Reasonable deficit for active athlete

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ferd_ttp5
ferd_ttp5 Posts: 246 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How much calorie deficit is enough should an active athelete to set? I know that creating a bigger deficit can affect your performance. Share your thoughts below thanks :D

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  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    Generally, .5-1% of your BW/week
  • ferd_ttp5
    ferd_ttp5 Posts: 246 Member
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    psuLemon wrote: »
    Generally, .5-1% of your BW/week
    You mean 250-500 cals a week?

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    ferd_ttp5 wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    Generally, .5-1% of your BW/week
    You mean 250-500 cals a week?

    Nope. It's a percent of body weight. If I weigh 175 lbs, I can aim for .8 - 1.75 lbs per week. As you get more lean, it should be the lower end.
  • ferd_ttp5
    ferd_ttp5 Posts: 246 Member
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    psuLemon wrote: »
    ferd_ttp5 wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    Generally, .5-1% of your BW/week
    You mean 250-500 cals a week?

    Nope. It's a percent of body weight. If I weigh 175 lbs, I can aim for .8 - 1.75 lbs per week. As you get more lean, it should be the lower end.
    I understand already thanks :)

  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    How are we defining an active athlete? What are their performance goals?Does this person also have an active job?
  • ferd_ttp5
    ferd_ttp5 Posts: 246 Member
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    Packerjohn wrote: »
    How are we defining an active athlete? What are their performance goals?Does this person also have an active job?
    I'm referring to myself :)
    College athlete playing Table Tennis and my performance goals is only to improve my playing ability.
    Because I'm still a student I mostly sit and read books and listen to class most of the day

  • Texas_Toast_27
    Texas_Toast_27 Posts: 14 Member
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    I am 165# and race bikes. I follow Matt Fitzgerald's thoughts from the book "Racing Weight", so I target a body composition range more than weight. I am still a little heavy for what I would call "peak shape" as my body fat is a little higher than I want it right now.

    That being said, my BSM isn't super high, so I target a net deficit of about 150-200 calories per day. I use 1700 calories as my base and then MFP of course adds exercise calories to that number. That means on hard days I am probably eating about 3500 calories and on a rest day it is closer to 1700 calories. It isn't an exact science, but you know when your performance suffers because of nutrition.

    Fitzgerald discusses what the optimal body fat range is for your age and gender. Personally I think this is the most healthy approach to the constant fight with optimizing your body weight for peak performance.
  • JessicaMcB
    JessicaMcB Posts: 1,503 Member
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    This isn't meant as snark I swear, but how high would the caloric requirements for table tennis actually be? I don't know much about it as a sport so it's hard to speak to how much the burn would effect satiety, etc. on a deficit if at all.



  • armchairherpetologist
    armchairherpetologist Posts: 69 Member
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    I go with a general deficit of 500 and if it's affecting my performance negatively I eat a bit more. I do increase my intake for about a week before certain events, like half marathons, century rides. I'm doing Bike MS this year, and I will be eating to support that because it's a pretty grueling thing to cycle that far in that amount of time.

    I'm so looking forward to chocolate milk and a biergarten!
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    JessicaMcB wrote: »
    This isn't meant as snark I swear, but how high would the caloric requirements for table tennis actually be? I don't know much about it as a sport so it's hard to speak to how much the burn would effect satiety, etc. on a deficit if at all.



    again not being snarky but how does table tennis fall into the active athlete category?
  • soccerjerseyguy
    soccerjerseyguy Posts: 14 Member
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    have you guys ever seen competitive table tennis? Most folks think badminton is also a leisurely activity.... It is not!
  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,841 Member
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    ferd_ttp5 wrote: »
    How much calorie deficit is enough should an active athelete to set? I know that creating a bigger deficit can affect your performance. Share your thoughts below thanks :D

    When I was competing it was all maint calories. In off season if I was looking to drop a bit I was going for about 1 pound a week, which I still felt I had energy for training.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    ndj1979 wrote: »
    JessicaMcB wrote: »
    This isn't meant as snark I swear, but how high would the caloric requirements for table tennis actually be? I don't know much about it as a sport so it's hard to speak to how much the burn would effect satiety, etc. on a deficit if at all.



    again not being snarky but how does table tennis fall into the active athlete category?

    This. Your TDEE will be higher than baseline I'm
    Sure but I would class an active athlete as performing many hours of high intensity sport and burning lots of calories.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    ferd_ttp5 wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    How are we defining an active athlete? What are their performance goals?Does this person also have an active job?
    I'm referring to myself :)
    College athlete playing Table Tennis and my performance goals is only to improve my playing ability.
    Because I'm still a student I mostly sit and read books and listen to class most of the day

    Is this like an actual varsity sport at the school or a club? If a varsity sport I'd think you would have access to the sports dietitians at the school.
  • Tropicoolblonde
    Tropicoolblonde Posts: 70 Member
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    I exercise 90min to 2.5 hours most days.. and I only cut MAX 500 calories per day off TDEE. So I am still eating quite a bit.
  • Tropicoolblonde
    Tropicoolblonde Posts: 70 Member
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    Oh and my exercise is almost exclusively straight cardio.. so that's about 90 min to 2 hours of running/biking a day. Lower impact days I hike uphill or swim laps (1000s)

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