What you guys think bout calorie debt

[Kalimdos]

So heres a quick rundown, I work for the railway, I am supposed to eat 2830 calories a day however my diet (starts november 12th by the way) will give me a defecit of around 1600 per day. What you guys think too much?

[SunsetRunner]

Generally, you need about 10 Cal./Day for each Lb. that you want to weigh (not what you weigh now).

So, if you are (say) 6 ft., 0 in. and want to weigh 176 Lb., then you need 1,760 Cal./Day plus what you

need for activity (work and exercise). So, if you use 500 Cal. of exercise (about 5 miles of walking at

an exercise pace), then you need about 2,260 Cal./Day. The mistake people make (and Fitbit makes),

is to calculate Calorie needs based on what you weigh (overweigh) now, and that's not at all correct.

With your height and gender, some estimates can be made. Athletic weight for males is about 4 times

height (in inches) less 128 (plus about 10% for non-athletic). Calculator ready - do the numbers.

<Moderator Edit: Format>

[IamRBrown]

I love the way you explained this.  I had never understood the concept of how the calories per day were calculated & this explaination worked wonders!  My LG G3 has LG Health on it & the distance/step count is ususally closer to right than the fitbit - I've adjusted & adjusted the fitbit and just can't get it there.  It picks up movement when I'm not really doing anything more than moving around in my chair!  My smartphone uses GPS to track my distance.  Now I can set up a spreadsheet with calculations & do my own!  No more taking the fitbit calorie budget & subtracting 400-500...

Thank you very much for this post!

[Baltoscott · Accepted solution]

---

@Light_Bulb wrote:

Generally, you need about 10 Cal./Day for each Lb. that you want to weigh (not what you weigh now).

So, if you are (say) 6 ft., 0 in. and want to weigh 176 Lb., then you need 1,760 Cal./Day plus what you

need for activity (work and exercise). So, if you use 500 Cal. of exercise (about 5 miles of walking at

an exercise pace), then you need about 2,260 Cal./Day. The mistake people make (and Fitbit makes),

is to calculate Calorie needs based on what you weigh (overweigh) now, and that's not at all correct.

With your height and gender, some estimates can be made. Athletic weight for males is about 4 times

height (in inches) less 128 (plus about 10% for non-athletic). Calculator ready - do the numbers.

<Moderator Edit: Format>

---

Great post, @SunsetRunner.  Eat the amount you need for what you want to weigh is a great approach because then you don't have to make adjustments once you get there.  You can get used to eating that amount from the beginning and as you close on your goal you are already in maintenance mode.

@Kalimdos -- Welcome to the forums.  A lot of people have had success at losing weight at various times in their lives, but it is so hard to keep it off.  Part of the reason, I think, is that it is easy to get caught up in the game of losing the weight.  A lot of diets start out with a super strict approach for the first few weeks which often leads to dramatic weight loss for that short period.  Depending how heavy you are when you start, it might be 5-10 lbs or more/week -- though much of it is water weight loss.  The diet might then ease up a bit -- let in some of the foods that were restricted at the beginning -- to transition you to your new 'lifestyle.'  The problem is that human nature causes us to want to try and hit those big gains every week.  But that just won't work mathematically because as you get smaller, your body needs fewer calories to maintain weight even if all you do is sit all day.  Often the reaction is to reduce calories even more, which means you never really learn what weight maintenance looks like.  

I'm active, (bike commute most days, and walk a lot) so my approach is to figure out my calorie burn for being "active" at my target weight, and then try to eat that amount when I notice the my weight is creeping up and I need to start tracking the food again.  There  are a lot of calculators on the Internet that you can use to figure this out.  Here is one. In my case, at 5'10", with a target weight of 169 lbs, and an active lifestyle, I can eat about 2,900 cal/day.  

That seems like a lot compared to what most people eat when dieting, but it is really easy to blow past that if you regular eat out or bring home carry out, or snack without thinking about calorie amounts, or go out for drinks etc. etc.  On the other hand, if you eat nutritious foods, with lots of veggies, 2,900 really IS a lot of food.  And since I've got a decent idea of how to do that on a regular basis, I can fairly easily stay within 10-20 lbs of my target over time. (At least when I make most of the food I eat at home!).  

Good luck on your diet!