Deficit?

How much should a daily deficit be? Is there a general number or does it depend on the person?

I weigh 163, and I am 5'6. I burn about 2150 calories a day, and eat around 1250-1300 calories a day.

It depends on the person, but you should probably aim for about 500 cal deficit. Do not have more than 1000.

Original Post by amethystgirl:

It depends on the person, but you should probably aim for about 500 cal deficit. Do not have more than 1000.

 I would say I have a deficit of about 800 on most days. I suppose this is appropriate. Are there any links you might have that would explain more about deficits?

From the New and Improved Calorie-Count "Diet" we've got these:

Section 4.1: Deficit Spending (Deficits)
Section 4.2: Your Metabolism And You: A Love Story (Metabolism, BMR and AMR)

The fitness mod, melkor has sited a study that said that, in theory, you can have a max deficit of 31 calories per pound of fat (which only helps if you know your bf%). However, I've calculated that for myself (using a guess at bf%) and found the deficit was much higher than I found worked for me through trial and error. I much prefer to keep my deficit at 500. Plus, it makes the math so much easier (500 cal * 7 days = 3500 cal/week = 1lb fat lost per week)

I like to recommend that people figure out their BMR (you can use www.phord.com/cc to get that, because you can't find that calculation on CC) and eat a minimum of that. You are starting around where I did, and found it better to eat 1400-1600 to lose weight. 1300 didn't work for me.