My Calorie Deficit

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sarahthemermaid1
sarahthemermaid1 Posts: 4 Member
in Getting Started
Hello,

I'm fairly new to the healthy diet and exercise thing, and I have a couple of questions if anyone is able to answer them for me.

I am eating around 500 less calories per day, and burning an extra 350 every day with exercise. I am eating regular meals, small portions, all healthy. Is this enough for me to lose weight?

The reason I ask this is because I don't understand the terms of a calorie deficit entirely - I read articles that state I need to burn more than I eat. I'm not sure if that means I need to burn every single calorie I eat each day or just burn some.

Thanks, Sarah

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    500 calories less than what?

    Did you not use MFP to get a calorie goal?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,945 Member
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    From Help at the top of every page comes this: How does MyFitnessPal calculate my initial goals?
  • sarahthemermaid1
    sarahthemermaid1 Posts: 4 Member
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    500 calories less than I ate before my diet. I did get a goal, I'm just looking for more info on how it works
  • sarahthemermaid1
    sarahthemermaid1 Posts: 4 Member
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    Okay, thanks. No not starving, I'm still eating normal meals every day and snacking, just sticking to all healthy things rather than junk snacks
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    You burn calories 24/7. With MFP, you're supposed to eat back exercise calories, so leave those out of the equation.

    A deficit of 500 calories daily, will make you lose a pound per week, if you have the necessary fat stores. 1% of your bodyweight is an often thrown around figure.

    And then there is the question of really having a 500 calorie deficit. You will have to log correctly in order to ensure that.

    I also want to add that the above usually annoys people, it must wrong, it's too easy. No, it is simple, but not necessarily easy. So I recommend leaving all else aside, and eat what you like, when you like. A healthy diet is good for you, and makes it easier to eat less, but it's eating less that makes you lose weight.
  • sarahthemermaid1
    sarahthemermaid1 Posts: 4 Member
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    Thanks for the info.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    sarahthemermaid1 wrote: »
    Hello,

    I'm fairly new to the healthy diet and exercise thing, and I have a couple of questions if anyone is able to answer them for me.

    I am eating around 500 less calories per day, and burning an extra 350 every day with exercise. I am eating regular meals, small portions, all healthy. Is this enough for me to lose weight?

    The reason I ask this is because I don't understand the terms of a calorie deficit entirely - I read articles that state I need to burn more than I eat. I'm not sure if that means I need to burn every single calorie I eat each day or just burn some.

    Thanks, Sarah

    You "burn" calories 24/7...you burn a *kitten* ton of calories just being alive...being alive requires a lot of energy (ie calories).

    For example, I burn around 1800 calories merely existing. Then I burn some more calories going beyond merely existing and going about my day to day...and then finally I burn a handful more calories with exercise.

    In all, I require around 3000 calories per day to maintain my weight. If I ate 2500 calories, I would lose about 1 Lb per week because I would have a 500 calorie deficit from what I require to maintain the status quo.
  • HeidiMightyRawr
    HeidiMightyRawr Posts: 3,343 Member
    edited July 2018
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    sarahthemermaid1 wrote: »
    500 calories less than I ate before my diet. I did get a goal, I'm just looking for more info on how it works

    Whether you lose weight on 500 less than what you ate before depends entirely on how much you ate before, and whether you are therefore in a calorie deficit.

    Lets say your maintenance was 2000. This is the amount you burn in a day, doing all your usual activity. If you ate 2500 before and you've cut it by 500, you're now eating 2000. You won't lose weight, you'll maintain it. If you were eating more than 2500 before, then you'll gain weight (just slower than before) This is why a drop of 500 calories doesn't necessarily mean weight loss.

    What I'm assuming you mean is that you've taken the 500 calorie a day deficit goal MFP mentions (for 1lb a week weight loss) but you've not fully understood it. That's ok. What this deficit is, is 500 calories below your maintenance. So if you maintained on 2000, you would eat 1500 to lose 1lb a week. This is because 3500 calories roughly equals a pound.

    What I would suggest is to go into the MFP goal, enter all your details and how much you want to lose and follow that. This will automatically calculate a deficit for you, you don't need to work it out yourself.

    In the section that asks what your daily activity is (sedentary, lightly active etc) if you don't include workouts in this info, then you log your workouts and eat those exercise calories back (MFP will automatically calculate this once you log exercise, so 1500 may turn into 1850 after a workout) If you factor your workouts into the section that asks your daily activity, then you don't need to log or eat exercise calories as this is already taken into account.

    Yes, you do need to burn more than you eat, but you already burn calories by just existing and living a day to day life, so it's not like you need to burn 2000 calories via workouts or anything! Just take the figures MFP gives you, and go with that :)
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    sarahthemermaid1 wrote: »
    500 calories less than I ate before my diet. I did get a goal, I'm just looking for more info on how it works

    If you're just using a TDEE calculation then don't eat back your exercise cals. If you used MFP, eat them back- or at least a portion
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,964 Member
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    How do you know what you were eating before? Did you weigh and log your normal intake for a while to determine how many calories you were consuming? Are you sure that what you were eating before was maintenance? How long had your weight been constant?
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    Great info in the most recent 3 posts.

    Ignore the utter garbage in the older post about starvation mode. That's not a real thing in this context.
  • shaf238
    shaf238 Posts: 4,021 Member
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    If you're eating under 500 calories from your maintenance calorie intake, you'll continue to lose weight :) anything you burn off exercising will increase the amount of weight you lose.

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