Too much deficit?

mizan786
mizan786 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

So I'm trying to reach my goal weight of 70kg. I'm currently hovering between 82-83kg.

I looked at my BMR, which is roughly 1700/1800cal and my TDEE which is roughly 2300/2400cals. Taking this into account I set my calorie goal to 1500 a day which is below the BMR. I know some people feel it's bad to go below BMR, and I have been doing it for about two weeks now and I've only lost 1kg.

Have I made too much of a deficit? I am worried if my body goes into "starvation mode" but I feel it shouldn't as I have fat that my body can tap into when it needs the energy.

I currently am only doing cardio, at roughly 45 mins 3x a week (haven't incorporated any weight training due to injured calf)

Should I increase my calorie goal to meet my BMR or stick at what I am doing right now and keep below my BMR?

Many thanks

Replies

  • SingingSingleTracker
    SingingSingleTracker Posts: 1,866 Member
    edited April 2016
    mizan786 wrote: »
    Hi,

    So I'm trying to reach my goal weight of 70kg. I'm currently hovering between 82-83kg.

    I looked at my BMR, which is roughly 1700/1800cal and my TDEE which is roughly 2300/2400cals. Taking this into account I set my calorie goal to 1500 a day which is below the BMR. I know some people feel it's bad to go below BMR, and I have been doing it for about two weeks now and I've only lost 1kg.

    Have I made too much of a deficit? I am worried if my body goes into "starvation mode" but I feel it shouldn't as I have fat that my body can tap into when it needs the energy.

    I currently am only doing cardio, at roughly 45 mins 3x a week (haven't incorporated any weight training due to injured calf)

    Should I increase my calorie goal to meet my BMR or stick at what I am doing right now and keep below my BMR

    Starvation mode is a myth - so need to worry about it.

    A weight loss of 1 Kilo (2.2 pounds) is actually a very good result for 2 weeks. Most of us are ecstatic losing up to one pound per week. You've lost 1.1 pounds per week which is a very, very good result. You can't really rush the process and should plan on the realistic target of a pound per week. It's probably going to take you 27-35 weeks or so to reach your goal. 1514 calories per day to eat is what my calculation currently is at the moment to lose one pound of weight loss per week for my size/age/weight/gender. And of course that number is down from where I started it continually adjusts as you get lighter. I eat back part of my exercise calories, but have maintained a deficit for about 25 weeks now. I'm about 1 kilo from my target goal.

    Too bad your calf is injured, but weight training would be a very good addition to your program to try and maintain as much of the muscle you do have while you are losing weight.

    You can run your calorie counter here as well as I find it to more accurate than MFP's...

    http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
  • Jams009
    Jams009 Posts: 345 Member
    edited April 2016
    Starvation mode is a myth.

    I had too much of a deficit during my last cut. Problems I had were lack of sleep, not recovering properly from workouts, loss of strength, loss of energy, loss of sex drive, bad moods.

    It messes with your hormones.

    I would definitely raise it to around 1900-2000 - a 400-500 calorie deficit is plenty.

    Strength training would be a very good idea to avoid losing muscle. Muscle costs calories to maintain, so if your body finds it doesn't have enough energy to cover expenses the first thing it will do is get rid of muscle to lower energy expenditure. Weight training will make your body think that it needs that muscle, so it will try to hold on to it more. Can you work around your calf?
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    you are eating as much as me...you are younger, a male and working out less...

    might want to rethink your deficit.

    Try TDEE-20%.
  • BelleCakes2018
    BelleCakes2018 Posts: 568 Member
    I would only go below my BMR significantly if I wasn't being active.. considering you are - I agree with the poster saying that a 400-500 deficit is plenty. Remember to lose a lb a week, you would need a daily deficit of 500 cals. If your BMR is 1800 you would need to take it 1300 per day - but only if you were sitting on your behind all day not moving at all! If your expenditure is 2300, I would say you are fine on 1800 per day for a 1lb a week loss. Remember though, as you start weight training you will likely see a few gains/non movement on the scales..
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
    Wild attributions about "starvation mode" are silly, but there is such a thing as metabolic adaptation that occurs with a too-big deficit over a too-long period of time. If you are going to have such a big deficit, give yourself a period of a week or two to eat at maintenance ("diet break"). Lyle McDonald has good material about this.
  • mizan786
    mizan786 Posts: 2 Member
    Morning.

    Thanks to everyone who replied. Have taken everything on board. Have decided to up my calorie intake to 1700 instead of 1500. Think it would be a wiser thing to do, as even though I am losing weight at 1500, I don't have much energy through out the day!

    Hopefully once my calf is healed I can do more weight training and most likely will need to up my calorie intake further.

    I was planning to keep at 1500cals until I reached my goal weight, but I suppose with weight training and for energy reasons 1500cals wouldn't really be suffice.

    Many thanks everyone
  • snikok
    snikok Posts: 15 Member
    edited April 2016








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