500 calorie deficit?

Anyone know if it is true:
500 callorie deficit a day each day of the week is key to weight loss?

It is a temporary weight loss fix but as far as long term its pointless. Anything under a 1200 calories as far as dieting is unhealthy. Hope this helps.

If you're asking about eating 500 calories a day, the answer is hell no. That's not healthy. If you're talking about a 500 calorie a day deficit then yes, that's 1 pound a week lost for most people. You shouldn't drop below 1200 calories a day for your intake or your giving up vital nutrients for your body.

Two years ago I ate 1500 cals per day and burned 2500--achieving that by combining BMR with readings from BodyBugg. It's twice what you're trying, but I lost 2 pounds per week for 15 weeks. It really computes, but you really have to be dedicated!

You can start with the calculator for suggested daily calories. After a week or two adjust your calories up or down according to you weight loss. I have to eat a little less than the calculator suggests for me. But generally a 500 calorie deficit per day will give a pound per week weight loss. Also, that can also be accomplished by some combination of increased activity and decreased calories.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say NO.

If you create a deficit but eat junk, you're not doing yourself any favors.

The key to weight loss is:

Creating a caloric deficit
Excercise
Good nutrition

If you excercise, you create a deficit in calories based on what you've done, but you also continue to burn calories after the workout so it builds on itself.

Good nutrition will help with your immune system so that you are healthy, will help with your feelings of being full, will help with inflammation, will help to clean out any toxic stuff in your body, will help prevent constipation, etc.

Ok I'd like to say that the deficit is the key to weight loss. This is all math when it completely boils down to the bare bones. A man went on a Twinkie/junk food diet and lost 30lbs (something like that) by sticking to 1800 calories a day.

That being said, he was very weak and unhealthy. Calorie deficits are what make you lose weight, but healthy food is what makes your body feel good. Cardio and strength training make your body healthier. You can in fact lose weight just by looking at calories, but what's the point of being skinny and unhealthy?

I use the calculator and subtract 500 calories as well to get to a 1000 calorie a day deficit or two pounds a week. This is a good goal to set because anything more lost is tough to sustain and in certain instances can be unhealthy like others are saying. If you find yourself cutting to many calories you're body will go into starvation mode and start eating good things like muscle which are heavier but are good for your body and burn more calories than fat.

Just my two cents.

The 500kcal/day figure is based on simple math. 1 lb is equivalent to 3500kcal. If you have a calorie deficit you lose weight. A deficit of 500kcal a day comes to a weekly deficit of 3500kcal- or 1 lb/ week. (BTW, I didn't know this until recently and the "calories" in nutrition information is actually kilocalories-kcal.) So if you track your caloric intake and consistently have a 500cal deficit each day, you should lose a pound a week.