Question about Deficits?

Ok, I keep hearing 'Don't have a deficit larger than 1,000'. My question is, A deficit of what?

According to the Burn calculator (Which I'm STILL uncertain of) I burn about 1,790 while sedentary, and anywhere from 1900-2100 calories, and according to the calorie calculator tool thing, I should eat about 1,200 calories to reach my goal.

My question is this, does the deficit come from how much I burn? Or how much I should be eating? Does this change also since I'm 'technichally' needing to use a child calculator (18-years-old)?

Any help would be great :)

The deficit is the difference between what you burn and the amount of calories you consume.

So, say your burn meter says you burn 1800 calories and you eat 1200 calories, you have a difference or 'deficit' of 600 calories.

Hope this helps!

Your confusion on this is the main reason you're not losing any weight.  You sedentary burn is 1790.  That's what you burn during the day if you barely get out of bed.  When you go to the gym or even walk around, you burn more calories then your 1790.  Based on your journals you sometimes burn up to an additional 800 calories, so that would bring you up to 2590 calories burned in one day.

However, you only eat about 400-800 calories a day, and maybe 1000 on a good day, which means your deficit is way too big.

I know everyone keeps talking about eating 1200 calories, but that's ONLY if you're 5'0, small frame, and lay around all day doing no physical activity at all.  That's the amount you need to keep your organs functioning, and yourself breathing.

When you work out, you need to eat some of those calories back, or you put yourself into starvation mode, where your body stores everything that you eat (even if it's only 800 calories) as fat, and no matter how much you restrict your calories, you WILL NOT WILL NOT WILL NOT WILL NOT lose weight.

If you burn 2500 calories in a day, and you manage to eat 1200, you're body is going to do the same thing as if you burn 1700 calories, and only eat 800.  Just cuz you're eating 1200 doesn't mean that's enough for you.  You need to make sure there is NO MORE then a difference of 1000 calories between what you eat and what you burn.

here's my question, what do the TWO numbers mean in the calorie burn meter? there are 2 numbers, one on top of the other, and i can't differentiate between them. i'm confused.

I had that problem at first as well.  If you click on the the ? button the the top left it will explain it pretty well.  The top number is calculated based on the initial information you entered into the program, this is the total calories you burn going about your day.  The bottom, larger number, is the calories you have burned so far throughout your day.  That's why that number changes throughout the day.

Hope that helps.

Ok, so I'm sure you've gathered that the number "deficit" refers to a calorie deficit.

I agree with the other posters here -- a deficit of more than 1000 is excessive and will have the OPPOSITE effect. Why? ...

Your body doesn't know the difference between a diet and a famine. If you go without enough calories for more than just a few days, your body's natural starvation response kicks in. Look out...

At that point, your body will hang on to your fat, slow your metabolism to a crawl, and instead go after its main source of protein -- your muscle. Can you say disaster?

Avoid that vicious cycle! Eat plenty of food (20% below maintenance is optimal for fat loss), and exercise 4-5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. You will notice positive changes in your body in as little as 2 weeks.

Ok, i kind of get it, but the top number says 2930. SO this means that's how much I should burn throughout the day? then the bottom number says 2173. That's what they think I've burned so far?? I've logged 601 calories of burn from my workout this morning.  I'm really not a fool I just cannot grasp this concept for some reason, haha.

The top number is how much you ARE burning, given the information you have plugged in. So if you burn 1750 while sedentary plus 600 through exercise, the number will show you burning about 2300 that day. Eat at least 1300 and more like 1500, at least, just to be safe. You may be burning more than "sedentary" but that's hard to say. So don't try to shave your calorie deficit too close to 1000 in case you undereat.

Also, don't worry about the bottom number; that's just estimating how much you have already burned each day. It can be way off if you are very active early or later or whatever. Just keep an eye on total burn, total intake, and you'll be ok.