Why do you need big calorie deficit to lose?

[Oliver1]

Hi there. I'm confused as to how weight loss works...
Imagine I would need 2000 cals a day to maintain a healthy weight for my height (probably roughly right). And that over the years I became obese due to often eating more than this and not exercising enough.
It seems to me that my too-heavy body should need more than 2000cals a day to maintain its size because carrying around the extra weight burns more calories than if I was slim?
So why do I not seem to lose weight by eating a "sensible" diet of around 2000, but in fact seem to need to eat about 1200?

 

[Trusylver]

Estimating almost never works, While a massive cut in calories is not needed it does need to be calculated on your personal needs, there are a lot of calculators online to do this, then you modify your intake from there, because while doing the calculations is good, everybody had a different metabolism.

the second part of the equation is tracking, If you are only estimating your intake, almost everybody under estimates how much they are consuming, especially portion sizes and those little things that get consumed and forgotten.

 

[Oliver1]

Thanks yes I guess I could be underestimating. But it's still true isn't it that to lose weight you normally have to eat less than you need to eat to maintain a desirable weight? But it seems to make more logical sense that eating what's needed to maintain your desired weight should be all that's needed? :-/

 

[Trusylver]

yes you need to eat less, just not massively less