What does a calorie deficit mean?
Hi all,
I have recently started a diet and exercise plan and i intend to shed off at least 20 pounds before April next year (2010) so i wanted to know what exactly does being calorie deficit exactly mean?
The problem i have is that i have calculated the daily calorie intake i need to sustain my body and it came out to be about 2100 calories. Right now i am at a 1500-1600 calorie diet and i go to the gym 6 days a week. At the gym, i cycle for 30 mins (200 calories burnt) and lift about 70 pounds of weight with my legs, arms, shoulders and chest (not sure about the exact muscles). In addition, i do 70-75 situps along with 50 side bends using 15 pound dumbells (for the love handles).
Therefore, with my exercise routine it would be safe to assume that i burn around 400-500 calories in the gym and I consume 1600 calories which means my body is consuming 1200 calories total (1600-400). So is there a 800 calorie deficit in my diet?? (2100 is what i need and 1200 is what i am consuming)
I would really appreciate it if someone can answer this question for me because according to my calculation i should burn about 3500 calories in one week which means i should be losing 1 pound per week.
I'm not an expert, but it's not just about eating less calories. The idea is to take in less calories than you're burning. Have you calculated your BMR? If you use the burn meter on this site, that number will show you how many calories your body burns a day. What you want to do is take that number and create a calorie deficit (500 a day to lose 1 pound per week)
Example. My BMR is about 2200. I'm currently at maintenance, but if I were to aim to lose 1 pound per week, and I didn't exercise, I would have to eat 1700 calories. Does that make sense? I hope I'm explaining this correctly.
add the gym (4-500) to the sustain burn (2100) - for a total daily burn of 2500-2600.
So let's split the difference at 2550.
You want a deficit between that and what you eat to be 500-700 calories. Again we'll split the difference at 600.
So you should be eating 2550-600, or 1950.
You need to calculate everything you burn -minus- everything you eat, and it should be no more than 700 calories difference per day, or else you are just burning muscle not fat.
Hope that makes sense!
Hey! Thanks for the replies. I calculated my BMR and it came to be 2184 so lets make it 2150.
I keep the calories i burn @ the gym at say 450. Therefore i burn around 2600 calories a day. Since i eat about 1500 calories and lets suppose i over indulge and consume 1800 then i am still at a deficit of 800 is that correct?
Also, i read that our bodies adjust our metabolism so that we burn less calories. Should i take that into account when i exercise? I.E should i burn more calories @ the gym to offset my slow metabolism??
Thanks!
Original Post by nmehta3:
Hey! Thanks for the replies. I calculated my BMR and it came to be 2184 so lets make it 2150.
I keep the calories i burn @ the gym at say 450. Therefore i burn around 2600 calories a day. Since i eat about 1500 calories and lets suppose i over indulge and consume 1800 then i am still at a deficit of 800 is that correct?
Yes, that's correct!
Also, i read that our bodies adjust our metabolism so that we burn less calories. Should i take that into account when i exercise? I.E should i burn more calories @ the gym to offset my slow metabolism??
NO! This is only if you have starved yourself over months at a time, i.e. having a deficit of 1000 or more and/or less than 1200 per day. you have already factored exercise into your counts. You do not need to adjust for any "slowed metabolism" if your deficit is within a safe range!!
If your metabolism HAD slowed, the only way to fix it is to eat at maintenance for a month or so.. absolutely NOT increasing exercise!
