Calorie intake and deficit is confusing me

rajohnson21 · February 2017

An old trainer had me at 1240 calorie intake but never talked about deficit. I have a Fitbit now and it says 1000 calorie deficit. I am not sure why I don't get it. Maybe it's scary to me, who knows. Do you do deficit daily? Only on days you work out?
Female, 28, 5'3, 193lbs, goal: down to 140/150.

fitmom4lifemfp · February 2017

Eat normally for a week, where you are not gaining. Track what you eat. If you are not losing, then you are not in a deficit, and you need to eat less or burn more. For me, it's a daily goal.

shadow2soul · February 2017

Deficit = the amount of calories you are under what you need to maintain at.

So:
Deficit = weight loss
Surplus = weight gain
Maintenance = maintaining weight

To lose weight you have to have a deficit. When you tell MFP how much you would like to lose a week, it gives you a calorie goal that is at a deficit off of what it estimates you maintain at.

0.5 lb per week loss = 250 calorie deficit a day
1 lb per week loss = 500 calorie deficit a day
1.5 lb per week loss = 750 calorie deficit a day
2 lb per week loss = 1000 calorie deficit a day

Recommendations for deficit:

0.5 lbs per week loss if you have less than 25 lbs to lose
1 lb per week loss if you have 25 - 50 lbs to lose
1.5 lb per week loss if you have 50 - 75 lbs to lose
2 lbs per week loss if you have 75 + lbs to lose
No more than 1% bodyweight loss per week if you want your loss to be mostly fat (this comes from the fact that your body can only use so much of it's fat stores a day and once your deficit exceeds that amount your body starts using lean body mass for fuel)

The 1240 your trainer gave you would have you at a deficit. I can guarantee that.

Based on your stats:

No workouts/Sedentary daily life - 1812 calories to maintain (1240 would be a 572 calorie deficit)
3x 60 min workouts moderate difficulty/Sedentary daily life - 2005 calories to maintain (1240 would be a 765 calorie deficit)

cmcollins001 · February 2017

The way MFP works is you have a daily level that you are suggested to intake in order to lose the weight you wish to lose. You log all your food to reach that level. When you exercise, you log that exercise, and that will increase your allotted amount to eat.

An example would be this: If you eat 2000 calories a day to maintain exactly where you are right now. MFP suggests you eat 1400 a day to lose 2lbs a week. That is a deficit of 600 calories a day. So without exercise, you are already at a 600 calorie deficit. Now let's say you exercise and burn 500 calories. Now you're at a 1100 calorie deficit for that day. So, you can eat back your exercise calories to maintain that 1400 calories a day and you don't starve yourself.

If you're starting out, you can just use the setting MFP suggests, log everything, weigh what you can weigh (with food scale), and keep as accurate as possible. Same with exercise calories. Something's, including fitbit and MFP can overestimate exercise calories burned. A lot of people highly suggest a real heart rate monitor to track calories burned during exercise. If you just use Fitbit or something like that, then start with 50% of those calories and see how you feel. If you always feel tired or hungry, eat more.

Bottom line is to find a balance between intake and what you burn that you can lose weight and not always feel tired or starving. You can adjust your calorie intake on MFP if you wish. Try something for a couple months, check the results, if you like them keep going, if you don't adjust, track a few months, keep going. Losing weight isn't going to be a linear 1. 2. 3. thing, it's going up and down and sideways.

nutmegoreo · February 2017

Do you have FitBit synced with MFP? The 1000 calorie deficit is for a 2lb/week weight loss. Depending on how active you are throughout the day, 1240 could be your target with the 1000cal deficit already included. When you set things up here, how many calories did it give you?

Calorie intake and deficit is confusing me

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