when to decrease the TDEE deficit -20%, -15%, -10% ?

v0ss3
v0ss3 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello! ive been losing steadily, with some plateaus, for the past year (down 55 :) ) and still have about 40 to go. After basically getting nowhere the past 2 months (plateau despite working out 6 days a week and eating at TDEE -20%) i took a two week break and ate at maintenance. Did the trick! i lost 2lbs in the end. Amazing. and now that im going back to eating at a deficit im wondering do i go back to eating at -20% or do i lower it a little bit to -15%?

Replies

  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Congratulations on your success! Thank you for sharing this.
  • ittybittybadonkadonk
    ittybittybadonkadonk Posts: 11,634 Member
    Its a trial an error ...if it was me I would go back to 20% for a month or two and then change if need be ....best of luck
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    Assuming you felt fine at your calorie intake levels I would return to the intake you were on before going on your diet break. Monitor results over ~2 weeks and adjust as necessary based on rate of change in weight.

    So for an example if you were eating 1500 calories on average before the diet break, go back to 1500, give it a couple of weeks. If you are not losing make a reduction.

    Rather than thinking of things in terms of "% of TDEE" I think you're better off looking at "What is my current intake and what are my results" and make an adjustment based on your data.

    The reason I'm mentioning this is that the TDEE formula can be great to get you a starting point but once you have accurate data (assuming you log accurately) and you have results (your change in weight) you can use those to tell you what to do and they will tell you more accurate information than a formula ever will.

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