What is your goal calorie deficit for weight loss?

Too much is a deficit is unsustainable and you'll lose motivation IMO

I've been in a 500-700 calorie deficit daily for the last several months. Lost 60lbs over the last year. I workout daily in the gym and jog for ~1hr afterwards, so I burn a ton of calories and was eating in the 1600-1750 range daily.

That said, my recent lab work had me with extremely low T and the interpretation is that I'm not eating enough and running too hard of a cardio routine. I've since started eating more and backing out cardio. My maintenance is currently 2200-2400, so I feel much better eating close to that. Energy has rebounded significantly. I did reach my goal weight though.

Edit: Like the poster above, I spent some time eating low M-F, then Grubhub my arse off all weekend re-feeding, Crumbl cookies, Chinese food, you name it.

Healthy and the way to keep it off is a pound a week.. that’s -500 cal deficit a day.

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Is there such thing as too much of a deficit?

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Absolutely. If your deficit is too much it will crash your metabolism, you’ll lose your muscle with your fat, you’ll be skinny fat and when you stop… your fat will come back quicker and thicker

I would use the link Uncle provided a few posts up, but any calculator that uses the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation should suffice. Be honest with yourself about physical activity and even consider answering down a level if you are unsure or feel in the middle.

I generally look at weight loss/caloric intake in 1-2 week intervals vs. single days. I consider 1500kcal my absolute lowest targetable daily limit with 1700 being my go to floor. I offset this with dynamic dieting (eating more on weekends) or switching to maintenance calories for 1 week a month. This way, we can make sure our daily needs are met while allowing for higher feeding days, preventing burnout and regulating metabolism.

Edit: All of this assumes proper protein intake.

People will suggest different things.
I like 1g per 1lb of body weight. I get more than that when cutting though

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Absolutely. If your deficit is too much it will crash your metabolism, you’ll lose your muscle with your fat, you’ll be skinny fat and when you stop… your fat will come back quicker and thicker

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The human body is one tricky mother, damn.

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Yep. When the body goes into starvation mode.. all bets are off

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I used to not worry too much about calories when I was landscaping, doing carpentry, etc., working outside jobs back in the day. I’m an early 40’s desk jockey these days, so I have to take way more consideration of my nutrition and what I put down the hatch.

About all you can do is start with a target and then tweak as needed. Lock in and make small changes to see what happens. When you get close adding/subtracting a few little things can help you dial it in.

Go too low for too long and you’ll get wrung out. Also, I think it helps to maintain for a while at different levels before going down again….especially when you start getting lower BF% and depending on your age.