What is the biggest deficit you can tolerate more or less comfortably?

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  • afatpersonwholikesfood
    afatpersonwholikesfood Posts: 577 Member
    2200 is a comfortable amount of calories for me, but that's only my goal (deficit of 500) on my two most active days per week. :/ I struggle more now with just being straight up hangry than I did before. I still stick to a 500 calorie deficit on the other days of the week the majority of the time, but it feels like I'm playing some high-stakes game of food Tetris and ideal meal/snack timing each day (the goal of which is to go to bed with a happy stomach and never an empty one).
  • Cheerios0392
    Cheerios0392 Posts: 46 Member
    My BMI is around 23 and i can tolerate 750 def quite easily. I tend to eat low in the week then binge on the weekends. I function far better at maintenance calories or a small deficit maybe 250 a day. The optimum for me is about 500 a day.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    I've been tracking my net calories since August 15 and my cumulative calorie deficit to this morning is 36113, so do the math. There's only been one uncomfortable day in that span. I've had 8 days with 3-digit net calories, usually on weekends with yard work.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    For me, it's not so much about the deficit as the number of calories. I'm averaging 1700 cals/day with high days and low days (but never lower than 1300 and not usually higher than 2000). That's a calculated deficit of 500 cals/day on average.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    I had a starting BMI of 33, now 22. The leaner I get the smaller the deficit. I'm at -250 right now and don't think I could handle any less calories. So, you're point is accurate in my view.
  • teetertatertango
    teetertatertango Posts: 229 Member
    If I am more active, it is SO much easier for me to run a deficit. If I am sedentary, sometimes even maintenance feels intolerably low.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I like a 125-250 cal deficit best.. any more and I am le grumpy. But I usually don't have much to lose and prefer it slow and steady.
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
    250 was the only deficit I could do. Anything more, and I would end up bingeing and make a non existent deficit.
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    I can manage around a 300-400 cal deficit. Any larger, and I get hangry even though I hit my fats, protein and fiber goals and have adequate carbs.
    arditarose wrote: »
    Francl27 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    Currently, 400 is the most aggressive I can get really. If I go beyond it's hard for me to hit fat goals and it screws with my hormones. But considering I haven't been able to keep a deficit at ALL lately, not sure I can answer this honestly at the moment :)

    Yeah been there done that lol. The only time I can manage to keep a deficit is when I get depressed and lose my appetite.

    I'm depressed at the moment and it's still not working. Sometimes during the day I won't really eat because of nerves but I always end up gorging on ice cream and wine later...

    This..is me at the moment, too. Sometimes even maintenance can be rough during times like this. It seems logging itself sometimes can trigger anxiety.
    Glad to hear I'm not the only one. I don't necessarily feel like eating much during these times but when I do lately, it's been cookies, cake, ice cream, etc..maintaining has been rough lately.
  • KrazyKrissyy
    KrazyKrissyy Posts: 322 Member
    For me it depends on my diet. Example- On a low carb diet, I can barely manage a 250 deficit (never again lol). I'm always hungry. But on a high carb diet, I can manage a 700 deficit easily. I recently set my MFP goal to maintenance but have been noticing deficits from all the exercise I do (I never eat my exercise calories back because exercise wipes out my appetite).
  • wi_maint_man
    wi_maint_man Posts: 99 Member
    Depression = eating more for me
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    I did a 1000 calorie deficit early on, for my first 25 lbs of loss, now I have probably a 750ish and I think 1000 would be really hard. As I get closer to goal, it's harder to eat less.
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    longstocking wrote: »
    I mean, what is the biggest deficit that you can function normally on? I mean especially, energy-wise but also cravings-wise? Also, if you have experimented with deficits, how well do you function (energy, mood, mental performance) on different deficits?

    I'm not sure if BMI has anything to do with it, but it seems that heavier people tolerate bigger deficit better, so if you are okay with it, please include your BMI in you response.

    As the body fat percentages go down, then the weight loss slows down as the deficit gets smaller and smaller. Ultimately this leads eventually to no deficit at goal and on to maintenance for the long term.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    afatpersonwholikesfood wrote: »
    2200 is a comfortable amount of calories for me, but that's only my goal (deficit of 500) on my two most active days per week. :/ I struggle more now with just being straight up hangry than I did before. I still stick to a 500 calorie deficit on the other days of the week the majority of the time, but it feels like I'm playing some high-stakes game of food Tetris and ideal meal/snack timing each day (the goal of which is to go to bed with a happy stomach and never an empty one).

    Love this :D
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited September 2016
    I can go pretty severe on the deficits to the point of a complete water fast and be comfortable, provided my average weekly deficit is reasonable for my weight. It's weird, but as soon as I inch above a 700 calorie average deficit, even if I'm being very active and eating more than 2200 calories daily to achieve that, I get this insane hormonal hunger that makes me insatiable no matter what or how much I eat. On smaller deficits, say a daily average of 200-300 calories (like having 1 fast day a week and eating maintenance or above for the rest of the week), I can handle a complete fast day and not even feel the slightest bit out of sorts with only a few minutes of vague mild hunger that waxes and wanes around meal times.

    Edit: oh and my BMI is 34
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    I ran a 3 day stint of ERFL which gave me an approximate deifict of 3000 calories a day. Not sustainable but a very interesting experiment.
  • Bojemoy
    Bojemoy Posts: 12 Member
    ronjsteele1 wrote: »
    I started at 1200, went to 1300, then 1400 then 1500. I recalculated using TDEE-20% and am at 1700 cals (TDEE calcs put me just over 1800 to lose). I'm doing really well on 1700. I struggled at the lower cals. I'm having no struggle now and I'm losing consistently. I got stuck going up and down a pound for 6 weeks...

    TDEE - 20% (25% at Most) will help you "safely" lose at least 1lb/wk.

    When you hit a plateau with weight loss, try adjusting your calorie intake to your "new" weight.

  • Danika
    Danika Posts: 11 Member
    @arditarose Ditto the above comment! I've always lurked on your profile and comments (same starting weight and height) and find your journey really inspirational.

    I hope life gets sunnier soon. x
  • kristen6350
    kristen6350 Posts: 1,094 Member
    I've never tried more than 250. I never thought I needed to go bigger.

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