15 or 20% calorie reduction

BAMarsh

I used the scooby calc and came up with my numbers, but how do I decide if I want a 15 or 20% calorie reduction?

A little about me...

I am 5'7" and weight 168-171 (depends on the day and how nice my scale is being), 33 y/o

I put in moderate activity because I do NROL4W three times a week and run 40 minutes two times a week and run 40mins-2 hours one day a week (that's my "long run" depends on what my schedule says because I run half and full marathons, so yes, I DO cardio). I take 1-2 rest days (some days I don't run the 40 minutes if my body says no).

BRM is 1538
TDEE is 2386

So, (a) I do have fat to lose and (b) I am doing heavy lifting.

At this point, does the 5% really make a difference? In other words, is there a specific reason to choose 15 over 20% ??

And if there's a video or thread about this already that I've missed, please do go ahead and direct me there. I've looked, and I've read the EM2WL kit....but there's so much info to weed through that I sometimes miss a thread.


Thanks
Brooke

LioshaM

Check out the EM2WL Youtube videos. but to answer your question, 15% calorie reduction is what the group advocates... 20% calorie reduction creates too much of a deficit.

ANewLucia

^^^^YUP

heybales

Recommendation on your long run day.

You need the calories post run to refill glucose stores to be ready for your next workout.

Eating slightly more every day of the week isn't going to help that situation.

Suggest basing your TDEE level for only 1 hr of that long run, probably still Moderate though, right in the middle instead of rounding up.

And then on the long run, look at total calories burned for it, how many per hr, take 1 hour's worth off, and totally eat the rest back.
So calories for 1 hr already spread throughout the week, but you need more post workout, so you get them that way.

And with that much cardio, 15% better.

Good protein level will help retain muscle.
Resistance training will too.
Reasonable deficit will too.
But long cardio is threat to it, so balance that with less deficit using 15%.

BAMarsh

heybales - I did use the lower time for my long run to help come up with the activity level because I don't do long runs every week, so I did correctly there. I get what you say about the extra calories for longer runs. For the last year I've been doing it the MFP way of eating back all exercise calories (I was on the 1200 calorie diet :hides under chair: and gained back all that weight so I'm trying to do it right this time). SO, I must remember that exercise cals are already factored in on most days (unless I go below my BMR).

THanks - I'll change it to 15%