Posted on April 09, 2018 by Emily Forbes

Today we’re talking calorie deficits. Calories required to lose weight or in personal training terms what we would describe as being below your ‘maintenance’ calories or what most others would call being “on a diet”.  There is a ton of information out there on dieting. Some of it useful. A LOT of it complete quack or junk!!!. When we’re trying to cut our calories, I’m sure most have heard “make small changes, lose weight gradually”. But is this really the best advice?

Calorie deficits can vary greatly. It takes a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day to lose around 1lb per week, but should you simply look at how many calories you are ‘cutting out’, for someone who only has a maintenance amount of 1500 calories this would be a huge percentage and may or may not be beneficial, so thin kabout your percentage calorie deficit too. You could have a small deficit of less than 15% maintenance  calories or very large over 30%. And of course anything in between. There are pros and cons to them all.

Small Calorie Deficits

Pros

  • Less restrictive
  • Can eat a greater variety of foods
  • Fewer side effects of low mood aka hangry
  • More energy – may allow you to still train effectively

Cons

  • Can be a much longer dieting period eg. 20 weeks compared to 10 weeks with a more aggressive approach using a larger calorie deficit.
  • This can become de-motivational
  • Easy to become “unknowingly non-adherent”. Meaning that because the deficit is so small, it would be easy to accidentally consume extra calories and null the deficit. Possibly through inaccurate portion sizes or a little less physical activity

Suitable for

  • Those who have a longer period to diet or those looking for a behaviour change strategy.
  • Individuals with a high stress life who may only be able to commit a small reserve of mental capacity to dieting

Large calorie deficits

Pros

  • Shorter dieting period
  • Psychologically appealing as it will be over quicker; 10 vs 20 weeks

Cons

  • Very restrictive
  • Possible less variety of food
  • Possible low energy – would this affect other areas of your life such as training, work, family time?
  • Hunger and “hangry”

Suitable for

  • Those who need early success for motivation
  • People with a high percentage body fat to lose
  • Individuals who like short, tough diets
  • Those who don’t have any performance related goals.
  • Not suitable for people where hunger is an issue in dieting. Or those who have been on continuous diets over the years and are diet fatigued (Diet fatigue is essentially when you are bored and tired of watching what you eat, calorie counting, food restriction and despite best efforts are just plain tired).

A small calorie deficit could be maintained for the time it takes to reach the desired goal. A large deficit is not a long term solution and the adherence usually slips at around 8-12 weeks. At this point you could make it a smaller deficit or put calories at maintenance for 4-8 weeks and then attempt another round of aggressive dieting. It is important to understand that weight loss is a dynamic process and therefore doesn’t require a single rigid plan. I personally, am not great on a large deficit because I get WAY too hungry. But I have had clients who have been very successful with an aggressive approach.

This could lead us onto the topic of “starvation mode”. But that is a whole other blog topic. But…….. FYI, it doesn’t exist.

So it can be a case of trial and error to find what suits you. Not one size fits all. Don’t be scared to take your calories as low as your can. Just remember not to do it long-term. Have a break and have another round if necessary.  Happy dieting!

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