New here, what does this mean?

[carmenl12]

Goal Current
Calories You Burn 3521 3507
Calories to Eliminate 731 657
Calories to Eat 2790 2849

I don't understand what this ^ means. I burn 3507 already but need to still burn 657 more? Also according to this I have to eat 2849 calories, how can I eat that much and still lose weight?

[cjohnson728]

Hi there, welcome to FitDay!

If you subtract the second number from the first number, it gives you the third number. What this is saying, essentially, is that the second number is how much of a calorie deficit you have to have in order to lose what you want to lose in the time period you specified when you set your goal. So no, you don't need to burn 657 more.

According to the math, in theory, you can eat that much and still lose, because you are burning more than you eat. However, you will probably have better success if you eat fewer calories than that. Try some different calories counts and see what is best for you in terms of keeping you not too hungry but also enabling you to lose at a fairly steady rate.

Please feel free to jump into any of the forums and get to know us. If you have any other questions, just holler!

[carmenl12]

Ok. I still don't get what calorie deficit is though.

[cjohnson728]

Calorie deficit is the difference between what you burn and what you eat (burned minus eaten). If you eat more than you burn, it's a calorie surplus.

It takes about 3500 extra calories burned to lose a pound. So, if you want to lose a pound a week, you will have to burn 500 more calories a day (500 cals a day X 7 days) than you eat.

If you burn 1000 calories more a day than you eat (you will have a calorie deficit of 1000, then), you should lose about two pounds per week.

So if you burn 2300 calories and eat 1800, you will have a calorie deficit of 500 and that should be good for about a pound a week, though it's never that exact in practice.

Hope this helped!

[carmenl12]

Ohh ok now I get it, thanks!