Thread: Need a little help, I'm confused

If one's maintenance is 2500 and you consume 2000 calories and then burn off 500 from cardio, then your deficit is 1000.

However, because it is very difficult to estimate calories burned through cardio, it typically isn't factored into the deficit. Therefore, if one's maintenance is 2500 and that individual consumes 2000 calories as well as doing cardio, it would generally be considered that the individual is on a 500 calorie deficit. The calories from cardio wouldnt be counted, they would just be considered supplementary to the deficit.

Originally Posted by m11

If one's maintenance is 2500 and you consume 2000 calories and then burn off 500 from cardio, then your deficit is 1000.

However, because it is very difficult to estimate calories burned through cardio, it typically isn't factored into the deficit. Therefore, if one's maintenance is 2500 and that individual consumes 2000 calories as well as doing cardio, it would generally be considered that the individual is on a 500 calorie deficit. The calories from cardio wouldnt be counted, they would just be considered supplementary to the deficit.

Couldn't you just add an estimated number of calories, but under-compensate to be safe? If you went for a 30 minute run, at 80% MHR (max heart rate) and you weight 200 lbs I'd guess you burn something like 600-800 calories. You could consume an extra 300, just to make sure your deficit doesn't go too far.

bmr and daily burn are different. bmr is what you would burn with no activity. daily burn is what you will burn on a daily basis with exercise.
imo try to stay between 500 and 800 cal deficit for steady weight loss

Originally Posted by pbzhb

Hi everyone hope all is well. I had a quick question I was confused on, so if you had to eat lets say 2000 calories to cut and your BMR is 2500 you are in a deficit of about 500. Now after reading around on the forum this seems correct however if you are working out and burning lets say 500 calories and only eating about 2000 calories still now we are in a 1000 calorie deficit. So does this mean you should eat 2500 calories to stay in a 500 calorie deficit? Or is your deficit always calculated based on your BMR? Thank you in advance for any input.

well let's figure it out.
height?
weight?
age?
lifestyle (how many days of exercise?)

Originally Posted by pbzhb

Hi everyone hope all is well. I had a quick question I was confused on, so if you had to eat lets say 2000 calories to cut and your BMR is 2500 you are in a deficit of about 500.

Your BMR is the number of calories you must consume to do nothing but lie awake while breathing. This is NOT the same as "maintenance", which is, I think, what you mean. That is to say, the number of calories you must consume at a given activity level to neither gain nor lose weight.

If your maintenance is 2500 at your current activity level, then you can just ignore the activity level in any calculations since they are already accounted for.

You wish to lose weight? Eat less than 2500.

Originally Posted by pbzhb

Now after reading around on the forum this seems correct however if you are working out and burning lets say 500 calories and only eating about 2000 calories still now we are in a 1000 calorie deficit. So does this mean you should eat 2500 calories to stay in a 500 calorie deficit? Or is your deficit always calculated based on your BMR? Thank you in advance for any input.

Track your weight.
Track your calorie intake.
Ignore the deficit due to exercise.

Once you know maintenance, eat less and you'll lose.

Originally Posted by pbzhb

Hi everyone hope all is well. I had a quick question I was confused on, so if you had to eat lets say 2000 calories to cut and your BMR is 2500 you are in a deficit of about 500. Now after reading around on the forum this seems correct however if you are working out and burning lets say 500 calories and only eating about 2000 calories still now we are in a 1000 calorie deficit. So does this mean you should eat 2500 calories to stay in a 500 calorie deficit? Or is your deficit always calculated based on your BMR? Thank you in advance for any input.

I need advise on how to start my diet if i am planning on comteting any advise out there?

Yep.

Need a little help, I'm confused

Thanks for all the feedback. Whats the best way to figure out maintenance? Just eat and count calories for a few days and see if my weight stays the same?

Track your intake for a few "typical" days and take the average. That will be as good an estimate as any.

Thanks Built, appreciate all your help, thus far I have lost 50 pounds due to your advice and of course everyone else thank you as well.

<falls over dead>

Seriously? pbzhb - that's fan-freaking-TASTIC!

Over how long of a period, and what was your average intake over this time?

Took me about a year started at 257 dropped to about 210-213 right now ( fluctuate). I haven't worked out in about 5 months now due to a shoulder injury so I am getting back into it. To be honest I read all about the dieting and stuff and I thought to myself let me start moving first and just eating cleaner before i start counting so I began this. Mon-Fri I would strictly diet and saturday sunday I cheated a bit as well as went to the bar to hang out. (I was in college still at this point). Now I want to clean up because I began to plateau when I was doing this that is why I am trying to figure out best way to count and cut calories now.

Pretend nobody's watching and fitday everything you put in your mouth for a few days. Average that and post up the numbers. We'll have a look-see.

Ok will do and can I workout while tracking this or no thats not a good idea?

Yep, workout as usual. I generally recommend people pretend working out doesn't burn anything anyway. You're already trianing; it's a sunk cost.

Sounds good should have something up by end of the week.