Quick question for someone that knows about calorie deficit.
My doctor said that I'm burning 1600 a day, in comparison to someone that would normally burn 1400. But when I looked online it said something about someone my height/weight burning 2300 or so. Is the 1600 something different?
I'm just kind of confused because if I subtract the 1200 from 1600 then that's only a deficit of 400 if I do totally no exercise yada yada.
The doctor may have been referring to your basal metabolic rate, the calories you would burn just breathing and beating your heart. You multiply it by a some factor based on activity level to get the calories you actually burn but doing such activities as sitting up and brushing your teeth. I think its 1.2 for a sedentary lifestyle.
That said, unless you underwent some pretty intensive tests, your doctor isn't a much better assessor of your metabolic rate than an online calculator. Pick a calorie level to eat, stick with it for a few weeks and see if you lose. If you do, you have enough of a deficit. If you don't, you need more.
We all get a little caught up in the numbers, me more than some probably. But this whole journey is filled with so many unknown, it's impossible to break it down to an exact science.
When I went in to get "assessed" for weight loss they did tests on me that measure my body fat amount, muscle etc. They also did a test that tells me how much my body burns just sitting here, I don't really know how it works; just what they did. They hooked me up to a machine and it told them my stats.
according to loseit.com you should be eating 1978 cals a day to lose 2lbs. a week. wich is the healthy rapid weightloss amount. you see you go by your height and weight. this give you a deficit of roughly 1000cals a day. (wich you dont want to go over 1000 cal deficit.) : )
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hope this helps
Last edited by jessica2231; 08-24-2011 at 11:33 AM.
In my experience, the most effective way to determine ideal calorie level for losing weight is experimentation. Count your calories, document your food and your exercise, and see what happens. Look for patterns, but realize it can take up to three months for "true" patterns to emerge, so every experiment should last at least 6 to 12 weeks. Otherwise, it's easy to jump to false conclusions if you expect what you eat and exercise today to show on the scale tomorrow (or even next week).
The online calculators, and even sophisticated lab tests at best, give you a starting point for your experiments, but trying to do all of the math beforehand almost never works, and is often more stressful than helpful.
It really doesn't matter what online calculators say. Everyone's body is different. I cannot eat above 1500-1600 to maintain. Even though every single calulator out there tells me I can eat 2000 to maintain. It just won't happen. I'll gain. The online calculators do not work for me, yet many people on here can eat up to 1600 at my height and weight and still lose. It's trial and error. Also, most people overestimate how much exercise they are getting so when they fill out those online calculator things, they are entering inaccurate info. However, since your doctor's office actually ran tests that determined that number, I would stick with that and use it as a baseline. This calculator I have found to be the most accurate for me:
It really doesn't matter what online calculators say. Everyone's body is different. I cannot eat above 1500-1600 to maintain. Even though every single calulator out there tells me I can eat 2000 to maintain. It just won't happen. I'll gain. The online calculators do not work for me, yet many people on here can eat up to 1600 at my height and weight and still lose. It's trial and error. Also, most people overestimate how much exercise they are getting so when they fill out those online calculator things, they are entering inaccurate info. However, since your doctor's office actually ran tests that determined that number, I would stick with that and use it as a baseline. This calculator I have found to be the most accurate for me:
Thanks for that calculator, Christine. I entered my goal weight (140 lb) as my weight (I always like to see how many calories I can eat to maintain), and I get a BMR of 1358 and my calories needs are 1867. I'm 43 and only 5 ft 3. I put "lightly active" as my activity. You indicated that you can only eat 1600 to maintain and that the above calculator is the most accurate for you. But you're taller than I am, and I would think that means you can eat more according to the calculator. Have you found that it overestimates your calories needed?
Thanks for the help everyone. But I was just mainly wondering about what my doctor was saying. But what i'm doing right now seems to be sufficient, so I guess I will just stick with the plan he has me on
Thanks for that calculator, Christine. I entered my goal weight (140 lb) as my weight (I always like to see how many calories I can eat to maintain), and I get a BMR of 1358 and my calories needs are 1867. I'm 43 and only 5 ft 3. I put "lightly active" as my activity. You indicated that you can only eat 1600 to maintain and that the above calculator is the most accurate for you. But you're taller than I am, and I would think that means you can eat more according to the calculator. Have you found that it overestimates your calories needed?
I actually put sedetary because I have a desk job. The astrik on the bottom says that if you sit most of the day, to underestimate your calories out and select a level below what you normally would. So with all that, It gave me 1714 to maintain 140lbs. This is more accurate than other calculators that tell me to eat 2000 or so to maintain. Maintenance for 125lbs is 1636. When I weighed 130, and exercised 4-5 times a wk for 45mins, that was around the right number. However, I am more comfortable eating a touch less to account for counting errors. I exercise less now and therefore maintenance for me, even at this weight, is really around 1600. At 125, 1600 might be too much. If so, I'll have to readjust my goal weight. Anyway for me, it's off by 100 cals which is darn close to accurate for me! The rest of the calculators were incorrect by at least 200 and more. I would have to make sure I exercised much more than I do now for them to be accurate and I don't want that kind of pressure in maintenance.
Quick question for someone that knows about calorie deficit.
