Counting for Deficit & Exercise & Losing

I know this information is all over the site, but I'm having such a discouraging time lately that the boards are only depressing me more, and searching for a clear, consice answer is eluding me today.

Can someone help me out a little with the whole counting & creating a deficit?  I have managed to so completely confuse myself & I'm going nuts!

My normal expenditure (for height & weight) is 2200 calories a day.
In order to lose 1.5 lbs/week to hit my goal, I should only be eating 1450 calories per day.
OK.
So, if I exercise 300 calories off, do I need to actually eat 1750 calories? Or only eat the 1450, and exercise is extra off?  And if I only eat the 1450 plus exercise, will I lose a little faster?

Thanks in advance.

First of all, what are your assumptions you're making when you say you burn 2200 calories a day. How active do you assume you are?

In order to lose 1.5 calories a week, you need to eat 750 less than 2200, but also add in calories you burn when exercising (which I strongly suggest), so 1450, yes.

If you exercise you should eat more. So, for example, if you exercise a half hour and burn off 300 calories, you should be eating 1750 calories.

Because if you allow the deficit to get too big, you'll probably plateau and that sucks :p

Does this help? :)

If you enter the activity into the activity log and then look at your Account Home page, you will see what your expenditure is for the day. Eat 400-800 less than that (but at least 1200), and you'll lose weight. (Your expenditure will be close to, but not quite, 2500 if you burned 300 calories in exercise.)

If your deficit is too high, you will lose weight initially, but your weight loss will level off more quickly and slow down or stop. There's a reason 400-800 is the general deficit recommendation!

I should have typed faster!

Bwahahaha ;D

At least the two of us give similar advice, though, and not contradictory :)

Yes, that helped. Thank you both!!
I listed my activity as sedentary, because I sit at a desk all day. I smoke, so I go for short walks during the day, but its not something I technically count as activity, because the pace is barely a mosey. My printer is at my desk, so I very rarely get up.  I'm a bit more active at home - walking around the kitchen making dinner, laundry, that type of stuff.
I've been doing a few aerobics classes a week (between 3 & 4) for three weeks now and haven't lost anything.  My deficit has NOT been too low, and I'm getting seriously discouraged!

How HIGH is your deficit?

Lets see...

Last Tuesday I took two step aerobics classes, 40 mins & 60 mins. That was approx 1100 cals burned. I ate approx 2500 calories, so that was a total of 1400 for the day.
Wednesday was no exercise, ate 1700 calories.
Thursday was a 60 minute step class, approx 850 cals burned. Ate approx 2200 cals; total of 1350 or so for the day.
Friday was a 40 minute class, approx 500 cals burned. Didn't keep track of calories (bad girl).

I know that my calories aren't from the best sources, but I'm seriously working on that - trying new things, trying to up my protien, and lower the carbs a bit. But if you look at it from a strictly calorie standpoint, I'm figuring the intake vs. expense corretly, right?

I dunno. Sounds like your calorie deficits range from reasonable to a little on the high side.

Here's my challenge to you.. eat with a deficit of only 500 for one week. So, if you burn 2200, eat 1700 on days you don't exercise. If you exercise, eat the calories you burned.

Just for one week :)

Good luck! :)