Cals under budget vs met goal

[SudeepMohanty]

I bought my charge hr last week and I am using it for 5 days now. I set a goal for myself to lose 30 pounds witha 'kinds hard' setting which adviced me to keep a deficit of 750 cals per day.

Here are my deficits for the last 5 days:

1587

1572

1486

1379

1530

I know the deficit is too huge considering my target of 750 cals per day. I have kept a tight check on the food I eat and have cut down on a lot of fatty foods which were regular for me on a day-today basic.

What I want to know from others here is that - Is it a good idea to keep your cals intake under budget or should one strive to meet the goal? I know eat less cals will make me tired and lethargic sooner but the past 5 days have been great and I have worked out more in these 5 days as compared to what I did over the past year!

I would like to know your experiences with weight loss with respect to cals deficit per day?

[Trooper]

I am keep  a deficit of about 500 to 750 or more a day. But when I started with Fitbit back in December 2014,I didn't have such a drastic deficit. Rather,I slowly started lowering how much I ate over several months. From 1800 to 1700 to 1600 and so on. Doing this slowly allowed my body the  to time to get  adjusted. Today, I mostly stay around 1200 a day. Sometimes I eat about 1000. I get full faster now,  and I can't eat anything that is too big or greasy or too sweet.  I walk about  3 miles a day now. That causes me to run out of gas sometimes. Sometimes you just get tired really quick. When that happens you can bump up your numbers by eating something healthy. That usually works for me . It takes time to get used to it.  I can assure you that you are going to be hungry alot!!But in the long run, you will eat less and get full faster because your stomach will get smaller. But I would not recommend doing this if you have health issues like diabetes or other problems. This is extreme, and really is not healthy for weight loss. 

[SudeepMohanty]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I understand that this is not healthy. There are 2 reasons why I did not feel much of a change after going for a drastic deficit:

1. I currently don't have any health problems that I know off (touch wood!). I guess my body is responding well with the lowerin in diet.

2. I'm still skeptical about the calories burnt as shown by my fitbit. When it shows me that I burnt 3000 cals in the day, should I trust the device completely or is there a tolerence level regarding the calories that it shows?

[Raviv · Accepted solution]

Keep in mind that your body burns calories even when you are sleeping.  So the amount of calories burned throughout the course of the day is comprised of your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate - the calories you burn even if you're Rip VanWinkle) and your activity (walking to your car, going for a run, lifting weights).

If you have 30 pounds to lose, then a 750 calorie deficit isn't totally unreasonable.  Just make sure you're adding in calories on days that you do exercise, and that you consider lowering the deficit to 500 if 750 stops working after you've been making progress.

A 1500 calorie deficit at your weight?  Likely not going to help you in the long run.  You won't have the fuel to add on any muscle, and your body is eventually going to start slowing down processes in an effort to save energy.  And you don't want that.

[Trooper]

I trust it. I started out in December and I follow it every day. My pant size went from about a 46 to a 36 as of today. My shirt sizes of Large are getting big, and soon I will be wearing a medium size. 86 pounds lost so far, thanks to Fitbit. 15 more to go!!