Calories in vs out

[jovigirl]

As long as I eat less calories than what I burn is that correct to lose weight? Or do I really need to eat 1413 calories per day? Also I have noticed the calories seem to change if I am more active during the day so do I need to eat that many calories?

Thanks.

[JenniLacey · Accepted solution]

That's it! Eat less than you burn total. -500 cals per day will give you a 1 lb/week loss, -1000 cals for a 2 lbs/week loss. So if you burn on average around 2000 cals/day and you eat 1500 cals it should equal out to 1 lb/week loss. You can change how aggressive you set your goal in you Food Log. If you're already around your healthy weight, a slower weight loss should be expected. 1-2 lbs is typically what someone in their overweight/obese BMI should expect to lose. 

If you're having trouble only eating 1400 cals, don't be afraid to eat a little more. You'll still lose weight, it may just be a bit slower. It changes because how many calories you burn per day changes. You can either choose to eat more on your more active days and less on less active days or eat around the same everday, it really doesn't matter as long as you're creating that deficit from your total calories burned.

[Stay40]

I am glad I found this thread. I am in the obese category so my fitbit says I need to eat around 2200+ calories and since I walk min 5 miles a day it adds more calories that  I can eat but it seems like way to much calorie intake.  What do you think?

[TrailmixHawkeye]

Can someone explain this chart that is apart of the weekly progress report?

If I read this I am thinking that I am over my -7000 by 2927.  Is that correct?

CALORIES IN VS OUT +2927

WEEKLY TOTAL 20067 cals burned 15994 cals eaten -7000 plan deficit

[MrPete]

---

@TrailmixHawkeye wrote:

Can someone explain this chart that is apart of the weekly progress report?

If I read this I am thinking that I am over my -7000 by 2927.  Is that correct?

CALORIES IN VS OUT +2927

WEEKLY TOTAL 20067 cals burned 15994 cals eaten -7000 plan deficit

---

That is correct.  You planned on eating 7000 calories less than your burn to have a weight loss of 2 lbs.  You ended up eating 4073 calories less than you burned (2927 short of the 7000 plan). 

[Hats26]

Oh I see... So we should not be getting upset by the green zone on the calarolie in/outs? I tend to eat more after a certain amount of exercise so that I am eating enough calories, however I then log it it and it says I've eaten too much but had a deficit of -500. I did more than 20K steps today and that involved 75 minutes of active minutes (running/walking). I'd like to feel more confident about making sure I am doing the right thing calorie wise but at the same time I don't want to worry about my meals/cause issues around it. 

[breadman7233]

2200 cal is way to much i think if your trying to lose weight i was 215, down to 180 now i burn about 3500 cals a day, and im only taking in around 1400 and that is with  daily 3 mile runs. Im by far no expert but if you want to lose 2200 is not the way to do it, I would recomend myfitness pal and link it to fitbit and go with what it tells you to burn, log everything

[Heybales]

---

@breadman7233 wrote:

2200 cal is way to much i think if your trying to lose weight i was 215, down to 180 now i burn about 3500 cals a day, and im only taking in around 1400 and that is with  daily 3 mile runs. Im by far no expert but if you want to lose 2200 is not the way to do it, I would recomend myfitness pal and link it to fitbit and go with what it tells you to burn, log everything

---

How do you know how much they burn daily?

That size, walking 5 miles a day and other daily activity, could easly make a daily burn of 3200 calories.

3200 - 1000 deficit is .... 2200.

And that's reasonable. Not need to start with bare minimum, you merely must eat less than you burn, which guess what, Fitbit is giving a great estimate of for daily activity and step-based activity.

Besides - did you know Fitbit is doing exactly what MFP is doing - just without as nice a food database.

The math is done a tad difference, but if you have Fitbit correcting MFP with actual numbers - guess where the math is going to end up - the same.

[DavidSpann]

So the fitbit is accounting for my normal calories burned. Example: I usually eat around 1200-1400 calories per day, my Fitbit says I'm burning between 3900-4500, depending on my excercise level. I have been doing this for a month now, haven't lost that much weight. I average about 15,000 steps a day and have been walking every day. I'm a large guy so any direction on the math would be helpful. 

[Heybales]

---

@DavidSpann wrote:

So the fitbit is accounting for my normal calories burned. Example: I usually eat around 1200-1400 calories per day, my Fitbit says I'm burning between 3900-4500, depending on my excercise level. I have been doing this for a month now, haven't lost that much weight. I average about 15,000 steps a day and have been walking every day. I'm a large guy so any direction on the math would be helpful. 

---

You don't mention if physical job on your feet or getting out walking a lot.

But 3900-4500 could be realistic if you weigh a lot.

But eating the bare minimum recommended for a sedentary woman (1200) is not realistic.

Just because you can accomplish it doesn't mean it should be attempted.

If your intent is to see how much you can stress your body out with taking greater than a 50% deficit, I think you are accomplishing it - and reaping the effects of that stress.

So either your logging of food is not accurate, actually it would need to be terribly dishonest and you are wiping out that potentially huge deficit by eating much more than you do, or you manually log a lot of exercise and are using terribly inflated calorie burns.

So to test if you are eating more than you think - do you log by weight everything that goes in your mouth, except liquids are by volume?

Do you manually log any exercise, if so based on calorie burn from what?

And what types of exercise do you do?

Or the Fitbit is badly estimating your calorie burn because your stride length stat is really off, or it's seeing extra steps where there are none.

Have you done a treadmill test and confirmed the Fitbit sees the distance within 5% of what was done?

Have you reviewed your daily graph of steps per 5 min increments to confirm you don't have bogus steps?

Just some thoughts on what you can do to your body, and how to confirm if you really are.

If you really are - eat more. Follow the 1000 cal deficit if truly over 60 lbs to lose, and MEET your eating goal, don't vastly miss it.