Deficit through exercise instead of food?

SweetHarmony81

Hi all,

I am in the middle of my reset and doing ok (with my ups and downs!). I am just wondering the following. When I eventually finish with my reset and moving to a cut, what about increasing my daily activity a little bit instead of cutting calories?
So, what if I am able to go for a brisk 20min walk most days and just drop my daily calories by 100-150. That should create a daily 250-300 cal deficit which should lead to 0.5kg/week. Would that still work?

I know that the body adapts to increased activity after a while, but I don't plan to stay on a cut for long. I want to loose around 10-12lbs...

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

heybales

It is a valid way of doing it.

Usually the reason why you look at just cutting out food, is because the exercise doesn't burn that much compared to how easy it is to eat it back.

Drop 500 calories from food in a day, or exercise almost an hour every single day?

So you could estimate your maintenance TDEE with no exercise, eat that with no deficit, and then just exercise.

Usually in studies the exercise only approach fails in the long run, but that's because the people never monitor their food intake. You can never out-exercise a bad diet.

SweetHarmony81

Thanks for that! Totally agree that you can never out-exercise a bad diet. But I'm always logging and eating healthy, it's just that I was such a chronic under-eater that I really don't want to drop again!

I'm also very sedentary, so I don't want to drop below my BMR in order to loose, even after the reset is done. My BMR is around 1550, TDEE without workouts is 1780. I do strength train 3 days/week and on those days I aim for 2100, then 1800 on others. If I were to cut calories, then I would need to do something like 1500/1800 but I don't want to go to low esp on rest days.

I also have the "luxury" of working from home, so I will be able to add in some daily light walking, around 20min. I'm thinking more of a 300 cal daily deficit for start, which will lead in a slower cut but I'm fine with that as long as I loose something :-)

ANewLucia

Creating a deficit is key. Keep your calories and increase like you said your activist by 200 calories a day. You will lose, just at a slower rate, which is okay. I've read research showing deficits of 300 or less have better long term success.

Gapwedge01

nm

SweetHarmony81

Thanks a lot for the reply!
I'll try that then after I finish my reset. Sounds better than having to reduce my calories, especially after all the effort to eat more (I still struggle to hit 2000cal/day)!!