Need advice about maintenance & macros levels please?

Charz612

Hi, I'm 31, female, about 5'4 tall and weigh 124kg. I want to lose around 45 - 50kg, I realise that this is a massive goal so I have baby steps of 10kg at a time. I would so love to be at my goal weight by 2 years time, but will see how I go. I have used a number of calculators to do my BMR (1947), TDEE (2333) and Body Fat (47.64%)

I have been doing a heap of reading and have finally decided to reset my MFP calories to my BMR and eat back all my exercise calories. I know it is recommended to do TDEE - 15 OR 20% but 15% is only 38 calories more than my BMR and 20% is less than my BMR, so I figure if I put my calories as my BMR and then eat all my exercise and know it's ok to go a tiny bit over. In reality if the information is correct anything below my TDEE will allow me to lose weight right??

Anyhow, I was just reading some information which says that you should do a maintenance phase every so often to avoid metabolism damage and I wanted to know how often and for how long I should do this????

Also, some time ago a friend recommended the Zone Diet, have you heard of it? What did you think? Although I don't follow the Zone diet, I have set my macros to 40% carbs, 30% Protein and 30% fat as recommended, do other people follow this?

WFBspantran

Good luck with your goals and it is good to see that you set up smaller goals along the way. To answer your question in a basic sense, especially at the start don't get caught up in different thoughts on the metabolism and "this" diet or "that" diet. Just get started. After you start reaching your goals you may notice that you plateau and that is normal. At that point you can re-evalluate your diet and workouts etc. Sometimes I am convinced that we get too caught up in the science of working out and losing weight. The truth is what works for one person may not work for another. See what works for you and stick with it. Over time adapt and feel free to try new things.

Charz612

Thanks WFB