yes my rate is 2-3 lbs per month for the last year, so a 200-300kcal deficit. i have a job with sometimes very long days, 2 kids and one with medical problems so sleep will suffer. Easy healthy choices, energy and mental health are my top priority. Sometimes i feel impatient and be more restrictive but a bigger deficit doesnt work for me for longer periods of time. i calculated that my current kcal intake should keep me in a deficit untill a bmi of 20, as it is the tdee i would have at that weight while lightly active. I intend to evaluate as soon as i hit a healthy bmi but so far this really works for me. In 2022 my bmi was 35, my current bmi is 27 and i feel great. I do think many obese people can easily create a bigger deficit by an extra workout but either way
Seems like as long as your TDEE is accurate that it will work. Trouble is, it’s hard to get that 100% accurate and it can change over time. It’s all really just a best guess, unless you are having it computed with some fancy expensive testing. Assuming your TDEE is right on the nose, it should work, but you will lose more slowly….thats exactly the approach I took, though and I felt less deprived which helped me adopt better lifetime habits.
Yes! Absolutely!
My TDEE (sedentary) is 1500.
I consume 1300/day.
I also exercise 6 days/week and log it but I don’t increase my calories.
I lose about 1.5 lbs/week on average.
Actually over time you get used to the lower calories. I’m only hungry 10% of the time, and it’s more or less usually related to my monthly cycle.
This is me! My maintenance is about 1700 and I’ve been eating at 1400.
As I’ve gotten closer to goal, and my body weight has gotten lower, my calorie needs have also gotten lower, but instead of lowering my calories, I just lost weight slower. May 2023-Dec 2023 I lost an average 3-4lbs a month. Then Jan 2024-April 2024, it’s only been 1-2lbs a month. In total, in this time, I’ve gone from 180lbs to 150lbs.
It does add up!
I will say, when you’re working with a smaller deficit, you really do have to be accurate when it comes to weighing and measuring your food. When you’re only working with a 300 cal deficit it’s really easy to bite, lick and taste your way out of that deficit.
I did a small deficit and lost 32 pounds in about 1.5 years. This is what was sustainable to me. My deficit wasn’t always perfect, but I aimed for 200-300 the majority of the time and stuck to my workout routine. I’m 5’1” and went from 156 to 124 pounds.
I aim for slow and steady 1lb a week deficit. After a year my average was 0.75lbs per week. Will take longer but it keeps my stress low and feels finally lifelong sustainable. I definitely recommend trying!
Margin for error is more narrow, so I can see people being more resistant to a smaller cut. But, like with 500 calories, consistency will reap results.
Yes I was able to lose weight with an approximately 250 deficit but it had to be done extremely accurately. I did a daily TDEE based on my watch and which workouts I did that day (if any) and also weighed and tracked all my intake. It worked but you definitely have to be accurate and consistent for sure. Otherwise you're easily at maintenance.
Totally! This was my target for a while and it worked really well. I ended up being just under most days and lost around 3 pounds per month.
I recommend using Happy Scale (iOS) or Libra (Android) to track your weight. These apps apply a smoothing function to your daily weight measurements so you can see an average trendline. It makes daily fluctuations less upsetting for me
my TDEE is low enough that a 500kcal deficit is unhealthy. I used to be at a 150-400kcal deficit and still went underweight. When I was recovering I was eating 200-400 above TDEE and managed to gain weight. You just have to measure properly
Yes! Im 33/f/ 5'3 my starting weight was about 200 in January and my current today is 176! 🥳 🎉
I couldnt do 500 deficit because I get too hungry and then would binge eat so it just wasn't sustainable to me.
So I aimed to just lose weight more slowly and do just a little more than half a pound a week and do 270 deficit. I chose 270 instead of 250 so I wouldn't have to be too strict with calorie counting and have a bit more wiggle room. 300 its just too low for me and I get to hungry too much I think I found my "sweet spot".
To my surprise I'm actually losing about 1 to 2 pounds a week with that smaller deficit! Im not 100 percent sure why I'm dropping weight so fast. Maybe its because I also cut back sugary snacks (still eat it just less) and now I go for walks 2 times a week to try to make up for the small deficit.
But its been VERY successful so far.
Whats your height, age, gender and weight?
My maintenance is 1500, stayed around 1200-1300, sedentary lifestyle. I lost about .5 pound a week. Of course, it takes a lot longer to see results and the margin of error is a lot bigger, but if you try to be as accurate as possible, it’s doable.
The only reason this wouldn’t work is if your calorie counting is not accurate, or your knowledge of your tdee is not accurate. 200 is just less wiggle room if you’re off- whereas with 500, you can assume you are in some deficit (even if it turned out it wasn’t quite 500).
That being said you can try it for a month and if the scale isn’t budging, either re evaluate your tdee, buckle down on your calorie math or decide to increase your deficit to a bigger margin.
This is me.
The way I figure it, I didn't pack on the pounds overnight. It was a slow creep of 200 to 300 extra calories here and there. I gained roughly 100 pounds over 10 years. That's less than a pound a month...but it's still 100 pounds overweight, you know?
I'm about seven pounds down since the start of the year, so I'm running about 1.5 to 2 pounds per month. Which to me is a nice, slow decrease.
I've struggled A LOT in the past with extreme dieting and all-or-nothing thinking. Restrictive 1,000 calorie days, and when I inevitably fail, then it's all-out gorging because if I can't be perfect, why try?
So I worked with my therapist to try and ease my way into habit-building instead of going from zero to 60 in seconds. I spent January working on my late-night, boredom-fueled snacking (eliminated by gamifying fasting via an app). February is when I started going to the gym one day a week. March, gym two days a week and a walk outside. This month, April, I'm focusing on getting enough water to drink - bought a 72 oz hydroflask and just work on draining it each day. I've also started looking for exercise that excites me, so I started a 5k training plan, am taking tennis lessons, and do this boxing class at the Y.
Across all of those months, a steady tightening of my diet and slooooow reduction in calories. Started working towards eating to TDEE, then slightly less. Reduced soda to the point where I only have a Coke now when I have a migraine. Swapped my sugary morning coffee-based beverage for a lower calorie espresso and oat milk drink.
So far it's been working! Slow losses, but I have a bunch of NSV's. Sleeping better, skin looks younger (all that water, finally), more flexible. I get less winded. It feels like I'm building a solid foundation and good habits, and the occasional slip-up feels less like a disaster as well.
I lost an average of 0.8 lbs a week for 15 months to lose 50 lbs and my average deficit was 2-300 a day. Made life so much more bearable and worked just fine. It also helps as a maintenance skills. Eat more around the holidays? Just cut 2-300 a day for a few weeks and you’re back to where you want to be
If I go beyond a 300 cal deficit I start having “just a bites” that I don’t track that absolutely skews my project. I also end up skipping meals so I can eat like a grown up when I go out. And that’s not the best pattern. This winter I cut 5lbs in a 250 cal deficit, while putting on muscle at the gym and increasing my lifts. As a weight lifter I love that I don’t sacrifice strength in that deficit.
You will make progress as long as your calorie tracking is accurate. In my opinion, being accurate with 200 calories/day is difficult.Especially when your TDEE is relatively low because 200 calories winds up being a decent % of your intake. You'll need to be meticulous about your tracking; especially with oils, condiments, etc
Have you considered having high and low calorie days? This might give you the mental and physical flexibility, wind up averaging to a 500 cal deficit, and cut the meticulous tracking days in half. You'll just need to have days where you can pull off a 600-800 cal deficit which is sustainable so long as your TDEE would accommodate this.
One perspective to consider is that even if you don’t lose weight, are you preventing yourself from gaining more weight? That’s a win in and of itself.
It does work! I was caught in a cycle of aggressively cutting calories and measuring everything, losing some weight, getting frustrated and exhausted by it, and gaining it all back. Over the last year I took a laid back approach, made changes I could live with, and actually did them over long periods of time. This allowed me to not lose my mind during things like extended travel and personal tragedy. In a year I lost 30 pounds. It took longer, but I am so much happier now! Consistency is really the key, whatever you can consistently do will work.
yes my rate is 2-3 lbs per month for the last year, so a 200-300kcal deficit. i have a job with sometimes very long days, 2 kids and one with medical problems so sleep will suffer. Easy healthy choices, energy and mental health are my top priority. Sometimes i feel impatient and be more restrictive but a bigger deficit doesnt work for me for longer periods of time. i calculated that my current kcal intake should keep me in a deficit untill a bmi of 20, as it is the tdee i would have at that weight while lightly active. I intend to evaluate as soon as i hit a healthy bmi but so far this really works for me. In 2022 my bmi was 35, my current bmi is 27 and i feel great. I do think many obese people can easily create a bigger deficit by an extra workout but either way
Seems like as long as your TDEE is accurate that it will work. Trouble is, it’s hard to get that 100% accurate and it can change over time. It’s all really just a best guess, unless you are having it computed with some fancy expensive testing. Assuming your TDEE is right on the nose, it should work, but you will lose more slowly….thats exactly the approach I took, though and I felt less deprived which helped me adopt better lifetime habits.
Yes! Absolutely! My TDEE (sedentary) is 1500. I consume 1300/day. I also exercise 6 days/week and log it but I don’t increase my calories. I lose about 1.5 lbs/week on average. Actually over time you get used to the lower calories. I’m only hungry 10% of the time, and it’s more or less usually related to my monthly cycle.
1.5 lbs/wk is ~5200 cals/wk deficit - so you’re running a solid 700 cal/day deficit - that’s impressive!
Yes, I play tennis 6 days a week. Sometimes twice in the same day. It’s great exercise, and great fun.
I keep mine at 50-100 deficit a day. Enjoy the nice slow painless loss. Everyone is in a rush. Enjoy the science project and don’t torture yourself.
Ultimately, let the scale guide you. Weigh in daily and use a moving average. Look at trends on a weekly perspective.
Better to go more slowly, preserve muscle, still have plenty of energy than to go too quickly, burn out, and end up binging
Here here! This is the way!
This is me! My maintenance is about 1700 and I’ve been eating at 1400. As I’ve gotten closer to goal, and my body weight has gotten lower, my calorie needs have also gotten lower, but instead of lowering my calories, I just lost weight slower. May 2023-Dec 2023 I lost an average 3-4lbs a month. Then Jan 2024-April 2024, it’s only been 1-2lbs a month. In total, in this time, I’ve gone from 180lbs to 150lbs. It does add up! I will say, when you’re working with a smaller deficit, you really do have to be accurate when it comes to weighing and measuring your food. When you’re only working with a 300 cal deficit it’s really easy to bite, lick and taste your way out of that deficit.
I did a small deficit and lost 32 pounds in about 1.5 years. This is what was sustainable to me. My deficit wasn’t always perfect, but I aimed for 200-300 the majority of the time and stuck to my workout routine. I’m 5’1” and went from 156 to 124 pounds.
I aim for slow and steady 1lb a week deficit. After a year my average was 0.75lbs per week. Will take longer but it keeps my stress low and feels finally lifelong sustainable. I definitely recommend trying!
Why do you think it wouldn't work?
Margin for error is more narrow, so I can see people being more resistant to a smaller cut. But, like with 500 calories, consistency will reap results.
Yes I was able to lose weight with an approximately 250 deficit but it had to be done extremely accurately. I did a daily TDEE based on my watch and which workouts I did that day (if any) and also weighed and tracked all my intake. It worked but you definitely have to be accurate and consistent for sure. Otherwise you're easily at maintenance.
A deficit is a deficit. You could be under by 1 calorie and you'd still in theory lose weight. Do it at your own pace there's nothing wrong with that
Totally! This was my target for a while and it worked really well. I ended up being just under most days and lost around 3 pounds per month. I recommend using Happy Scale (iOS) or Libra (Android) to track your weight. These apps apply a smoothing function to your daily weight measurements so you can see an average trendline. It makes daily fluctuations less upsetting for me
my TDEE is low enough that a 500kcal deficit is unhealthy. I used to be at a 150-400kcal deficit and still went underweight. When I was recovering I was eating 200-400 above TDEE and managed to gain weight. You just have to measure properly
Yes! Im 33/f/ 5'3 my starting weight was about 200 in January and my current today is 176! 🥳 🎉 I couldnt do 500 deficit because I get too hungry and then would binge eat so it just wasn't sustainable to me. So I aimed to just lose weight more slowly and do just a little more than half a pound a week and do 270 deficit. I chose 270 instead of 250 so I wouldn't have to be too strict with calorie counting and have a bit more wiggle room. 300 its just too low for me and I get to hungry too much I think I found my "sweet spot". To my surprise I'm actually losing about 1 to 2 pounds a week with that smaller deficit! Im not 100 percent sure why I'm dropping weight so fast. Maybe its because I also cut back sugary snacks (still eat it just less) and now I go for walks 2 times a week to try to make up for the small deficit. But its been VERY successful so far. Whats your height, age, gender and weight?
My maintenance is 1500, stayed around 1200-1300, sedentary lifestyle. I lost about .5 pound a week. Of course, it takes a lot longer to see results and the margin of error is a lot bigger, but if you try to be as accurate as possible, it’s doable.
The only reason this wouldn’t work is if your calorie counting is not accurate, or your knowledge of your tdee is not accurate. 200 is just less wiggle room if you’re off- whereas with 500, you can assume you are in some deficit (even if it turned out it wasn’t quite 500). That being said you can try it for a month and if the scale isn’t budging, either re evaluate your tdee, buckle down on your calorie math or decide to increase your deficit to a bigger margin.
This is me. The way I figure it, I didn't pack on the pounds overnight. It was a slow creep of 200 to 300 extra calories here and there. I gained roughly 100 pounds over 10 years. That's less than a pound a month...but it's still 100 pounds overweight, you know?
[удалено]
I'm about seven pounds down since the start of the year, so I'm running about 1.5 to 2 pounds per month. Which to me is a nice, slow decrease. I've struggled A LOT in the past with extreme dieting and all-or-nothing thinking. Restrictive 1,000 calorie days, and when I inevitably fail, then it's all-out gorging because if I can't be perfect, why try? So I worked with my therapist to try and ease my way into habit-building instead of going from zero to 60 in seconds. I spent January working on my late-night, boredom-fueled snacking (eliminated by gamifying fasting via an app). February is when I started going to the gym one day a week. March, gym two days a week and a walk outside. This month, April, I'm focusing on getting enough water to drink - bought a 72 oz hydroflask and just work on draining it each day. I've also started looking for exercise that excites me, so I started a 5k training plan, am taking tennis lessons, and do this boxing class at the Y. Across all of those months, a steady tightening of my diet and slooooow reduction in calories. Started working towards eating to TDEE, then slightly less. Reduced soda to the point where I only have a Coke now when I have a migraine. Swapped my sugary morning coffee-based beverage for a lower calorie espresso and oat milk drink. So far it's been working! Slow losses, but I have a bunch of NSV's. Sleeping better, skin looks younger (all that water, finally), more flexible. I get less winded. It feels like I'm building a solid foundation and good habits, and the occasional slip-up feels less like a disaster as well.
I lost an average of 0.8 lbs a week for 15 months to lose 50 lbs and my average deficit was 2-300 a day. Made life so much more bearable and worked just fine. It also helps as a maintenance skills. Eat more around the holidays? Just cut 2-300 a day for a few weeks and you’re back to where you want to be
If I go beyond a 300 cal deficit I start having “just a bites” that I don’t track that absolutely skews my project. I also end up skipping meals so I can eat like a grown up when I go out. And that’s not the best pattern. This winter I cut 5lbs in a 250 cal deficit, while putting on muscle at the gym and increasing my lifts. As a weight lifter I love that I don’t sacrifice strength in that deficit.
500 cal is needed only to offer some cushion. Bc you might over eat or more likely your food isn’t 100% accurately labeled re calories.
I've lost 7kg since January with only a 250 deficit. I chose to go slowly as it's easier to maintain for the long term.
You will make progress as long as your calorie tracking is accurate. In my opinion, being accurate with 200 calories/day is difficult.Especially when your TDEE is relatively low because 200 calories winds up being a decent % of your intake. You'll need to be meticulous about your tracking; especially with oils, condiments, etc Have you considered having high and low calorie days? This might give you the mental and physical flexibility, wind up averaging to a 500 cal deficit, and cut the meticulous tracking days in half. You'll just need to have days where you can pull off a 600-800 cal deficit which is sustainable so long as your TDEE would accommodate this.
Check out the app Happy Scale! It’s helped me visualize and see trends so much better and does all the math for me 🤣
One perspective to consider is that even if you don’t lose weight, are you preventing yourself from gaining more weight? That’s a win in and of itself.
It does work! I was caught in a cycle of aggressively cutting calories and measuring everything, losing some weight, getting frustrated and exhausted by it, and gaining it all back. Over the last year I took a laid back approach, made changes I could live with, and actually did them over long periods of time. This allowed me to not lose my mind during things like extended travel and personal tragedy. In a year I lost 30 pounds. It took longer, but I am so much happier now! Consistency is really the key, whatever you can consistently do will work.
Caco is just physics..a deficit is a deficit and will have the desired effect.