Deficit and calorie total

So I put in all my stats in September and have been logging my weight food etc....and noticed today that my burn meter is 775 more than my calorie (assuming I don't add any activity).  I thought that it shouldn't be less than 500.  I have it set as sedentary bc as I'm starting an exercise course I haven't found one I like and will stick with and my job is very sedentary.  The calories and goal date I let the system chose for me. 

When I started it was over 1400 cals now its down to 1255 (after 17 lbs lost) I just noticed that it changed so am already over for today sigh....it just seem odd.

ETA:  Now its at 1274 so its gone up 19 calories from yesterday....

A deficit of 500 calories will result (theoretically, there are always other factors) in a loss of 1 lb per week.  It's been calculated that the human body can lose up to 2 lbs of fat a week without overly damaging muscle, which would be 1000 calories a day.  However, not everyone fits that calculation.  A larger person with more to lose will likely be able to hit that 2 lb a week target.  However, a smaller person with less to lose can't lose as much without risking muscle loss or without cutting calories far too much and so has to stick much closer to the 500 calorie deficit, or maybe even less. 

If you want to increase your deficit without decreasing your calories, add more exercise.  But if you're already close to your goal, you probably can't lose more than a pound of fat a week anyway and might end up breaking down muscle if you increase your deficit too much.  Try the calculator at www.phord.com/cc, which breaks this down a little better and gives you a lot more information.  Also, if your close to your goal, you may want to consider weight training to add muscle and burn more calories throughout the day, which would mean adding calories instead of cutting them.

So is it normal for the calorie meter to drop 200 calories from total target in 1 day?

Thanks to the one person that responded.  I don't think that I can handle all the help and support

Hi

Took me while to figure this out myself

Which number are you looking at on your burn meter. The one you need to look at is the total estimate at the top, This will give you your total estimated calorie burn for the day and doesnt usually change that much on a daily basis (I have lost 17 lbs and it has only changes by about 400 calories) unless you add in some activity.

The white number changes throughout the day, starting 0 at midnight (00:00)  and slowly increasing to the total burn estimate by midnight (23:59) and is an estimate of the number of calories your body has burned up to that moment in time. (for instance my burn meter at the moment say total estimate 2290 actual burn 1257)

Measure you calorie intake against the total estimate for your deficit for the day. The general advice is to try to keep your intake below the white number if aiming losing weight (so you are always in deficit) or but I often find it hard as we often have our main meal in at lunchtime so always go above the white number. However as the day goes on the white number is always increasing so I end up in deficit reasonably quickly again.

(just an aside since typing this reply my actual burn is now 1269 total estimate still 2290)

I have set my activity level at sedentary also as my work has no activity associated with it either. If I excersice I add it in to the activity log (this will increase the total estimate in the burn meter) and adjust my calorie intake for the day to maintain the deficit level I want. (As long as the exercise is a definate, you can log that at any time during the day and that will give you your burn estimate for the day allowing you to plan your calorie intake better.)

The  eat meter daily goal I tend to ignore and aim for a

calorie intake = Burn meter total estimate - deficit I want(in my case 700ish)

This way if I exercise some days I adjust my intake up, on days I dont exercise I eat less. My target is to lose 80 lbs overall and this way seems to be working for me, (17 lbs down since july).

Hope this helps some,

Rob

So the calorie required number isn't accurate?  Mine changes just about every day for no apparent reason.  And the black burn number changes pretty frequently too. 

I have a ton of trouble planning anything if every day one or the other changes on me....its getting frustrating.  (I'm not looking at the white number b/c I figuered that one out a while ago...just the black).

I just got finished posting about this exact topic in a different post.

Saying to someone that they should have a 500 or 1000 calorie deficit without knowing all they're stats is bad advice.   This is a out dated method for determining what someone's caloric deficit should be.

An alternate method is to set your calorie deficit as a percentage of your maintenance level. 15-20% is a recommended starting calorie reduction for fat loss. This is considered a small calorie deficit and a small calorie deficit is the key to losing fat while maintaining muscle.  With a 2100 calorie maintenance level, 20% would be a 420 calorie deficit, which would put you at 1680 calories per day. With a 2900 calorie maintenance level, a 20% deficit would be 580 calories. That would put you at 2380 calories per day.

The reason the percentage method is better is because using an absolute number like 500, 750 or 1000 calories as a deficit instead of a percentage deficit might drop your calories into the danger zone. For example, if you are a male with a 3500 calorie maintenance level, a 750 calorie deficit to 2750 calories per day is only a 21% drop (a small, safe and acceptable deficit.) However, if you are a female with an 1800 calorie per day maintenance level and you cut your calories by 750 per day to 1050 calories, that is a 41% cut. Using the percentage method is more individualized.

OK so I did some googling...putting my stats (30 yrs 5ft 6 in and my current weight 206.2 and sedentary Female) into 4 different calculators gave me 4 different results (to lose 2 lbs per week)

1648

1475 (live strong.com)

1809

1700 (mayo clinic)

And CC has me at 1274 (today...it was 1255 yesterday)......SO these are HUGELY different what is right? 

Original Post by downdeep:

Saying to someone that they should have a 500 or 1000 calorie deficit without knowing all they're stats is bad advice.   This is a out dated method for determining what someone's caloric deficit should be.

An alternate method is to set your calorie deficit as a percentage of your maintenance level. 15-20% is a recommended starting calorie reduction for fat loss. This is considered a small calorie deficit and a small calorie deficit is the key to losing fat while maintaining muscle.  With a 2100 calorie maintenance level, 20% would be a 420 calorie deficit, which would put you at 1680 calories per day. With a 2900 calorie maintenance level, a 20% deficit would be 580 calories. That would put you at 2380 calories per day.

I did try to state that 500 wouldn't work for everyone, especially someone who was already close to a normal weight.

I like this percentage method, that's the first I've seen of it.  It makes more sense than just an arbitrary number that's not the same for everyone.  Thanks for that information.

tls7722 - Different calculators use different algorithms, but if the CC calculator has you at 1274, it's wrong.  With your stats, there's no way you should be eating that little.  I put your stats into phord's calculator (I linked it above) and it says that at sedentary you burn 2011 calories a day, and you should eat 1676, for a loss of a between 1/2 and 3/4 lb a week. 

I really like this calculator, because it calculates your BMR and tells you not to go below it in order to support your body just to live from day to day. If you add a little more information it also calculates how much of a deficit you can theoretically maintain (as closely as a web site can, anyway) without damaging muscle and tells you not to exceed that number. If you run this calculator again with your waist and hip measurements it should give you an estimated number for that (and possibly change your calorie target and burn a bit, but likely not much), although body fat percentage would be more accurate.  This just gives you more information to work with.

So plug your calorie target and burn into your account settings, delete any target date that might be there, and eat the 1676 or a bit more than that.  If you want a higher deficit you should get it through exercise - but don't exceed the safety deficit (1301) or maximum fat calorie expenditure given by the calculator, whichever is lower.

This is the method I use.  It's working, and I know that I'm not cutting my calories too much or burning too much for my body to handle without muscle loss.  I don't know if it's the ideal method, but it seems safe and I'm comfortable with it.

I'm not sure why the CC eat meter should be changing daily, so I can't answer that, but if you plug this information in and make sure you don't have a date set you shouldn't have a problem.  I hope.

Thx Correlia,

I put 1600 for my calorie target (I like the round numers) but can't figure out how to change my burn number.  I'll just remember it in my head.

the 1274 seemed so wrong and everything changing every day definately didn't seem right (the black Numbers).

When I started it was at 1455 and I dropped weight like crazy then it dropped to 1300 and I immedately stopped losing then it dropped again....I must have a glitch.

And no matter what I do it automatically puts the goal date of April 28, 2010 which doesn't match my little thumbs up/down guy on my account page that has November 2011....weird

Original Post by tls7722:

Thx Correlia,

I put 1600 for my calorie target (I like the round numers) but can't figure out how to change my burn number.  I'll just remember it in my head.

That's strange. For some reason I thought you could, but I can't find it either. You could always try messing with activity levels until you find something that's close. Luckily mine's only about 10 calories off, so it works pretty well.

Since you're closer to 1700 than 1600, you might want to put 1700 calories as a target, or give yourself a range of 1600-1800 per day.  Some people find a calorie range easier to hit than a specific target.  I tend to keep mine within 50 calories, but whatever works for you.

the 1274 seemed so wrong and everything changing every day definately didn't seem right (the black Numbers).

When I started it was at 1455 and I dropped weight like crazy then it dropped to 1300 and I immedately stopped losing then it dropped again....I must have a glitch.

It keeps calculating me at 1541, no matter what I do. I don't lose at that little, so it wouldn't work for me. And I don't like going below my BMR, it just makes more sense to me not to. Mine target doesn't change at all, though. Weird. I'm pretty sure that if you put in your calorie target yourself, it shouldn't change based on goal date. Mine doesn't, but if you're glitchy or something I don't know.  My burn meter has changed a little over time, but I think it might adjust for your current weight.

Most people lose a lot at the beginning.  A lot of it's water weight, and the body assumes it's a temporary change and no big deal so lets it happen.  But when it catches on that your eating habits aren't going back to the way they were, your body can adjust to a lower number of calories and you can stop losing.  That's why it's important that your deficit not be too big.  A day now and then where you get your full caloric needs (everything you burn) sometimes helps keep your metabolism going. 

For me, I can be really good throughout the week, but my weight will stay pretty much the same, on average.  Then I have my maintenance day on Saturday, and suddenly on Sunday or Monday a pound or so just falls off and I catch up to where I expected to be.  Bodies are strange machines, but you'll figure yours out. 

Some other people here prefer to stagger their daily intake - for example, with your target of 1600 calories, you could eat 1200 one day, 1600 the second, and 2000 the third.  The theory is that your body doesn't adjust to a lower caloric value because it's not always getting that lower caloric value - you're tricking your metabolism into not worrying about it.  And if it works, and you're still at the correct average daily calories and average deficit, it's a healthy way to diet.

And no matter what I do it automatically puts the goal date of April 28, 2010 which doesn't match my little thumbs up/down guy on my account page that has November 2011....weird.

The thumbs up guy and the goal date are done differently, I believe. The goal date is based on your daily deficit only, while I'm pretty sure the thumbs up adjusts that based on how much you've already lost. If you're just starting I don't know why they would be different, but I do know that a lot of people seem to have trouble with the thumbs up calculation. I wouldn't worry about it.

Also, remember that you're going to have to recalculate all of this about every 20 pounds, because your needs will change.

Are you updating your weight log everyday? CC recalculates your estimated burn based on your weight, so while youre losing weight or your weight fluctuates day to day, so will your estimated burn for the day.