A very interesting and informational read on deficits...

bump

Bump. thanks for posting

bump for later reading

Interesting! Thanks for sharing! :smooched:

Very interesting read, thanks for sharing!

So... what I'm getting from this is that I should have moderate deficits (I'm at 1,200 calories for MFP because I'm short and work a desk job, I'm assuming this is ok?) and work to maintain muscle through strength training and a protein rich diet. Is that what anyone else is taking away from this?

That's it.

It's the figuring out reasonable deficit that is the kicker. Decent protein macro levels are all over the place to find, just not MFP's default.

For instance, do you increase your deficit to unreasonable levels by NOT eating back exercise calories?

Did you select the recommended 1 lb weight loss goal, or less if little to lose?

I got the impression that it depends on the person, particularly in terms of body fat %. So yes, in my case (and possibly in your case? I don't know your stats) 1200 calories might be ideal*. (Lowish TDEE, highish body fat %). But for a leaner, taller person it might be too much of a cut. It might be a case of finding a "sweet spot" (where you lose weight at an acceptable rate, while avoiding losing muscle) and for "fatter" people this will usually mean a bigger deficit than for "leaner" people.

(*Ideal according to this article. I prefer to have a smaller deficit, myself).

Exactly - how much stress can your body take before it adapts and you lose your deficit.

So to the low bodyfat % you could add other stresses that would indicate less of a deficit should be taken if you want success.

Huge amounts of exercise, or frequent intense exercise. That's stressful on your body.

Some foods may cause stress to body, may not be full blown allergy, but not system friendly to you. Hence the results of clean eating is many times successful, removes a stress that may have even been unknown or didn't matter when it was the only stress, but now stress of a diet makes it show up.

Always a lack of sleep because of schedule and responsibilities.

Other life stresses that can't be minimized.

Medical issues, like weak immune system, sick, ect.

Genetic and learned body responses to stress (someone doing weight loss first time to someone that has yo-yo dieted their whole life away). Or genetically "good stock" and just tough as nails no matter what.

All things that make the difference between what might be 2 equally matched people in gender, age, weight, height, see very different responses to the exact same deficit being taken, whether that be by block of calories (500 or 1000 daily) or by % (30 or 20% daily).

And the bummer part is, generally you start too low, it's the bad side of the range. At least starting too high you can lower.

It's always interesting on studies of weight loss, if they comment on selection of participants and what factors mattered - they almost always mention not having been in a diet or had any weight changes for 3 months is what I've generally noticed. So even study comments may not pertain to those already stressed in a diet.

tag

thanks for posting

to read later