How to calculate daily calorie deficit for cutting?

[LunaHotel]

Firstly I want to thank N Pursuit for turning me to fitday.com at this post : http://www.anabolicminds.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6442

Fitday.com lets you enter all the foods you eat, and all the activities you do, your bodyweight, etc. etc. etc. on a daily basis. This is very helpful to learn about how much fat/carb/protein and calories one consumes.

Now here I am, weighing 208 and I want to cut 15 lbs of fat by July 15 - If possible, of course. My daily maintenance intake, as calculated by fitday.com is 3850 on a training day. How much caloric deficit can I use, how do I calculate this?

Thanks

 

[Patuba]

If you try and loose 15 lbs. before July 15, you'll probably loose alot of muscle as well. That's alot of weight to loose in such a short peroid of time.

 

[motleybreu]

http://www.anabolicuniverse.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225 if you didnt join, you have to, but it's a chart about maintaining, bulking, and cutting

 

[elijah_123]

THe upper end of weight loss should be 2lb a week. At that you'll want to run something to prevent muscle loss (fina,1-test etc) or you'll loose some muscle. I would suggest you try and drop no more than 6 lb by july 15. Unless you are going to drop some water weight, then maybe you can do it. BUt you will loose muscle.

 

[LunaHotel]

Thanks motleybreu, that seems to be pretty much what I need. Interestingly though, fitday.com gives me 3850 as maintenance calories on a training day, whereas this chart says 3150, which is a pretty substantial difference to begin with. So this begs the question : Are you guys finding these calorie counts to be reliable? I'm a little confused by such a large discrepancy.

I'm aware that dropping a lot of weight fast can be a problem, but for me right now mass isn't that important because I'm not even back to where I was 2 years ago when I was injured, so my muscle memory is the main propeller of my gains, as opposed to "new growth", which is WAY more precious to keep. In other words, putting on 10lbs of muscle for me is a piece of cake because my body has been there, and for a good while at that. Now, the next 10 lbs after that, is going to be another matter entirely.

But I want to see my abs... Being soft is NO FUN. So what I want to do is cut the rest of the fat, bring it from about 18% now to around 8% to 10% and start growing again from THERE.

 

[elijah_123]

I understand about wanting to see abs but you have to consider the muscle there will shrink also. I look worse at the end of a diet if I cut too much. I like keeping the muscle mass the same and taking fat away, it makes what is there look bigger and the fat left is smaller. Would you rather be 200lb with 20 lb of fat or 160 with 20 lb of fat. You'll look alot better at 200.

 

[LunaHotel]

OK I'm back with this. Today, fitday.com tells me I have a 700 calorie deficit. That doesn't tell me if it's a lot, or if that will make me lose 1lb of fat a month... At what rate do I burn the fat in relation to my calorie deficit? What is the max calorie deficit that is a good idea?

Thanks for any help

 

[elijah_123]

Every time you are 3500 calories under you loose a pound of weight.

So if you are under 500 calories per day you will be 3500 calories under per week, and loose one pound a week.

The highest defecit you should look for unaided by drugs is 1000 per day or 2 lb of weight a week. Even at that level you are in serious danger of loosing muscle.

 

[Blacksmith]

Here's a handy page for getting shredded. I use it for contest prep. Actually starting next Monday.

http://eastcoastmuscle.com/precontestdiet.htm