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Confused - Eat Deficit or not?

fairestthings
fairestthings Posts: 335 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
I have a goal to lose 40ish pounds. Preferably by the end of this year. Although it’s not a hard and fast goal date because I want this to stick!

That said, it’s been a while since I’ve lost weight and I’ve forgotten the rules per se.

MFP (and several online calculators) say I need to exercise daily and eat 1600 cals a day to reach my GW.

If I exercise and burn, say, 400 calories, do I eat 1600 and let the 400 be my deficit OR do I burn 400 and only eat 1500 to leave a food deficit (so at that point it would be 900 deficit).

I’m not currently losing at a regular deficit and trying to figure which way to journey on the calorie scale.

Thanks for advice!

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    If you told MFP you wanted to lose weight and they gave you a goal of 1,600, the deficit is already figured into that. If you decide to exercise, you can eat those calories back because your goal is to hit that *original* deficit and exercise has made it larger.

    Now if you're not losing weight, then you're going to want to figure out what is going on. A common issue is that people underestimate the amount of calories they're eating. Are you using a food scale to measure your food?

    Whatever the issue is, if you're not losing weight over a long enough period of time, it means you aren't in a deficit.
  • debtay123
    debtay123 Posts: 1,327 Member
    Yes mfp calculates the deficit in so if you eat the amount givenyoushouldlose weight- if not- check your logging- use a food scale- also you could have it set to lose an agressive amount of weight(like 2 pounds a week) might need to lower it- that way it will give you more calories to eat--- I found that I would eat food that i hadn't logged when i sat down and reworked all i had to eat- a handful of nuts here, a few cookies there, or even tasting food as i cooked- sometimes it adds up big!- good luck
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    When you set up your goals here https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals the exercise part is merely aspirational - it is not factored into your calorie goal. (Activity level is factored in.) MFP intends for you to eat back the calories you earned from exercise.

    There are a variety of reason why you may not be losing weight. Here are the common ones:

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  • fairestthings
    fairestthings Posts: 335 Member
    Thanks on the insight for MFP calculating the deficit already into the calories it gives.
This discussion has been closed.

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