Take advantage or eat more from laborious work?

[Mooska]

A month and a half ago, I started working for Fedex Ground loading trucks as a package handler. Before I got the job, I was already on a caloric deficit aimed at losing 2lbs a week(I cheated slightly too often to actually achieve this). I only work 3 hours, but in those 3 hours, I load around 400 boxes of all different weights each hour. When I go on walks that mildly get my sweat glands going, I burn a little over 500 calories, so when I am drenched in sweat during and fairly fatigued by the end of my shift, I'd assume at the very least I burn 400 calories an hour.

What I am wondering is, already eating at a deficit, can I eat slightly under what I assume I burn at work afterwards to lose weight faster or should I try to match what I burn so I'm at the same deficit I was prior to getting this job?

[PowerHaus19]

Honestly if you feel really hungry because of the larger deficit due to your labor job, then feel free to eat up calories to make it up. However, if you want to speed up your fat loss then don't eat up the calories. When I'm cutting I NEVER consume the extra calories burned from doing cardio... it just feels like a waste of time.

[zerocoolflo]

If you can take the deficit you are creating without it affecting your progress, than by all means you can keep it like that.

If the hunger is too high or you can't do your job properly, raise the cals up a bit

[TiberiusClaudis]

Agree with this ^^^^

You might say it's a "free lunch"

[Znik]

What I am wondering is, already eating at a deficit, can I eat slightly under what I assume I burn at work afterwards to lose weight faster or should I try to match what I burn so I'm at the same deficit I was prior to getting this job?

You have been doing this for a month and half ? So should already have your answer, if weightloss increased drastically and you run out of energy , increase calories. If it stays at around the same and what you aim for , dont change anything.

[Mooska]

My only concern was that I might be losing too much muscle by losing fat quickly, but it doesn't seem like that's much of a concern I suppose. Thanks for the replies. Up until now, I had just been enjoying the bonus meal at the end of the day, but I can definitely survive off less that I have been taking in after work if it means sped up fat loss without extra muscle loss.