Calorie deficit question

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caylalane
caylalane Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! I use fitbit and MFP. They're synced together. I weigh 171 right now (had 2 babies 11 months apart, youngest is 3 months old). My calorie intake is 1200 a day, which isn't hard for me to do. However, I work out quite a bit. The apps, when they sync, tell me I can eat 400 more calories over my 1200 because of my exercise. My question is, is it really necessary to eat those 400 calories? Or can I stay at 1200. What are the repercussions of that?

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  • 4righteousnesssake
    4righteousnesssake Posts: 276 Member
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    I'm curious about this myself.
  • KorvapuustiPossu
    KorvapuustiPossu Posts: 434 Member
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    Eating 1200 as a minimum is suggested for a woman. However it also makes difference how big is your deficit. Bigger the deficit it's more dangerous to go under that 1200 while exercising. While nothing will probably happen if it's occasional or last for a short period of time...but in longer terms it leads to malnutrition with symptoms ranging from irritability and tiredness to loss of muscle mass, loss of sex drive, depression, hair loss, fertility issues and if it continues long enough can even lead to heart, liver and respiratory failure (severe cases).

    It's better and healthier to lose weight slower So try to eat at least half of those exercise calories and if you feel tired and hungry all of them. 1200 is pretty low and I'm suspecting you put a 1.5 or 2 lbs loss per week on mfp... I'm in a similar boat with you calorie-wise and I will also try to follow my own advice :D I know it seems silly to eat more if you are not hungry, but health should be no1 priority... and hair loss, infections and organ failure do not seem like a good way to go. Good luck!
  • PixelPuff
    PixelPuff Posts: 901 Member
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    I've found that many people eat roughly half back. I don't exercise, so I can't cite personal experience. /should probably sell her fitbit at this point
  • caylalane
    caylalane Posts: 11 Member
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    Thanks for all the info! I know being too low can cause issues. I guess it's just me wondering if it's still alright to stay at 1200 if I'm burning approximately 2600 per day? That gives me a 1400 deficit. I know it's not recommended to go beyond 1000 a day, just curious if anyone has done that and been okay or what their results looked like. I'm super healthy aside from being overweight, so in my mind I feel like it's not a big deal, but I could be wrong.
  • caylalane
    caylalane Posts: 11 Member
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    PixelPuff wrote: »
    I've found that many people eat roughly half back. I don't exercise, so I can't cite personal experience. /should probably sell her fitbit at this point

    Haha don't sell it! It's still nice to know what you burned for the day. Exercise or not.
  • BurnWithBarn2015
    BurnWithBarn2015 Posts: 1,026 Member
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    MFP gives you an amount with deficit build in.... so no exercise calculated
    This means that when you start exercising you make your deficit even bigger...now you feel fine. But by the time that you start to feel not fine (which dont have to happen but it can happen) it is to late you have then malnutrition your body and you have to recuperate/getting stronger again.

    In other words eat some back indeed.

    NET around the 1200 or a bit above even better
  • KorvapuustiPossu
    KorvapuustiPossu Posts: 434 Member
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    1400 is too big deficit since you don't have that much to lose. Even a 1000 is for people who have more then about 75 lbs to lose. What's the hurry? Is it worth all the health risks?
  • caylalane
    caylalane Posts: 11 Member
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    KorvapuustiPossu wrote: »
    1400 is too big deficit since you don't have that much to lose. Even a 1000 is for people who have more then about 75 lbs to lose. What's the hurry? Is it worth all the health risks?

    I have about 50... I'll make sure I start keeping it closer to 1000.

    The hurry, which sounds stupid, is my wedding. Lol. But certainly not worth the health risks so I will reevaluate.
  • KorvapuustiPossu
    KorvapuustiPossu Posts: 434 Member
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    Congrats on the wedding. But try to pace yourself...with the stress of planning the wedding and not eating enough you could turn into bridezilla... you know...this should be a happy time. Enjoy it.
  • maidengirl_
    maidengirl_ Posts: 284 Member
    edited April 2016
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    Eating only 1200 calories a day with a 400 calorie burn leaves you with a net of 800 calories for the day. That's a really unsafe number and you should reconsider upping your calorie intake if you are working out. This low net calorie is not going to make you lose weight faster. Quite the opposite. If you are not working out, 1200 is fine. But you are being active. You need to up your calorie intake.
  • caylalane
    caylalane Posts: 11 Member
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    health_guard wrote: »
    How far away is your wedding? And congratulations too :wink:

    1 year. Thank you! :)
  • Densans
    Densans Posts: 51 Member
    edited April 2016
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    If it is a big deficit and you want to go low calories I would recommend reading RFL (Rapid Fat Loss) and follow his recommendations in the book. You can either buy it or find it online, his webpage got very good nutritional information for free also bodyrecomposition.com/

    Check out his forum for the PSMF logs, which is what you will be doing if you consider it, but if you do, follow the recommendations and do the refeeds.
    This is the sciency part of extreme weight loss so I can not stress how important it is to follow his recommendations.

    Edit: there is a reddit section for it which is https://reddit.com/r/psmf

    There are also some logs on bodybuilding.com if I am not wrong
  • jandsstevenson887
    jandsstevenson887 Posts: 296 Member
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    Obviously it isn't necessary but I would eat some of them. 800 net calories for the day is very low. We have similar burn and similar calorie allowances if you want to check out my diary and see what I'm doing.

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