Jono (00:00.91)

Jono (00:01.826)

Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Bite Me Nutrition Podcast. I don't know what to do with myself without my entry music. This will be the last week I talk about the entry music, I'm sorry. Anyway, today I'm gonna be answering the question, how big should my calorie deficit be? Which is a very fair question that we get asked a lot. And so before we dive in, I've just got a quick favor to ask pretty please, if you've ever found any part of this helpful, I'd really appreciate if you could...

either send me $1 ,000 or go and rate this podcast, whatever you feel more comfortable doing. But if you could just pick one of those, that would be really great. So yeah, you just jump into the app and hit five stars, leave a review or yeah, if you need to, if you'd prefer to transfer me a thousand bucks, just let me know, shoot me a message and we can sort out those particulars. Anyway.

Let's talk about how big your calorie deficit should be. So of course, I'm making a few assumptions in this episode, and I didn't want to go for too long. So I'm not going to be talking about what a calorie deficit is. I'm going to assume you know what that is. I'm also going to assume that you understand your own portions enough to be able to get yourself into a deficit and to adjust the size of your deficit. And also that you are confident that now is a sensible time to be in a deficit and to have a goal of fat loss. These are all very important things.

for you to know before you are able to implement what I'm talking about in this podcast. So if you don't know those things and you would like to know those things, I know a guy that can help you. He's awesome. He's currently wearing pink. But.

Let's dive in, right? So if you know all those things and you are kind of curious about, I've tried different size calorie deficits and I've had different results or I had less than stellar results at certain times, there's absolutely a few things that we need to consider. The first, as always, the caveat of certain medical conditions are going to impact the size of the deficit that you can safely maintain. That's kind of it. So if you do have significant medical conditions, I would stop.

Jono (02:04.15)

I wouldn't take advice from a podcast for starters, but it also means that some of the advice I'm about to give may not be relevant for you, right? Because those medical requirements trump all. Another really big one is any training goals that you currently have. as a rule of thumb, the greater the deficit, the bigger impact it will have on your performance and your recovery. That's not.

No, it's pretty much always true. And I think too many people try and cheat that rule and just break. So you'd better off just accepting that that's the deal. so if you have a important training goal or just, you know, training performance is really important to you, then, I would go for a smaller, more milder deficit. And just for context, I would consider a mild deficit anywhere from say 10 to

maybe 20 % of your maintenance. So yeah, like a 10 to 20 % reduction in your maintenance calories, maybe pushing up to 25 % reduction would be considered mild. And I would say moderate is sort of 25 to 40 and aggressive is anything over 40 % of reduction. So if you have training goals, I'd be shooting for that 10 to 25 % reduction. Now the other consideration is your size. And I literally just mean how big you are as a person.

and your activity levels, because basically those are the two main contributing factors to your maintenance calories. So if you are a smaller human being and you are not super active, you're going to have small maintenance calories or lower maintenance calories. so reducing 1600 by 30 % is very different to reducing 3000 by 30%. Right? So even though, yeah, it's the same percentage, the absolute number is quite different. And that's really, really important. So

If you are a smaller human being who is not super active and so your maintenance calories are already quite low, I would probably stay away from a more aggressive deficit and go for a milder deficit. Otherwise, it might be a bit of a sign that you actually shouldn't be pursuing fat loss at all and you should be focusing on things that will increase your maintenance calories, largely trying to focus on gaining a little bit of muscle and absolutely trying to increase your average movement via steps or.

Jono (04:29.59)

physical activity on the weekend, bush walks, bike rides, or start playing a sport or actual formal physical activity in the way of gym classes or formal sport, dance, martial arts, all of those sorts of things as well. yeah, basically the smaller your maintenance calories are, the less aggressive you can probably go with your deficit. And if you don't like that, you can take some time to try and do something about your maintenance calories. The next, I would say this is the...

the number one deciding factor that I use with clients outside of medical conditions and training goals is what they've done historically, right? So if you have historically tried big deficits, i .e. slashing your calories in half or no carbs or you've gone very aggressive and you've done that multiple times and you're listening to this podcast, I'm going to assume that that was unsuccessful.

And so if what you have done in the past has been unsuccessful, it makes sense to try a different approach. And so for someone who has tried lots of aggressive or even moderate deficits, I would strongly recommend instead trying a milder deficit. Yes, your progress will be slightly slower, but you may actually get there instead of yo -yoing back and forth. that is, I would say on average, more of the sort of people that I work with is people who have tried aggressive or moderate way too many times.

And they would actually be way better served by doing a milder deficit. But absolutely, I've also had other clients who would be better served from going harder for shorter because they've tried mild and that just results in them sort of being one foot in one foot out. They're kind of half committed, but they're not. And then life gets in the way. I don't really see any progress and they never really, they don't just really do it. So for those people, if you've tried the mild, I'd say gentle approach and of course the caveat of don't mark your relationship up with food. So do it.

be cautious with a more aggressive approach. But if you've got a solid relationship with food and you've tried mild a few times and it hasn't gotten you the results that you want, I would go for a shorter period of time, a moderate to potentially even aggressive size to deficit because that could be the difference. That could be the thing that locks you in. You get it done. It kind of helps with that mental focus. And so that is why I think

Jono (06:50.622)

Historically, what you have done is actually a really, really important factor. If you've tried one size deficit a few times and it hasn't worked, don't do the Einstein thing. What is it? The definition of insanity is repeating it. You know what? It probably wasn't even Einstein that said that. I've just like heard that off the internet. So take that with a grain of salt. But anyway, don't keep repeating stuff that hasn't worked for you. Try a different size deficit.

Hopefully that's helped. So in summary, medical conditions are a big deal. Training goals will be a big deal. If you've got big training goals, then you're probably gonna wanna stay for 10 to 20 % deficit. If you are a smaller human being who doesn't move very much, you're probably gonna need to stay to a 10 to 20 % deficit or take some time to try and build up that metabolic capacity via gaining some muscle and then absolutely trying to move a bit more. And then historically, if you have tried...

aggressive or even moderate deficits a bunch of times and they haven't stuck or you've had short term results and then broken afterwards, I would absolutely encourage you to instead try a milder, longer term approach. And on the flip side, if you have tried lots of milder, gentler approaches and still haven't gotten the results that you've wanted, then maybe taking it a little bit lower and pushing a little bit harder for a slightly shorter period of time into a more moderate or even aggressive diet could be the shift that you need to get those results. So

let me know if this has helped. And like I said as well, like if it has helped, you're either welcome to like shoot me a thousand bucks, that would be fine. Or you could just leave a review as well. So either of those would make me eternally grateful. right, chat to you next time.