    It's very hard to get 600 calories of exercise in one day, so your numbers don't quite add up.

    Osric
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
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    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    tiffanyschadow wrote: »
    I think I've opened my diary!

    Are you weighing your food? From your diary it looks like you aren't.

    I was going to say the same thing. Go out and invest in a scale. I promise it's worth it.
  • tiffanyschadow
    tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
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    Cool I will def try that!
  • Protranser
    Protranser Posts: 517 Member
    edited September 2015
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    Hi @tiffanyschadow , have you looked at the stickies? Please review the calorie counting 101 sticky. You will probably have all your questions answered from that.


    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177910/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Sounds like you are under estimating the amount of calories you eat and over estimating the amount you burn. Work on your logging and you'll probably see the results you're looking for. A food scale is one of your best weight loss tools.
  • tiffanyschadow
    tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
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    I agree....burning over 600 is treacherous! But I do high intensity cardio for 80-120 minutes a minimum of 5x a week so it's become standard for me. I've googled my workouts in addition to the calories displayed on the monitor so I'm fairly confident with my calories burned. I realize most people cannot sustain that type of a workout with that frequency but I've been a distance runner all of my life and have an extreme endurance. I can see that not weighing my food would have an impact though! I'm going to invest in a scale. I should note that I most often over estimate my food intake just to play it safe for example....if I log 2 cups of cooked pasta, it was actually pasta with peppers and tomatoes, which would have actually brought the total calories and carbs down had I factored the veggies into that 2 cups.
  • tiffanyschadow
    tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
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    I do take medication for a blood sugar issue, not diabetes though. I have PCOS if anyone is familiar with that and I have often wondered if that makes it more difficult to lose weight?
  • timberflake
    timberflake Posts: 19 Member
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    In terms of setting a calorie deficit that's right for you, you need to calculate your BMR and then your TDEE (both can be found on google). Once you know this you can set a calorie deficit according to your current weight, but I wouldn't suggest any more that a 15-20% deficit unless your BMR is above 30
  • OsricTheKnight
    OsricTheKnight Posts: 340 Member
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    timberflake wrote: »
    In terms of setting a calorie deficit that's right for you, you need to calculate your BMR and then your TDEE (both can be found on google). Once you know this you can set a calorie deficit according to your current weight, but I wouldn't suggest any more that a 15-20% deficit unless your BMR is above 30

    I am pretty sure BMR here meant BMI.

    Osric
  • tiffanyschadow
    tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
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    Hi @Protranser I read many of the links and that was great! Answered a lot of questions I had! Going onto Amazon NOW to get that scale. I do believe that will make a big difference!
  • tiffanyschadow
    tiffanyschadow Posts: 20 Member
    edited September 2015
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    I just did my BMR calculation, I've never heard of that but yes indeed it is BMR, and come up with 1319.9 and then multiply that by 1.55 as a moderately active person which suggests I should be consuming around 2,045 calories....GROSS I did that this weekend and am hitting the gym extra hardcore. My BMI is 22.7. With the 20% deficit @timberflake suggests that puts me around 1,636 calories a day. Seems pretty high, no? I rarely eat that much. This has been fascinating! I clearly need to do a lot more research!
    Thank you respondents I have learned so much!
  • jdleanna
    jdleanna Posts: 141 Member
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    tiffanyschadow wrote: »
    I just did my BMR calculation, I've never heard of that but yes indeed it is BMR, and come up with 1319.9 and then multiply that by 1.55 as a moderately active person which suggests I should be consuming around 2,045 calories....GROSS I did that this weekend and am hitting the gym extra hardcore. My BMI is 22.7. With the 20% deficit @timberflake suggests that puts me around 1,636 calories a day. Seems pretty high, no? I rarely eat that much. This has been fascinating! I clearly need to do a lot more research!
    Thank you respondents I have learned so much!

    No, that sounds good. Since you don't weigh your food you may have been closer to that number than you think. The 1636 number, your tdee -20, includes exercise so you wouldn't eat back calories. I'm 128, and I'm eating 1450 plus exercise calories (so total around 1550-1600 calories) & I'm losing. You don't need to kill yourself with low calories to lose weight!

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