250 Calorie Deficit

[thatgirl1996]

Hi, I'm considering going with a lower calorie deficit to help me stick to it more consistently. I was wondering if anyone had used a smaller deficit and did it work for you? I can't find much about it online, my main concern would be motivation but if I'm honest I'm struggling to stick to even 500 deficit. A little background I have a whole host of health issues which hugely impact my ability to lose weight, however gaining weight I have no issue with aha. 

Thank you for reading and hope you all have a lovely day 😊.

[Heybales]

It can be difficult because there is a whole lot less room for error.

It's so true that if you aren't able to be active and burn more, a 500 cal deficit can have you eating so little it's just not sustainable.

There's a reason why when you look around at a 10K or higher race, you see (or rather don't see over tall guys) so many shorter women runners - it just allows them to burn more so they can eat more at normal level with others. I've heard many express that is only reason they picked running over say biking or rowing or other.

And really everyone when they come up on the end of weight loss and nearing goal weight, a smaller deficit is more reasonable on the body when it has less fat. Those final 10 lbs for everyone would frankly be better at 250 cal deficit.

So here's the kicker that may not apply as much to you on 1 side of the CICO equation, but does on the other.

Without tons of daily steps, the distance traveled which is the basis for some of the daily calorie burn, isn't as big a deal perhaps for you. How many steps, or more importantly, how much distance, do you have daily on avg?

Probably 3/4's of your daily burn is BMR, the other 1/4 or less may be from daily movement. But that could be 300-400 cal on busy days. That's meaningful.

Suggest you find a known track distance somewhere (school track? careful if it's metric in US, and find the mile markers on it), and walk 1/2 to 1 mile at average daily pace, not grocery store shuffle, not exercise pace, so maybe 1.8 mph.

Start and end a workout correctly so you can see the distance Fitbit gives. Accurate?

Stride-length setting can be tweaked to increased accuracy.

The other side of the equation for sure to confirm.

Do you Weigh all foods you eat? (except liquids)

Calories is per gram, not cups, spoons, or "about 3 servings per package".

Take out food or eating out will reduce accuracy, fast food not so bad because they are pretty exact on things to save money, but other places can be very inaccurate.

Once you are as accurate as can be - take 4 weeks of good logging, and a supposed 250 cal deficit, and confirm valid weigh-ins (morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from prior workout) to avoid known water weight fluctuations - you can then see what your actual deficit was.

Then adjust from there.

Now - there are other ways to skin a ..... well, something.

Maybe the deficit eating on normal just doesn't work well for you.

Could you make 2 non-adjoining days a week a rather big deficit, but then every other day eat at maintenance?

Still need to log and be decently accurate about the 5 days value, but the 2 deficit days is eating only 25% of maintenance day.

So if your maintenance is say 1800, that's 5 days a week.

2 days at 450 cal.

Will take some planning, and eating the right foods. 2 cans of pop is obvious extreme of the wrong way to get those calories.

But some protein, fiber, veges, at the right time - may be enough for 2 days a week.

Just throwing some options out that work for others that have a hard time adhering, and a study actually shows that 5:2 works great and keeping hormones elevated for max benefit to a diet.

How much do you have to lose to a healthy weight? (I don't assume goal weight is healthy weight, some want on lower end of healthy or below that would make it harder)