Calories Deficit

[Disneygirl82]

Hello, I have the fitbit versa and using an ios app. I'm struggling to understand how many calories I should have in a day. In the plan intensity I've chosen the harder option as I want to lose at least 2 pounds a week. It says my calorie deficit is 1000 calories so does this mean I need to eat 1000 calories a day and burn double that to stay in the zone? Any help would be gratefully appreciated as I'm not really understanding the calories in and out section and how many calories I should have in a day to achieve this 2 pound a week weight lose. Thank you in advance for any help.

[Rich_Laue]

Hello @Disneygirl82 I've gone ahead and moved your weight related question to the Weight Management Lifestyle Board.  

[Dominique]

The deficit is the difference between your dietary intake (caloric value of what you eat and drink) and your total energy expenditure (calories you burned during the day by being alive and active). The assumption is you need a cumulative deficit of 3500 calories in order to lose one pound. Therefore a weight loss of 1 pound per week implies an average daily deficit of 500 calories  and a weight loss of 2 pounds a daily deficit of 1000 calories.

You can achieve a daily deficit of 1000 calories by eating 500 and burning 1500, eating 1000 and burning 2000, eating 1500 and burning 2500 or any other combination. Of course, eating 500 is probably unrealistically low and burning 2500 may be unrealistically high (for instance, if you are a petite woman with a deskjob). You want to settle for a deficit that is sustainable (crash diets usually fail).