Help re calorie deficit

ninjawarrr wrote: »

Hello all,

New to weight loss, here. Trying to take simple approach of running a 500 cal. deficit every day in order to lose 18 lbs, by reducing daily calories to 1200.

-BUT- I don't understand how exercise 'calories burned' works into the target deficit.

At the end of the day, what should I see at the top of myfitnesspal for calories, in order to achieve 500 cal deficit? +500?

Thks,
NNWRRR

1200 calories is already a substantial deficit from your maintenance needs. It also assumes no exercise as exercise is not included in your activity level if you've set it up properly. If you exercise you should be eating more. The calculator has already calculated your deficit and there really shouldn't be calories remaining...you're deficit is baked into the cake.

ninjawarrr wrote: »

Thank you, @cwolfman13. So, is that what the 'FitBit adjustment' is about, i.e. rounding down ambient movement according to my preset activity level? I wear a tracker that picks up literally every step I take, so it's really not 'exercise' per se.

Now that I look at it, there is a premium feature called 'Exercise Calories' == 'Decide whether to adjust daily goals when you exercise'. So . . . it seems like maybe I can just ignore the Exercise calories..

no. do NOT ignore the exercise calories.

THIS IS ASSUMING.... your activity level was selected properly....

your activity level should have been selected and taken into account when you set up your goals on MFP. so normal, every day steps (around the house, the grocery store, your job, etc) do not get factored in or counted as exercise UNTIL you exceed that activity level you selected. If you selected 'sedentary' but you have an active job (say, as a postal carrier or a teacher where you are walking around a classroom all day) once you hit 4000? steps (not sure of the exact number so take that with a grain of salt-someone else may know the number) mfp will say - 'oh, you are being more active than usual- we are going to count this as exercise'. Whereas if you had CORRECTLY labeled your activity label as 'active' it would not count it until it had reached that particular threshold.

Good news is, you can go back and change this. to whatever your activity level should be.

INTENTIONAL exercise (at the gym, a purposeful walk/run, etc) should be logged and calories eaten back. With the fitbit you dont even have to log it, it will just add the calories. But here is where it can get a bit tricky. those calories, depending on the person (and activity), may or may not be totally correct. This is why many people will start by eating back about HALF of them and do that for a few weeks and watch and see what their weight does in relation to what it *should* do (and this is going to also assume that you are accurately logging your food. I will put the link for that below). If they are losing faster than anticipated, eat back a few more calories. If slower than anticipated, eat back a few less.

Useful Links
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

and basically ... all of these

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-health-fitness-and-diet-must-reads#latest

PS: your deficit, is too big for that amount of weight. I know you want it off as quickly as possible, I get it, I do. Give yourself a few more calories. Trust me on that. even just to 1.5 pound a week loss will make a big difference in how much food you can eat and how you FEEL and how much easier it is to stick to it. 1 pound would be even BETTER, truly.