Making a caloric deficit

[Shadow Conception]

I always thought caloric deficit was burning more calories than you've eaten. I also always thought I was wrong. After looking it up, to my horror, I was right.

So, I probably eat ~2500 calories a day. In this current state, I'd have to burn more than 2500 calories a day to maintain a deficit?

Take that I lower that to even ~1800 calories a day. I still have to burn at least 1800 calories a day. That's insane. I ride an exercise bike for 20-30 minutes and burn around 150 calories. I do this 3-4 times a week. I seriously cannot imagine burning 10x that in one day, 4 days a week.

How does this happen? How the heck do people sustain caloric deficits? How do you burn 2000+ calories in a day with an exercise bike? I also have access to the weight room at my school, but I don't really go there often.

Also, just by doing this (eating 2500 calories, burning 150 calories), will I see any improvement in... anything? Previously, my lifestyle was pretty much completely sedentary minus the walking to get to a friend's house or school (~1 mile roundtrip).

 

[gramboh]

You realize that the human body burns calories for energy even in a sleeping state right? There are guidelines based on age, weight etc. to calculate what your resting 'burn rate' would be, then you can add exercise on top. The reality is that you have to experiment and track your intake/activity since it will vary by individual.

 

[brikis98]

The human body takes a ton of energy just keeping you alive, even while you're at rest. Thinking, moving, breathing, digesting, etc ALL burn calories. Every person has a "resting metabolic rate", which is the number of calories you burn by merely existing. This will depend on genetics, weight, body composition, age, and diet. However, the typical ~175lb male will burn in the ballpark of 2000 calories per day without any additional exercise. Exercise will add to this total, so getting into a calorie deficit isn't nearly as hard as you think. However, maintaining that deficit over the long term is the tricky part.

 

[Deeko]

Look up your BMR - that's the rough amount of calories you burn just being alive.

I personally have a BMR of about 1700 calories. Factor in the activities of my work day + time at the gym, I easily burn between 2500-3500 calories in a day.

 

[Shadow Conception]

Oh. I never knew about this...

That makes things seem a bit less stressful. A basic BMR calculator struck me at 1766 calories. That's not too bad, I guess I could cut down a bit on the food and realistically exercise to lose weight.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: Shadow Conception
Oh. I never knew about this...

That makes things seem a bit less stressful. A basic BMR calculator struck me at 1766 calories. That's not too bad, I guess I could cut down a bit on the food and realistically exercise to lose weight.

Just remember that these calculators give a very rough estimate. As I said before, the real value of the BMR will vary with genetics, age, body composition, and even day to day factors, such as your mood, what you ate, and so on. As discussed in fat loss sticky, use the BMR from the calculator as a starting point, track your diet and exercise on fitday.com or thedailyplate.com and weigh yourself weekly to see the results. If your weight is going in the proper direction at the proper rate, your estimates are probably pretty accurate. If not, keep tweaking them until you get the results you want.