What does calories deficit mean?

I didn't go to the gym but I did get my butt out the door.

B: Smoothie: 1/2cup Naked Blue Machine Juice, 1 scoop soy protein powder, 1tsp flaxseed/primrose oil, 1/2cup lf kefir, 1/2cup blueberries, 1/2cup mango, 1tsp honey

L: Sandwich (big yummy one): 2 slices Rudi's ww bread, 1oz avocado, 3oz turkey (frozen Thanksgiving leftovers), 1/2 small tomato, spinach, red onion, 2tsp Annie's raspberry mustard. Handful of blueberries, 2 squares dark chocolate

S: 1/4oz walnuts, sugar snap peas, carrots

D: (Hubby was home late so DS and I had breakfast for dinner): 1/2cup oatmeal, 1/2cup soymilk, 1tblsp wheat germ, 1tsp cinnamon sugar, few bites of a pear

S: I may have some chai tea with a little milk & honey.

About 1267 calories
Walked fast 30 minutes with my dog (in the snow) 1/2 uphill
15 minutes treadmill on incline 5 (I did this instead of eating more chocolate!)

Charlene - to lose weight, supposedly you have to take in about 3500 less calories per week than you need to maintain your weight.

I use fitday to figure out how many calories I burn in a normal day, and how many calories I'm eaing. I subtract how much I ate from how much I burn, and that's my deficit. If I do 500 deficit each day, then at the end of 7 days I have had 3500 calories less than I need to maintain, so I should, in theory, lose weight.

I use the "bedridden" calories for what I burn, since I have a very slow metabolism. I think it's more accurate for me, even though I'm NOT bedridden.

Hope that made sense.

Smartbutt, thanks for clarifying how you do that calculation. I've been tracking my food and calories in fitday religiously, but have not been tracking the deficit. I just did it for the past 5 days and I can already see how this deficit number will serve to motivate me. Too bad fitday doesn't give a report with this calculation (or does it? I know they have a graph but mine doesn't give the actual numbers). I think I'm going to keep a spreadsheet of this so I can figure out how off fitday is with its calorie burning section. Too me the activities seem a bit low (e.g. the gym's elliptical says I burned 400 cal in 30 min and fitday says I burned 148 cal in 30 min).

Florida Mom,

Once you change your weight on FitDay, your caloric needs change with it. It will NOT affect all prior insertions. It starts recalculating your new needs based on the date you changed your weight on your profile.

Even so, I use my own spreadsheet and I have it detail everything! It's on Excel so it can create charts for the information I want.

On the fitness portion of FitDay, it is whacked beyond belief. So I enter total calories burned and don't worry about the time. In other words, if I know I burned 600 calories running, then I enter the time until I get the 600 number to appear under calories burned.

I used the HRM that calculates calories burned based on my heart rate and that is much more accurate than anything else out there.

I hope this answers your question.

I weighed in!

Down to 138.6 from 142 or 144, depending on which number I use. (That 144 was INSIDIOUS!!!) Thus, the huge smile on my profile photo!!!

Dropped an inch off my waist and my Size 8 jeans are baggy around the butt and waist.

Will continue on this for another three weeks and then I'll try my Size 6 jeans and see how they're looking and feeling.

Ultimate goal is to get back into my Size 4 clothes which are so, so cute! I have resisted the desire to shop until I get back to my goal as I refuse to buy bigger clothes. That would just be a negative affirmation!

I figured out that I cannot weight myself the morning after I work out. Too much water in my muscles from the lifting and running. This morning was my second day off the gym... but now I'm heading out to run my four miles and work legs and glutes.

I'm going to adjust my FitDay weight which will give me a new BMR which will influence my new caloric intake, which I'm hoping will be only 15 to 20 calories a day.

Edit: Entered new numbers for FitDay and they lowered my BMR by 34 calories. Manageable!

Diva - that's what I do with FitDay as well, I just keep upping the time spent on the activity until it gives me the same readout my heart monitor does. And, congrats!

Mami - I haven't seen a report to generate the deficit number. Would be nice. I just go to activities where it gives me the number burned, then to food for the number eaten.

Good Morning Girls!
I'm way behind in all the gossip, yesterday after exercising we shopped, checked on MIL, then started cleaning out our 2006 files. I hate that job, especially because I keep every receipt. I didn't post Mon. or Tue. food journal, here goes:
Mon. 8th 1,194 Calories Fat 22%
Vitamins/salmon oil, etc. ...13 cal
Fiber One...59

Chipotle Cheese Omelet: egg white (30) Green Pepper/onions and FF 1/2 & 1/2 cream(18) Veggie Chipotle cheese (30)
2 slices turkey bacon (40). 2 slices Lt. Toast (80)
Total calories...198

Lunch: Can of Green Beans (52) Chicken breast (89)
Milk...(80)
Total Calories...221

Supper: 6oz. Pork Chop (363) Arugula and Loose leaf lettuce, green pepper, cukes, 1/2 fresh pear(60)
FF French Dressing (21)
Total supper calories...444

Evening snack:
Milk (80)
BlueBerry Cheesecake Pudding (44)
MY calories were low again so I stirred Applesauce into FF Cottage cheese for additional calories (135)
Total calories...259

Tuesday's Journal: 1,135 Calories and 15% Fat
Vitamins/Salmon oil (13)
Fiber One (56)
Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie (159
Total...228

Lunch: 2 Wasa rye crackers (60) spread with Garlic Laughing Cow (35) and sliced radishes and cukes (14)
Apple (124) and String Cheese ((60)
Total...293

Supper: Elk Roast 4.6 oz (203) Roasted Carrots, 5oz (93)
3-Bean Salad, 4 oz. (76) Blue Berry Cheesecake pudding (44)
Total..416
Evening snack: FF Milk (80) and Air popped Corn (120)
Total... 200

Smartbutt-Thanks for showing me how to do that.

I changed my activity level to sedentary also as I was just diagnosed with hypothyroid which means slow metabolism. I started medication so hopefully that will help.

So if I subtract calories eaten from total calories burned I had a deficit of 576 yesterday. Yay!

Regarding TOM--I'm known to go up 3-5 pounds. yuck. But since I've been doing the whole foods diet and cutting out the junk (for the most part) my last few periods have been much more manageable in that I'm not quite as moody, sluggish and headachey.

Congrats on the weight loss Diva & Florida Mom!

Have a great day everyone
Charlene

Hello Ladies...
I hope you are all doing well this morning...
I did not have a good day at all yesterday. I was completely frustrated about no movement on the scale, stressed and acting like a biatch because of TOM, so when my dear friend came to town, I gladly went out for pizza which I of course later regretted. I didn't hold back. I ate three slices! (yuck), and then went out for a burger and some ice-cream for dinner... Not the best but I actually went on the websites for the calorie content and ended up being at 2,200 at the end of the day which is WAY more than usual, but not too high...
I had a Dr. appointment this morning and feared the worst, hopped on the scale and I was 197! Thats -2lbs, PLUS TOM and a pig-out yesterday. When I got home I weighed myself, and sure enough, I was 197... so I guess it all works out in the end...
But I am back on track and in a positive mood today. I started the day with a single serving bowl of protein plus special K and a banana...

Hello everyone
Congrats to everyone on there loses!!! It is great!! Well I had 1068 calories yesterday and according to my scale this morning I went up .2 lbs which I know isn't much at all, but darn it I was 174.8 now it's 175. Maybe I am not eating enough?? Monday it was 1020. I am going to try and get it up to 1200 and see what happens. I am also going to start doing the Slim in 6 workouts again. I have had these tapes for like 4 years I think, lol. I never seem to get past a week on them but in that week that I did do them I did notice a difference. I am not very much of exercise fan. But I want to make myself be. Well Gotta get some work done. TTYL!!!
Mary

Mary, Your calories are definitely too low. It's not worth it. My experience has been that eventually (in two weeks, two months, six months) your body will demand more food and it won't stop demanding it. Go higher and you'll see a steadier loss because your body is willing to give up stored fat when it doesn't think it needs to hold on to it for future famine. Nutritionists always recommend 1200 per day as a minimum to fuel your body with the nutrients it needs. I looked at your Fitday. Between 10 and 50% of the calories you are eating are coming from 'junk' like 100 calorie cookie packs and such. That means that if you eat only 1000 calories in a day, you may be getting as few as 500-700 from nutrients. Not enough! Your body will demand the nutrients in needs at some point. Please add in some nutrient dense calories from fruits, veggies, lean protiens, whole grains, etc!

Lindy

Absolutediva: Congrats on the loss! I'm shooting for a 6 myself, and like you, I've barely bought myself any clothes at this size because I am not planning on staying. Right now I have 2 pairs of pants to wear, and I waited going down 3 sizes before I bought these (1 pair on sale at the gap for $20). I am buying some nice purses, but saving the wardrobe.

Also, what HRM do you use? I'm buying a Lifefitness home elliptical this week, but the least expensive model (and they are NOT cheap!) doesnt come with a HRM. I always wonder if the HRM on the elliptical at the gym takes my HR into account or just my weight and workout intensity.

Mary: How many calories were you eating before you switched to 1000 per day (i.e. how big of a cut is this)? I definitely think you'll stop losing while you're eating too little. I'd definitely up the calories.

new ish here and wondering what this thread is?
thanx
tracyg

Hi Tracy............We're calories counters and we support each other, post our daily calories. Some of post our menu's, some post calories/fat% and exercise. Whatever you want to do. But the backbone of the thread is counting calories.

Bobbi

I use the Polar F4. I swear by it. It's the only way I can really calculate the deficit. Today I lifted and ran 4 miles and burned 806 calories.

No equipment at the gym takes your HR into account unless you have a transmitter strapped to your chest that the machine can read from.

As for the shopping, I can't wait. Just getting into my old clothes will feel like a new wardrobe!

I don't know who Mary is, but if you're at 1000 calories, you are waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too low. Better of creating the deficit by walking briskly around the neighborhood.

One thousand calories is setting you up for failure!