Fat Loss, is cardio included in the -500 cal deficit?

[ChangeOfLife]

Is 'fat loss' = maitenance - 500 cals - whatever workouts you do....or do you include the workout cal loss in your 'fat loss'?

for example:

maitenance is 2500, fat loss = -500 of that , which is 2000 calories. Now if I do cardio that day that burns 300 calories, do I still go 500 Calories under, or just 200?

[Braindrop]

You should increase calories to maintain a steady deficit. A post-workout shake of skim milk + a scoop of whey powder is a great way to make up those cals with clean protein, which you probably need more of anyway unless you're already at (.8 times bodyweight) grams or higher.

[BrendanJ]

maitenance is 2500, fat loss = -500 of that , which is 2000 calories. Now if I do cardio that day that burns 300 calories, do I still go 500 Calories under, or just 200?

Just the 200. In an example, your maintenance is 2000 and lower calories by 500, your body works with 1500 a day. Enough to loose 1lb a week without exercise. If you burn another 1000 calories per day through cardio your body only gets 500 to work with. So yes only lower by the 200 which will create your 500 deficit but also make sure your body can function properly as will.

[CorruptSilence]

Yep, the 500 deficit is from total calories burned.
Maintenance = 2000
Daily Expenditures = 300
Total calories used = 2300

then subtract the 500 deficit. You should have consumed 1800 calories this day.

[Kenai603]

Personally, I think it's going to depend on how high your maintenance calories are. My maintenance calories were 2500. So I cut it down to 2000 calories eaten per day. Then I did cardio on top of that for another 500 or so calories burned.

In the end, that would net me about 1500 calories per day, but it worked out just fine for me. But if your maintenance is low to begin with, it's going to be a different story.