Keeping Energy during a cut

I guess the problem is I don’t know what my true active calories are. Can you assume the Apple Watch is correct? My inbody says my Basal Metabolic Rate is 1920 plus anywhere from 800-1,000 active cals based on my watch. I’m eating about 2k cals a day with 190 grams of protein. Should I just up that?

Following.

I'm on a maintenance macro plan currently, but I too am starting to drag now that the heat has turned up. I actually did an Inbody scan today and in about six weeks I've cut to 10.3% BF from 13.3%. Here's the kicker though.....my muscle mass increased from 96.8 to 97.4. All of that's good, but I too am dragging a little more on my workouts.

I'm at about 2400 cals on workout days and 2000 on non workout days.

My splits on workout days are 257g carbs, 190g protein, and 71g on fat
Non-workout day splits are 180g carbs, 190g protein, and 79g fat.

I'm at 187 lbs. I usually miss my numbers (intentionally) on my carbs and fats, but always hit my protein numbers. I'm not missing my carb and fat numbers really badly, but I do try to not hit them. I'm wondering if I need to start hitting my carb numbers now that it's getting hotter?

How many pounds are you losing per week? A pound of fat is 3500 cals, at 1000 calorie deficit you’d be losing 2 pounds per week. That’s pretty steep.

I’m eating 2200 cals and losing one pound per week currently, lifting 4 days per week and running about 25 miles per week.

I find beta alinine, creatine, and electrolytes help me out in a cut. I also find my carb timing also effects it, I can’t have all my carbs at lunch or it’ll slow me down too much, I try to have them closer to bed.

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running about 25 miles per week.

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How much are you sleeping a night? And do you let your brain rest from blue light before falling asleep? And do you stay asleep all night?

When I started a deep calorie deficit combined with working out i found out i needed closer to 9 hours of dedicated sleep or else i was exhausted, whereas when I'm not in a deficit i can get away with closer 6 during the work week.

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prolly would bump fats about 20g and see how that treats you.

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This puts me at 2200 cals which I think is more reasonable. Going to give that a try.

well for the most part, if in a caloric deficit you are not going to be building much muscle, more along the lines of trying to maintain what you have. Now if you are newer to lifting or using anabolics that doesnt apply

so overall its pretty simple, you must be in a caloric deficit to lose body fat

protein- essentially can not be stored as body fat. very very hard for the body to convert. most satiating outside of potatoes. Due to the thermic effect of food, can almost never have enough protein even if that puts you in caloric surplus as it is so hard for the body to store as body fat.

fat- easiest of the macros to convert to body fat but fats are needed to keep hormone levels in check and for energy levels

carbs- only macro you do not have to have. but for many people they will help performance and energy levels. Carbs can be converted and stored as body fat but harder to do so than dietary fat


overall its simple....count your calories to make sure in a deficit, get 1g per lbs of bodyweight to make sure you are getting enough to maintain muscle....fill in the rest of the calories however you prefer that allows you to stay compliant.

i personally like zero carbs when cutting, but its only my preference. totally not needed.

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Are you saying you could load up on protein (say 2 grams per body weight throughout the day), and even exceed your desired caloric intake but still not put on fat because the protein won't convert to fat?

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Protein is the hardest macronutrient for your body to turn into fat. You body can turn it into fat if you are in excess of your maintenance calories. I couldn't imagine eating enough of only protein to be in a calorie surplus.