Some people seem to have NO problem eating a deficit and making pretty great strength gains. Some people (me) do not do well like that at ALL. I'm eating 2100 consistently right now - target protein 130g (although lately I'm not good about it). Still experimenting to see how that works for me. 1800-1900 was major major gym suffering for me, terrible lifting, etc. 2100 seems to be better. I don't eat exercise calories though, that's a flat amount. I'm considering upping it again to 2300 in a couple more weeks but we'll see.

I was eating 2100 for the past month or two, every once in awhile eating a little more if I worked out really hard or went out with friends. I don't have any more weight to lose, just trying to reduce bf%—but on that I didn't change at all, which makes sense because it was my TDEE calculated from the roadmap method.

I started lifting with that, and it was going well. Last week I started doing a cut to 1850 calories (250 deficit), to start trying to lose the body fat, and I haven't noticed any difference in my lifting—unless I don't eat something before my session in the morning (made that mistake on Monday, ha...). Still seem to be progressing well, and feel like my sessions are good. I don't expect that to last forever though, being a newbie at it.... lol

As far as nutrition itself, I aim for 40/40/30 carb/protein/fat ratio. I do pretty well at that most days, and actually exceed the protein and fat requirements quite often. I don't really worry about anything else, like some... no paleo or gf or whatever here. I was eating vegetarian last year with major vegan tendencies, but when I started tracking protein seriously, it just got too hard to meet a 40% protein requirement. So I gave that up, and feel good about it.


Anyway, it probably depends on what your goals are. If you want to lose bf while lifting, you might want to try eating a small deficit along with your training. But as others have mentioned, your lifts might suffer, so you have to decide what works for you. To gain muscle, you have to eat a surplus. Get enough protein and fat daily. That's about all you need to worry about!

I'm currently using heybales spreadsheet. I lost the link, but it's floating around mfp. It has every possible calculator rolled into one. I've been using the recommendation for "heavy lifting" where you can take more of a cut. For me it is 1792. I use this as a minimum and try to eat between this and my TDEE (estimated 2300 but I'm still testing.) My weekly average is around 2000. I'm slowly losing poundage and inches. My goal for protein is 130g, but my minimum is 100g. If I'm not at 100 I'll go over my calories a bit to get there. Hello greek yogurt. lol. My percentage goals (which give me 130g/protien at 1792 cals) are 30% protein/30% fat/40%carbs. My actual intake is more like 20%protein, 40% fat, 40% carbs. I would rather get less calories from carbs than fat,as fat makes me feel full longer (and is so tasty!) So that's something I'm working on. =D I just love beans and potatoes too much.