Caloric deficit

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gatundu15
gatundu15 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Is it advisable to be on a calorie deficit and do exercise?

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Calorie deficit if you want to lose weight.
    Exercise if you want to be healthy and fit.

    If you are just asking should you exercise while losing weight (it's not clear) then answer is still yes but exercise has a very, very broad spectrum.

    Maybe give a bit more context about yourself and your situation?
  • lisatryharder
    lisatryharder Posts: 14 Member
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    I've just started a calorie deficit for.my journey, I'm going to move more but I think once you start losing your weight at certain points may be good to reassess your calorie intake to make sure your deficit is right just a thought.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,960 Member
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    Myfitnesspal will calculate your weight loss calorie amount. Let's say that number is 1600 calories per day to lose one pound per week. That would be for days you just do your normal routine with no additional purposeful exercise.

    On days you do purposeful exercise, enter that into the "Exercise" tab page on this site. You will be given (as an example) 300 MORE calories to eat to fuel that exercise. On those days you'll actually be eating 1900 calories total.

    Exercise is very good for every part of you. It does require more food, though. Eat those extra calories.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,523 Member
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    What's your intake right now?



    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
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    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    I have gone through months-long periods of cutting where I exercise nearly daily while maintaining a net caloric deficit of ~500kcals, leading to a weight loss of ~1lb/month. I'm planning to start doing that fairly soon as I want to toss off a few pounds I've gained this year. It definitely adds some complexity to the equation, since your workouts definitely burn extra calories that you can eat back-- judiciously.

    It also affects your apatite, and you need to anticipate your body's response. If I do a 40 min jog, I find that I'm not hungry immediately, but definitely a few hours later. The best thing is to get in your meal before you're ravenous. If your meal will be delayed, eat something to tide you over. Of course, you need to log it all-- including your exercise-- hitting your target. When I'm working out in the evening, I eat something right before (an apple or banana, typically).

    Best of luck!
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,514 Member
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    Absolutely, it's fine. Some days I eat back my calories, based on a conservative estimate of net calories burned in workouts. Other days, I may use that as a buffer to meet my daily goal, e.g. -200 calories from diet and -300 from a workout, for a total -500.

    If you are too exhausted to have a good workout, then you need to adjust your eating window and/or eat more.

    Working out with weights while in a deficit will also help to retain muscle while you lose weight, assuming you're also getting a good amount of protein.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
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    Always exercise.

    If you are also attempting to maintain a calorie deficit, just be sure you account for the calories burned during exercise.
    What I mean by that is that if you are attempting to lose one pound per week (500 calories per day deficit) and you typically burn 2,000 calories per day WITHOUT exercising, if you burn 400 calories by going hiking, your total calorie burn is 2,400, meaning you would eat 1,900 calories to have your 500 calorie deficit.

    In other words, eat back your exercise calories if you're tracking everything here on MFP.

    But yeah, again, always exercise. You'll live longer and feel better.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
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    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    I have gone through months-long periods of cutting where I exercise nearly daily while maintaining a net caloric deficit of ~500kcals, leading to a weight loss of ~1lb/month. I'm planning to start doing that fairly soon as I want to toss off a few pounds I've gained this year. It definitely adds some complexity to the equation, since your workouts definitely burn extra calories that you can eat back-- judiciously.

    It also affects your apatite, and you need to anticipate your body's response. If I do a 40 min jog, I find that I'm not hungry immediately, but definitely a few hours later. The best thing is to get in your meal before you're ravenous. If your meal will be delayed, eat something to tide you over. Of course, you need to log it all-- including your exercise-- hitting your target. When I'm working out in the evening, I eat something right before (an apple or banana, typically).

    Best of luck!

    A daily deficit of 500 kcal will produce 1 lb of weight loss per week.
    Losing at a rate of 1 lb per month indicates a true daily deficit of around 116 kcal on average.
  • aCountryVegan
    aCountryVegan Posts: 23 Member
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    Calorie deficit sounds like punishment. My answer was to run enough every week that I may eat a calorie deficit, but its because I am burning 2500+ calories and eat back all but 10-20%. Now days I eat more than I ever did when I was overweight. I highly recommend exercise while eating a calorie deficit. If you are not use to exercise, then just walk a set amount of time everyday trying to keep your heartrate just twice your resting HR and you will burn plenty of calories. Every week add 10% more time to your walk and if you only do this with a calorie deficit, you will lose weight injury free. If at some time you feel you are ready try running, but still keeping your HR low, which will build your cardiovascular system. When I was 305 pounds, walking to the end of the street was the most I could do, and now at 200 pounds my yearly goal is 1200 miles. I like to joke that I walked off 1/3 of myself.
  • jjlbrick
    jjlbrick Posts: 236 Member
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    I do not routinely eat the calories I burn by exercise. They are there I used some yesterday, I’m using probably 50 today of 500.
    I want to wean myself of I exercise so I can eat more mentality. I’ve been cycling since 1980 gained 90 lbs.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,394 Member
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    jjlbrick wrote: »
    I do not routinely eat the calories I burn by exercise. They are there I used some yesterday, I’m using probably 50 today of 500.
    I want to wean myself of I exercise so I can eat more mentality. I’ve been cycling since 1980 gained 90 lbs.

    If you really burned 500 calories (devices just estimate) then you should eat them back. Say you normally eat 1500 calories. Exercising for 500 is pretty much the same as not exercising and only eating 1000 calories. Same if you normally eat 1200 calories as it would be similar to only eating 700 calories. Both are starvation and really, really bad for your body. Will also lead to loss of muscle as your body can only metabolize so much fat.

    If you are not in a calorie deficit but want to lose weight by exercising then this might be fine. But this is the only scenario where this is fine.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,960 Member
    edited October 2022
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    jjlbrick wrote: »
    I do not routinely eat the calories I burn by exercise. They are there I used some yesterday, I’m using probably 50 today of 500.
    I want to wean myself of I exercise so I can eat more mentality. I’ve been cycling since 1980 gained 90 lbs.

    Well, exercising and eating more is totally a thing. If you drive 1,000 miles you need a lot more gas in the car than if you're driving 20 miles miles, yeah? The problem comes when the exercise becomes excessive so people can try to eat the way they want and exercise it away OR if you are counting a five mile bike ride as 900 calories worth of exercise - which it's not.

    If biking is your main exercise, there are very good tracking systems for calculating calories burned during biking. You do need to eat some of the exercise calories, but maybe not all (probably more than 50 calories) - depending on where you get your calorie intake estimation, how accurately you're tracking food, and how you calculated your initial calorie goal. It's a bit of an experiment for the first couple months to find the sweet spot, calorie-wise.

    Tagging @sijomial in case you want more info. He's an avid cyclist and a reliable forum poster.

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