Am I doing this right.

I started using fat secret on the 10th Jan, and thought I was doing quite well, running well below my RDI except the very first day, my current running total for calories saved is at 2182 to date, I know you have to have a deficit from intake to what is burned up, but if you divide the current total by the 19 days I have been doing this, it gives me a daily deficit of about 115 calories per day.
Is this enough, or does it have to be a lot more, this doesn't seem to be much to me.

Anybody got any advice please.

Thanks, Colin.

Look at your diet calendar and down the right hand side if your caloric deficit (assuming you logged everything in).

As a rule of thump you need a caloric deficit of 3500 to lose a pound of weight.

I don't log exercise if it doesn't increase my heart rate so activites like desk work, driving, standing, etc I don't add as exercise.

For your body weight you look like you're doing fine as is. Don't be discouraged by the slowdown or stall that may happen soon as your excess glycogen stores deplete. 2.2 lbs a week is a healthy, sustainable weight loss. If you want to go into even further deficit, I don't think it will hurt, but beware of setting a non-sustainable restriction.

98% of this is what you put in your mouth. Keep it up and good luck.

And to answer your question 10 to 15% of your total daily expenditure or "maintenance" calories is a good goal.

Thanks for your reply Fred, I have seen the excersise calender and I only enter desk-work because i'm sitting at the computer, driving means I have been out and done a bit of walking, but because of the weather, I haven't been doing any excersise at all.
The other two activities, sleeping and resting are added by the program by default even if you don't enter anything.
Through a bit of research on other similar sites, they quote a deficit of 500 calories to lose any weight, that is why I am asking the question.

That being the case, my daily RDI should be nearer a 1000 cals per day not the the 2400 i'm current working on.

Thanks for your encouragement BgIrn.

Hi Colin, I'd suggest dropping your target RDI to maybe 1,700 KCal but then STICK TO IT. You are coming in way low most days, which can actually hurt your metabolism and thus weight loss.
- click on RDI chart
- click "Calculate my RDI"
- replace the number they calculate with your personal target

I don't believe in manually setting your RDI. Every day when you enter your actual weight go into the Exercise part. The defaults should be for 16 hours resting and 8 hours sleeping. Those two numbers combimed are the total number of calories you need to eat to maintain that body weight.

As you report lower or higher weights that number will change. Let's say you wanted to lose 2 pounds a week. That would (theoretically) require a caloric deficit of 7,000 for the week. I would attempt to beat my caloric requirement by 1000 calories a day. You can accomplish that through a combination of eating less and/or exercising more.

For tomorrow your number is 3,021 (make sure you see what I'm talking about). Whatever your weekly weight loss goals is try to average it out and beat it daily. As your weight goes down that 3,021 number will also go down.

Well I have been plodding on with this, but it is getting a bit frustrating now, because since the 20/01 I have stayed at a constant weight and don't seem to be losing anything even after continuing to have been maintaining a daily deficit of around 2000 cals = x7=14000 cals per week which at sedentary is supposed to yeild a weight loss of l lb for ever 3500 cals, so I should be seeing something 4lb per week downwards, but nothing just seem to be maintaining my current weight, so something isn't right with what i'm doing.
I am not doing any excersise yet, I want to lose a significant amount before I start doing any excersise, but I must be doing something wrong here, but I don't know what.

Do i need to eat more, eat less, my food content is i think quite healthy compared to what i used to eat, although im not dieting as such, i'm eating pretty much anything but in smaller quantities and at the right times.
My RDI calculator tells me for my current status to have 2400 cals per day which I have manually reduced to 2000 per day and that just increases the deficit which was pretty high anyway, Im drinking plenty of water 1x500ml bottle with meals so i'm having enough, but i haven't a clue what to try next.

You really need to exercise. It is harder to exercise with excess weight but in the end it will be worth it. I was in your situation, I MUST exercise at least 3 days a week or I gain a pound. Working out 2-3 days a week (one of these days is with a personal trainer) since Dec. 15th and I've only lost 15 pounds, I still have 30 ponds to go. Take it off in a healthy manner and hopefully it will stay off!! Keep it up don't give up!!!!

Looking at your diet calendar I'm stumped. You are keeping the carbs, calories, and fat in check. I'm a pretty firm believer that if you can cap your net carbs at 100g a day or less you will burn significant belly fat. If you're capable of doing a 30 minute walk I would suggest doing that every other day to start and build up slowly from there.

Just at a quick glance, I have two suggestions.
#1 is that you would eat more as a whole. It seems like those calories are pretty low given your weight, even being sedentary as you mention. Many will argue that having too large of a deficit is not good.
#2 is that you may want to try varying your meal timing. A lot of meals in the last week seem to just have coffee with milk and most of your other calories are consumed at 1-2 meals (not sure if that is what you do or not). It's a big debate whether meal timing matters or not, which I'm not trying to get into, but I definitely think if what you are doing is not working, that is one way to switch it up.
Also... starting with some slow walking is a great suggestion from above.

Yea, I think upping your caloric intake a little would be helpful. Your protein level seems pretty low as well. Try adding more protein (chicken, fish) and natural fats (like those from nuts/seeds, avocados, etc) to your diet. Since you enjoy cooking, try different recipes with natural foods with chicken as a base and go from there. Cooking for yourself makes a HUGE difference. And get your body moving! Build up at your own pace to the point where you get a good sweat.

Thanks for the replies everybody, I have been eating a lot more of oily fish and chicken, but I think I could up my protein with more meat as I used to eat lots of meat every day, so it would probably be ok to introduce a bit more back into my diet.
That's why the Atkins is of no use to me being a high fat type diet, because I had a heart attack 10 years ago and take statins for high cholesterol and therefore is a no go, I eat plenty of fruit, and get nuts form using peanut butter, but only occasionally, I do drink but in the last month I can honestly say not by much lately.
I can see there's no getting away from the fact that having to put some excersise in as a must as well, the problem here in the UK is the bad weather is not much of a motivator to get out and do some.
As soon as the temp here rises a little over freezing point I am going to start some cycling, I have worked out a plan to start gently with a 2 1/2 miler for a week or two, then go up to 5 miles next for a couple of weeks, then a 7 1/2 mile and finally a 10 mile which I could probably do quite easily and keep two to three times a week.
I do motorcycling for a hobby, so I should get my other bike out(the one without an engine) and use it.

Weigh in today and lost a pound,
Right, been spending a couple of hours on google researching other calculators and found that FS calculator is way off with measurements, FS says my RDI should be 2400 cals per day which I reduced to 2000, been maintaining a deficit of over 2000 cals per day but stopped losing weight, I am trying a tweak of new numbers to try and see if that makes a difference and kick start me into losing weight again. I can't change the default figures that FS BMR makes for sleeping and resting which is at 2995, the other calculator says it's more like 2225 BMR. So I have reset my RDI to the new calculator setting of 1550 cals per day, it recommended 1561 cals per day, so my true deficit should be nearer the truth now. Lets see if this helps to kick start me and if it works,

Wait, you've been maintaining a deficit of 2,000 calories per day? I hope not, your body will FREAK OUT and decide it's starving! That's the fastest, surest way there is to go into a weight-loss stall.

Even for a guy with a bit of meat on his bones, 800 calories/day is pretty dang up there. I've heard a general rule of thumb to not consistently go over 1,000/day.

Biggest suggestion I'd make past that: unless you're performing deliberate exercise, don't enter anything past sleeping and resting. No desk work, driving, etc. Those calorie expenditure totals, as you noticed, are notoriously optimistic. Don't double-down on the optimism by adding in other passive activities! When you get out on those walks and bike rides, definitely add those in. Otherwise, leave just the two defaults.

Good luck, sounds like you're really thinking carefuly about your choices - that's the most important part!

Yes Lisa, that's why I looked at the numbers, FS over estimate big style and I have made an adjustment to try and compensate for it.
From another calculator source, I have got some different figures and set my RDI to that, making an entry on the exersise by adding "other" and called it an adjustment, played with the settings to get the RDI for the new number I wanted with sleeping/resting set as default, reduced my calorie intake to 1500.
As you can see today I have been dead on with my intake 99% of RDI and my deficit is now only 741 which seems more realistic.
I think because the FS uses the RDI to do all it's calculations, I'm hoping the adjustment will do the trick, the numbers look more believable now.
I'll give that a whirl for a week or so and see if it changes things.

You might try a sit and fit exercise program it is gentler on your body and may help get your metabolism kick stared. Sometimes walking is hard on the joints maybe alternate a walk day and a sit and fit day. Any exercise is better than no exercise. I don't follow the FS RDI it seems to high for me. I try to keep it down around 1000-1200

When calculating my calories, I found some site that calculate your BMR, which is what you'd need if you didn't exercise at all. I joined the run to get fit challenge here so upped my calories to 1500-1700 per day. 1000 - 1200 is pretty low. Just check in with yourself to determine if you're losing, if you feel tired too much of the time, etc. Be sure you don't go below 1000 calories as your body will go into starvation mode. It's all a balancing act.

Well at the moment i'm still stuck in the plateau of maintaining my current weight, I have changed the FS default BMI number which I know is over estimated, with a lower figure I got from another calculator recommended by other posters on the forums which seemed more realistic and added that to the excersise log as an adjustment to keep it there, I have also reduced my calories per day to 1500 which I must say i have been sticking to religiously, but after a couple of weeks still seem to be no loss.
I have been to see the nurse at my doctors surgery, who is also the dietitian and showed her what I have been doing since I started, I printed everything off so she could see the results, and I have to say she seemed pretty impressed with what I am doing and to not give up but to keep at it, and maybe start some excersise which I have done, started bike riding to begin with, only a couple of miles so far though the weather here is still under freezing point here in the UK so haven't been out again yet, but as soon as it warms up a bit which won't be long now I hope, i'll be back out.

After the nurse said she couldn't give anymore advice to improve what i'm already doing but to carry on regardless and it will come right, I'll just keep plodding on I guess.