Comments on: Setting the Deficit – Small, Moderate or Large

By: lylemcd

lylemcd — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:58:15 +0000

At some later date I will explain what I think is hapepening in full. For now, simply take it at face value and/or MAGIC! But that’s what invariably happens.

By: bec

bec — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:23:59 +0000

Hi Lyle,

Your articles are fantastic.
However, I do have a question.
I’ve read both here, and in one of your books (Rapid Fat Loss Handbook) that engaging in a lot of activity (mainly aerobic) while on a very low calorie diet can slow weight loss efforts?
Why is this?
If one has a high caloric deficit and then increases that with exercise, according to the energy balance equation wouldn’t that increase weight loss? I understand that with such a big deficit, the negative hormonal responses of your body are increased but you yourself have said that they’re not enough to eliminate the deficit completely.

If you could clear this up for me it would be much appreciated!!

By: TCO

TCO — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:49:07 +0000

I also totally changed my eating pattern. Lots of minimeals. Lots of volume. Eat breakfast. Eat late (a salad before bed). Eat when not hungery (heresy!) But I found doing this totally pre-empted cheats. It really really did.

By: TCO

TCO — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:47:15 +0000

I ran Nutrisystem with a big emphasis on added-in veggies. (Heck I really learned how to cook from NS, was eating at restaruants very dinner before.) Had some decent exercise so that even at a bit over the recommended 1500 calories/day, I was still doing 1500 calories/day deficit. I think this was best for me. More motivating. And taught me good patterns. Went from 230 to 160 in 7 months.

Never cheated though. Cheating is the killer. It’s not just the calories from the cheat but how it screws your willpower up for the long haul.

P.s. I think the best way to “measure your deficit” is to look at your long term loss rate and impute the deficit from that. If you are doing consistent activities and a certain diet and have 3#/week loss rate, then you must mathematically have a 1500 calorie deficit. Forget figuring it out from the ground up. Just use what the loss rate implies.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:29:11 +0000

So if someone is doing a small deficit of say 10-15%, and is below 10% body fat (cat 1 dieter), do they really need to be doing free meals and/or refeeds or this that meant for larger deficits?

Thanks.

By: justin r

justin r — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:03:25 +0000

I’m with Tony K on that one. If I wake up and I’m not hungry, too busy, or just a little hungry I usually let it ride till I’ve been 14-16hr without food……Which is IF
However, U do have to eat bigger meals on IF. Thats just the way it is. This can cause problems. It can make you sleepy bloated or just low on energy. For me it basically comes down to weather or not you like the feeling of fasting and then eating big meals or just snacking and having a more even energy level. Also……If you work out A LOT. Like hours of Martial Arts a day. IF can be tough. Sparring after a big meal doesn’t work well…..obviously. Sparring in a fasted state is great but……if you go for too long you might have a blood sugar crash. Which is also a problem. But I must say, most of the best martial artists spar on some kind of an empty stomach…..just eating small snacks to keep themselves going until a big meal when it’s all over.
This is only from my experience with Krav Maga though. (But I have been doing it for a long time)
Bottom line- digesting food takes energy and if you work out while your digesting a lot your workouts will suffer.

By: Nobody

Nobody — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:15:25 +0000

It’s all about transitions. You go higher deficit at certain times, lower deficit at certain times. A diet can manipulate carbs and fat, but protein has to stay constant based on body size, mostly. You go lower carbs, lower fat at certain phases, then lower calories, depending on how the diet is affecting you (plus, an eye towards your current workout regime).

People seem to want to do one thing or the other, but with tracking and a bit of ‘listening to your body’, transitioning from one ‘type’ of diet to another as you lose seems to work pretty well, at least for me. YMMV, FWIW, IMO.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:12:34 +0000

Who said anything about my frosted flakes diet controlling hunger and preserving LBM?

By: TonyK

TonyK — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:02:45 +0000

I always get a chuckle when people get really dogmatic about some new type of diet or training approach. IF is fine….in fact, I follow some IF principles a few times a week, but to call it the “best type of eating” is missing the point.

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:53:27 +0000

Sorry Lyle but what do you mean when you say large deficit diets greatly affect ‘metabolic parameters’, is this just hormones or is it more???