I've had a slow April in terms of weight loss. I haven't wigged out about that because I started the month out of town for a few days and cheated pretty much every day I was gone. (Calories don't count in Orlando like they do in Oklahoma!)

Anyway, I've lost about 2.5 pounds on the month, as opposed to 5-8 the preceding months, so I've started to pay more attention to various things. One is my caloric intake, not just my carbs. The other is trying to understand my true caloric output, so I can calculate the deficit I need to achieve.

So, here is what FitDay says I use a day, sans any activities:

Calories Burned Today
source cals % total
Total: 3522
Basal: 2429 69%
Lifestyle: 1093 31%
Activities: 0 0%

This is before any exercise. I don't exercise most days other than yardwork and such.

So I've charted my calories rigorously the past few days:

Date.....Calories.....Est. Deficit
4/17.....1603..... - 1919
4/18.....2002..... -1500
4/19.....1437..... -2065
4/20.....1744..... -1758
4/21.....966 (dinner not in that yet, -2563)

The calories are usually in this 1400-1700 range, and get to 2,000 if I have lots of nuts or low carb treats like I did on the 18th. This is a fairly typical spread of days in my menu, so I wouldn't expect it to get out of this range very often. Carbs are typically 25 or fewer.

I realize we see ebbs and flows, and I also realize that FitDay's calculation on basal and lifestyle are probably high. But if they're anything close to correct, a 275 pound guy eating at an average 1,810 calorie deficit should be losing more than .5 pound per week (or less). Even given FitDay's very general estimation of what I'm burning, and assuming it's high, I should be at 1000+ deficit per day, but the net effect appears to be more like a 500 calorie per day deficit, if that.

Is anyone else tracking calorie deficits? What have you seen in terms of maintaining one over time and its effects?