The Perfect Calorie Deficit
- Josh Eyre
- May 13, 2020
- 2 min read
Definitions:
Deficit - The amount by which something, especially a sum of money, is too small.
Calorie - The energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1 °C.
So, a deficit of calories is less calories than what we would need to maintain our weight and composition. But you already know that.
But how much of a deficit should you create in order to get the best results in the least amount of time?
Let us use a hypothetically example of 2000Kcals per day being the maintenance number, if they were to have 1999Kcals per day they would lose weight/body fat. That said, it is likely going to take them quite a while before they see any real changes, so not ideal.
For most people and clients of mine the sweet spot is usually around the 20% mark (20% deficit of calories), so using 2000Kcals per day again their deficit would be 1600 Kcals per day.
The smaller the deficit/percentage the easier it will be, you will not be as hungry all the time, your mood should not alter too much and your concentration will be better. This may take slightly longer to achieve results, but it will be much easier to stick too.
The bigger the deficit/percentage the harder it will be, you will likely be hungry more often, you may have more mood swings and you may also find it harder to concentrate at work. Positives from this is you would get results quicker, assuming you can stick at your diet for long enough.
There is a theory out there called the “starvation mood” where it is said that if you create too big a deficit your body will cling onto fat… This is not true, this is laughable. If this was true there would be no such thing as world hunger. This theory has more than likely been made up by someone who was/is struggling to lose weight because they were undercalculating what they were actually consuming. There is no scientific evidence to back this theory up.
Extreme example: (when I say this I mean no disrespect to any POW) You look at a prisoner of war (POW) who would have been kept on a diet of as low as 300Kcals per day, they were not walking around blaming the “starvation mood” and holding rolls of fat on their belly, they were servilely malnourish and certainly were not “clinging on to body fat”. Their metabolism would have slowed down obviously to try become as efficient as possible with the energy they had.
Back the question, how much of a deficit should you create in order to get the best results in the least amount of time? – There is not one perfect answer, but I would suggest you start at 20% and tweak from there, you may find 20% is easy to adhere to and you increase it or you may find 15% works better with the stress of your job and family life. This process is very individual.
Stay safe,
Josh.
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