Eating and weight loss (calorie budget)

[SunsetRunner]

I have started on an exercise regimen to lose weight.  I have lost about 11 pounds already due to diet changes and starting to exercise regularly.  However, things are starting to slow down a bit.  I have read quite a bit of information regarding reducing calorie intake and using the fitbit app's 'budget' feature to manage the appropriate calories I should be reducing my intake by.  From my plan, it says that I should reduce my intake by about 750 calories daily to lose weight at a rate that I am comfortable with.  Right now, when I look at the dashboard, I see that I expended 2,420 calories and I consumed 1,381 calories.  Below that, it says that I have 875 calories left.  A couple of questions:

1) If I eat less than the 'budget' allows me - will I put my body in a mode that will be counterproductive to my goals? An example was yesterday: I ate 1,077 calories and expended 3,693 calories.

2) Should I try to keep pace with the budget that shows up.  For yesterday, the food log indicates that I ate 1,077 calories out of 2,943 calories and that I was under my budget.  I see that 3,693 - 750 is 2,943.  So, I'm assuming that if I was going to be on track, I should have consumed 2,943 calories and not the 1,077 that I did.

3) A typical day looks like this:

  Daily Calorie Composition: 54% from carbs, 24% from fat and 22% from protein.

I'm trying to keep close to a 50% carb, 30% fat and 20% protein diet.  Is there another ratio that works better for weight loss?  Note: most of my carbs come from vegetables, fruit and whole wheat grains.

Thanks for your help!

[too_spicy · Accepted solution]

Hi Mike, and welcome to the community!

The fitbit app and all of the information it gives as far as calorie budgeting is yours to use how you please. If you'd like to push your budget a little bit more than 750 calories, you can. But with the amount of calories you're consuming, you're probably putting a bit too much stress on your body, which is indeed counterproductive. If you look at this handy dandy chart from the USDA, it gives you a good idea of the average amount of calories you should be eating, if you are in fact close to the average person of that category. You'll notice that the appropriate caloric intake for the average sedentary three-year-old male is approximately equal to what you consumed yesterday. 

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe you're three years old. Your body needs calories just to function, and depriving your body by THAT much is going to start slowing down its function, making it much harder for you to lose weight. More importantly, if you ever happen to fall off the bandwagon, all of the weight is going to come back very very quickly. I don't know if the sub-1500-cals/day thing is routine for you since you started your weight loss, but it could very well be the reason its stalled out. Your body is trying REALLY REALLY hard to hold on to the nutrients you're putting into it, resulting in your little plateau there.

At this juncture, fitbit is simply recommending that you consume your caloric expenditure less 750 calories. You are correct in assuming that you should be eating however many calories you have left for the day to maintain the rate of weight loss that you said you wanted. But like I said, you can eat more or less than that depending on what you feel comfortable with. 

As far as your macros go, they look fine. If you're lifting weights for exercise, you could probably up your protein to 25 or 30 percent and still be good. If you're doing more cardio, carbs are your friends (especially the nice ones that you say you've been eating). 

Good luck to you!

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you for your detailed reply!  I've been tuckering out more lately and the extra food will most likely help out a lot.  I'll increase the protein a bit because I'm doing some interval training with weights as well as cardio.

Take care!

[Dominique]

One popular approach (that makes sense to me) is to start from proteins, in absolute terms: you need xx grams of proteins per lb/kg of body weight (what is the "right" value for xx is where opinions differ); the rationale is that proteins are necessary to preserve muscle mass (when eating at a deficit) or to gain new muscle mass (when eatring at a surplus); plus proteins tend to give satiety, so eating them will make you less hungry. Then, there are fats, a certain amount of which you need for hormone balance etc. Everything else can be carbs, even "bad" ones, if there’s room for them. I personally only count (or rather guestimate) proteins: I aim at 100-120 grams per day (I’m about 66 kg). I don’t count fats and carbs, but rather use the (Fitbit) scale (every morning) to make sure things don’t get out of hands. I also check calories burned on my Surge: I know I have more room on a 3500 calories day than on a 2000 calories day (my expenditure level tend to vary quite a lot on a daily basis, though not that much on a weekly basis).