Is 1800 calories enough for my cut?

[purpleweed]

I went on a 6 month bulk and got to ~195 lbs. I'm currently cutting to 145. I started out at 2,400 cals. from my 3,000 calorie bulk diet then went down to 2000. Recently I've gone down to 1800, is that enough for me to cut and preserve my muscle?

I lift 3x a week for about 50 mins to an hour and do 30 mins of cardio on a stationary bike on my off days with one day off a week.

I get about 125-150 grams of protein a day.

[Flashkicker]

There is a sticky for this. Calculate your estimated TDEE then experiment with the number till you get it right. I change up my calorie intake daily to match my training.

[purpleweed]

Well my BMR is 1800 cals. a day when I eat 2000 cals I feel fine however if I'm burning 500 cals a day exercising am I not reducing my possible results by eating 200 over my BMR during a cut?

[Flashkicker]

I am not sure about this, but I believe there is a limit to how much of the calorie deficit you create is covered by your fat stores. Again, I haven't seen any definite proof on this, but if you can only support a deficit of 500 cals with fat stores and you create a 1000 cal deficit, then the other 500 is going to be from muscle. I am going to check to see if I can find a study to back this up.

[Flashkicker]

I am not sure about this, but I believe there is a limit to how much of the calorie deficit you create is covered by your fat stores. Again, I haven't seen any definite proof on this, but if you can only support a deficit of 500 cals with fat stores and you create a 1000 cal deficit, then the other 500 is going to be from muscle. I am going to check to see if I can find a study to back this up.

Alright so I did some digging and there seems to be a consensus of a max fat loss around 31*lb body fat for calorie deficit that your fat stores can handle, but there is also a lot about how sufficient training (heavy lifting i.e. bodybuilding) and eating the right nutrients (heavy protein diet, if i read correctly) can make this number obsolete. I found this from sources lyle mcdonald a study in pub med.

I think that if you want to create a larger deficit you should go a little heavier on protein counts and increase your TDEE through exercise, not by starving your way to a higher deficit. Just my opinion though, I could definitely be wrong.

[mattypoole]

I am not sure about this, but I believe there is a limit to how much of the calorie deficit you create is covered by your fat stores. Again, I haven't seen any definite proof on this, but if you can only support a deficit of 500 cals with fat stores and you create a 1000 cal deficit, then the other 500 is going to be from muscle. I am going to check to see if I can find a study to back this up.

This. You can only lose so much fat without cutting into muscle tissue (some argue it's near impossible to lose any fat without killing some muscle in the process, but that can be dependant upon a few factors).

1800 sounds too low to me, but go do your calculations from the stickies for a reasonable ballpark figure.

[purpleweed]

Thanks, I think I will stick to my 2000 calorie diet and up my cardio if I feel its necessary.