Activity level when finding maintenance calories?

[CheekyCuntt]

So I've heard that to build muscle while losing fat you gotta enter into a 5-20% deficit (100-500 calories)

I've calculated my maintenance cals using the tdee calculator website when I entered that I was sedentary and it was 1850 calories. When I entered that I did light exercise 1-2 days a week, my maintenance cals went up to 2150.

I've heard that such websites greatly exaggerate maintenance when taking into account your activity level. I've started lifting 4 days a week with 1-2 moderate/relatively light cardio.sessions per week, so it would be logical to put in that I exercise 4 days a week but I'm just worried if I do so that my maintenance cals are gonna be extremely exaggerated and that may subsequently slow down my fat loss by eating too much.

Need a but of advice - as im trying to build muscle while losing fat, would the better option be to pick sedentary (1850 cals),light activity level (2150 cals) or moderate activity lecel (2350 cals)? Cheers

[SuffolkPunch]

It's completely arbitrary, you won't know until you try it. I would pick the middle one and run it for 2 weeks before making adjustments.

[Tommy W.]

Those calculators are jus starting points are are not intended to be the final word. Your activity and calorie counting and tracking accuracy will put things all over the place. As mentioned above stick with a certain weekly calorie amount for a few weeks (2 weeks is a minimum but may take longer to get an accurate review).

Also concentrate on muscle maintenance and fat loss. Trying to build muscle in a deficit more times than not is an exercise in futility as there are many factors that need to be in place so best to not worry about it for now.

[ezra76]

I've been making decent progress by starting to zig-zag a bit. Going about 300-400cal. higher on workout days. So around 2200-2300 non workout days and 2600-2700 workout days. Morning cardio (bike) weekdays.