How large should my deficit be?

anask4

Hey everyone. I just joined this group and it seems like it is a great place for reliable advice. I am a 19 year old male, 5'6", 136 lbs. My starting weight (last year) was 189. Currently, I really need to lower my body fat and maintain and build muscle. I would describe myself as "skinny fat" with 15.1 % body fat (according to the navy method) and little muscle mass. It seems all of the fat I have left is on my lower back and lower abdomen/stomach. The rest of me is pretty lean. I workout 4 days a week. This includes 10 min of cardio followed by an hour long lifting session. I am following the Stronglifts 5x5 program and add additional workouts each day. There is a spread sheet in the "Eat More to Weigh Less" group, that calculates TDEE based on body fat. According to that, my TDEE is about 2100 calories. With a 20% deficit, my daily calorie goal is set at 1700. I have a weekly cheat day but I bank calories throughout the week in preparation to ensure that I dont exceed my weekly goal. Six days out of the week I eat about 1400-1600 calories a day and about 2,500 calories on cheat day. I just finished up school and dont get much activity on week days other than going to the gym (I am looking for a summer job so hopefully I will be a lot more active).

I really want to get my body fat to around 10-12% so I can start bulking to add muscle mass. How much of a deficit should I eat at and also does my TDEE of 2100 seem accurate?
I know this post is a bit all over the place and rushed so I apologize in advance!

SideSteel

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baptiste565

Bro. U have lost 50 plus lbs dieting for a yr.that is great. Have u thought about lowering g ur bf% by just increasing ur muscle mass.

anask4

Bro. U have lost 50 plus lbs dieting for a yr.that is great. Have u thought about lowering g ur bf% by just increasing ur muscle mass.

Well I definitely want to bulk to add muscle mass but i figured that I should get my body fat down first. I actually posted pictures on the last page of the "body fat estimation part 2" thread if you want to check them out. If I bulk now I think I may end up with too much body fat

JeffseekingV

IMHO one should never wait to start lifting. If you diet w/o lifting you are most definitely going to be losing muscle mass along with everything else. So "waiting" for a bodyfat % before lifting is actually a step backwards. Once you decide to lift and gain mass, you're going to have to up your calorie count and accept a little bit of fat gain again.

Might as well lift now and not ice skate uphill in regards of trying to gain back the muscle you lost during your diet

If you had asked me at the beginning of your journey, I would have suggested lifting free weights right from the get go.

anask4

That is exactly where I went wrong. At first, I was totally focused on cardio, I used to run 90 min on the treadmill a day, 3-5 days a week with no lifting and improper nutrition and protein intake. However, over the last 4-5 months, I started tracking my macros properly and have been lifting heavy with less cardio for the past month. I figured that if I ate at a deficit while lifting I would maintain muscle mass and drop body fat, but I am not sure how large that deficit should be or even if Im doing the right thing.

JeffseekingV

I'm 5'7" 46 years old, 170lbs and probably sitting aro 18%. I try to eat a very slight deficit at 0.5lbs a week. But I'm basically eating at maintenance as my weight has been flat for a year.

Considering you're already very light, I'd keep the deficit as small as possible. Eating at maintenance or maybe 5-10% over might not be a bad idea.

SideSteel

Hey everyone. I just joined this group and it seems like it is a great place for reliable advice. I am a 19 year old male, 5'6", 136 lbs. My starting weight (last year) was 189. Currently, I really need to lower my body fat and maintain and build muscle. I would describe myself as "skinny fat" with 15.1 % body fat (according to the navy method) and little muscle mass. It seems all of the fat I have left is on my lower back and lower abdomen/stomach. The rest of me is pretty lean. I workout 4 days a week. This includes 10 min of cardio followed by an hour long lifting session. I am following the Stronglifts 5x5 program and add additional workouts each day. There is a spread sheet in the "Eat More to Weigh Less" group, that calculates TDEE based on body fat. According to that, my TDEE is about 2100 calories. With a 20% deficit, my daily calorie goal is set at 1700. I have a weekly cheat day but I bank calories throughout the week in preparation to ensure that I dont exceed my weekly goal. Six days out of the week I eat about 1400-1600 calories a day and about 2,500 calories on cheat day. I just finished up school and dont get much activity on week days other than going to the gym (I am looking for a summer job so hopefully I will be a lot more active).

I really want to get my body fat to around 10-12% so I can start bulking to add muscle mass. How much of a deficit should I eat at and also does my TDEE of 2100 seem accurate?
I know this post is a bit all over the place and rushed so I apologize in advance!

20% under TDEE is a good place to start if your goal is to cut further. Whether or not that's the right goal could potentially be debatable but assuming that's what you want to do, then TDEE - 20% should be a reasonable starting place.

2100 doesn't seem outside the realm of reasonable for your stats but that depends largely on activity.

The best thing you could do would be to track intake very accurately, monitor rate of change in weight, and adjust intake based on that.

Finally, you may want to consider posting in our bodyfat estimation thread for a second opinion.

anask4

Hey everyone. I just joined this group and it seems like it is a great place for reliable advice. I am a 19 year old male, 5'6", 136 lbs. My starting weight (last year) was 189. Currently, I really need to lower my body fat and maintain and build muscle. I would describe myself as "skinny fat" with 15.1 % body fat (according to the navy method) and little muscle mass. It seems all of the fat I have left is on my lower back and lower abdomen/stomach. The rest of me is pretty lean. I workout 4 days a week. This includes 10 min of cardio followed by an hour long lifting session. I am following the Stronglifts 5x5 program and add additional workouts each day. There is a spread sheet in the "Eat More to Weigh Less" group, that calculates TDEE based on body fat. According to that, my TDEE is about 2100 calories. With a 20% deficit, my daily calorie goal is set at 1700. I have a weekly cheat day but I bank calories throughout the week in preparation to ensure that I dont exceed my weekly goal. Six days out of the week I eat about 1400-1600 calories a day and about 2,500 calories on cheat day. I just finished up school and dont get much activity on week days other than going to the gym (I am looking for a summer job so hopefully I will be a lot more active).

I really want to get my body fat to around 10-12% so I can start bulking to add muscle mass. How much of a deficit should I eat at and also does my TDEE of 2100 seem accurate?
I know this post is a bit all over the place and rushed so I apologize in advance!

20% under TDEE is a good place to start if your goal is to cut further. Whether or not that's the right goal could potentially be debatable but assuming that's what you want to do, then TDEE - 20% should be a reasonable starting place.

2100 doesn't seem outside the realm of reasonable for your stats but that depends largely on activity.

The best thing you could do would be to track intake very accurately, monitor rate of change in weight, and adjust intake based on that.

Finally, you may want to consider posting in our bodyfat estimation thread for a second opinion.

I have posted in the body fat estimation thread (part 2). I am on the last page, second from last person to post, please take a look if/when u get a chance