Help with calorie deficit?

[FranRob]

Hi everyone, I've gone back to training after month of not training properly.
My aim is a calorie deficit of around 400-500 calories per day, but I'm not sure whether I'm eating just right or too many calories.
I'm a 26 year old male, 5'10, 77kg, around 15% of body fat and I exercise at least 5 times a day;
Weight lifting 4 times a week, about 1h and 10 minute sessions, 4 supersets of 4x10-12, which is usually very close to failure, 30min of moderate cardio 2-3 times a week, plus a 40 minute HIIT abs workout once a week. Other than workouts, my daily life is lightly active.
At the moment I'm on 2500 calories a day, and macros are 40P, 30C, 30F.
Thanks!

[SuffolkPunch]

4 times per day or per week?

2500 sounds a tad high if you are aiming for a deficit. Perhaps do 2200 for 2 weeks, weigh yourself every morning and record the results.

Macro ratios are not necessary. Use the minimums for protein and fat as given in the Nutrition forum sticky threads.

[AlexSays]

Monitor your weight by weighing yourself daily in the morning (post-pee, pre-food/water).

From the over-time trend you will be able to tell if you are in a deficit and whether it is making you lose at the rate you want

[Luclin999]

Hi everyone, I've gone back to training after month of not training properly.
My aim is a calorie deficit of around 400-500 calories per day, but I'm not sure whether I'm eating just right or too many calories.
I'm a 26 year old male, 5'10, 77kg, around 15% of body fat and I exercise at least 5 times a day;
Weight lifting 4 times a week, about 1h and 10 minute sessions, 4 supersets of 4x10-12, which is usually very close to failure, 30min of moderate cardio 2-3 times a week, plus a 40 minute HIIT abs workout once a week. Other than workouts, my daily life is lightly active.
At the moment I'm on 2500 calories a day, and macros are 40P, 30C, 30F.
Thanks!

At that height and height you might be in a deficit but it probably isn't a 500 cal/day one. I'd try something closer to 2000 cal/day to start with for 3-4 weeks and see what the scale says. depending upon how much you lose you can tweak the daily number either up or down a bit to get to the deficit range that you are wanting to be in.

You should also aim for a protein minimum of about 140g, fat of 60g and the remaining calories can be from literally whatever you want (carbs, protein or fats). I would try to make sure that the majority of fat grams come from good sources, (fish oil, coconut oil, olive oil, Etc.) rather than canola, rapeseed, shortening and so on as well.

[FranRob]

Thanks guys, I've lowered my calorie intake to 2200-2250 a day to make sure it's a decent deficit. My main object is body recomposition, I want to lose that little layer of fat I've gained and rebuild the muscle I've lost over lockdown, I'm aiming to lose 2-3% of body fat max.
I've been training for years but I had never been away from my normal training schedule for so long and I know I have a tendency to love on too much of a calorie deficit and end up losing muscle instead of fat, so I needed some advice.

[1stCoachJoe]

You must first make sure you've done all of your math correctly. By that, I mean getting a very good handle on the average energy you expend each day (calories burned) vs. 100% of all calories consumed - meaning every single thing that goes down the hatch.

Once you know you're dialed in right, you'll know where your daily caloric maintenance is at your current weight. (Note: Your maintenance levels will change as you drop weight.) Thereafter, monitor and target your daily caloric deficit modestly to preserve lean muscle.

A deficit of 500 calories per day below current maintenance should yield an average weight loss of roughly 1 lb. per week. A 250 calorie deficit, which is super close to maintenance, should shed only 1/2 lb. per week. Again, what matters most is getting your starting baseline math correct and accurate upfront. It's a process and requires patience, strict adherence, and continual monitoring to get dialed in properly.

Feel free to pm me if you need any further guidance. Let us know how you fare... Good luck!

[FranRob]

Thank you so much guys, I haven't specifically figured out my daily intake for weight maintenance, but I used several calculators online to get a rough estimate. I know it's not the most accurate way, but I'll buy the right tools and be more accurate with it eventually.
In the past four weeks, I've dropped my intake from 2500 calories to 2000-2100 six days a week and 2400-2500 once a week, counting 2600 calories as weight maintenance.
I'm getting very good results so far, I've gotten pretty lean with only the usual stubborn lower back fat (which I'm starting to think I'll never get rid of) and a good gradual muscle growth.
The only thing that I'm concerned about is the next step. I reckon a lot of this shredding that's been happening in the past four week is just water weight and my progress is already slowing down. Should I keep the same calorie intake, amount of excercise? I don't know if I'll be able to go lower than 2000 calories a day to be honest. Should I lower my carbs intake? I've been on a 500 calorie deficit for a month now, although I am good with nutrition and I manage to keep myself energised without ever starving myself, it's a lot on the body.

Looking forward to your suggestions guys!

Fran

[SuffolkPunch]

Do you have daily weigh ins for the last 2 weeks? Post them here and I can assess if you are still losing at a reasonable rate.

Water weight only really has an impact for a few days, maybe a week when you first start dieting.

There is no specific reason to lower carbs - you may need to lower calories if you want to lose fat faster (this may come at the cost of gym progress though).