What's the largest deficit you ran and for how long?

[Buffed Shark]

We are talking from a cutting perspective not weight loss on the scale. I.e. minimal muscle loss resulting in a successful cut.

Arguably the larger the BF% the more one can sustain larger deficit. What's your experience?

 

[Civdiv]

I ran about 800-1000 deficit for about 6 months, and for a month and a half of it dropped to a 1200-1500 deficit. Averaging about 200p/50f/80c at my lowest. Starting the 1000 calorie deficit I was around 18-20%. The larger deficit took me from 13%ish to 8% on a dexa with nearly no muscle loss. Tirz was my friend but it definitely sucked.

 

[RockyP]

I’ve experimented with severe deficits 1500+ for a few weeks. In my experience it didn’t do anything worthwhile. Even on thyroid meds, HRT, and GH, there wasn’t any more progress than a 700-1000 deficit. Who knows if being on Tren would change that. It might. For whatever reason I’ve found my body mostly prefers a 750 or so deficit. Every time I say to myself after a long day, how about some more cardio? I just remember that what really moves the needle is being consistent in the deficit over many weeks / months. Not a few days of starvation and lots of activity.

 

[Buffed Shark]

I’ve experimented with severe deficits 1500+ for a few weeks. In my experience it didn’t do anything worthwhile. Even on thyroid meds, HRT, and GH, there wasn’t any more progress than a 700-1000 deficit. Who knows if being on Tren would change that. It might. For whatever reason I’ve found my body mostly prefers a 750 or so deficit. Every time I say to myself after a long day, how about some more cardio? I just remember that what really moves the needle is being consistent in the deficit over many weeks / months. Not a few days of starvation and lots of activity.

I totally agree on the consistency part. Always whats most effective. But what do you mean you didn't realize any difference between a 1500 and a 750 calorie deficit?

This should practically cut your cutting time in half if you can sustain it obviously with proper macros cardio yada yada. Care to elaborate?

 

[RockyP]

I totally agree on the consistency part. Always whats most effective. But what do you mean you didn't realize any difference between a 1500 and a 750 calorie deficit?

This should practically cut your cutting time in half if you can sustain it obviously with proper macros cardio yada yada. Care to elaborate?

My weight did drop more on the 1500 deficit but i looked like ass. Flat, tired, etc. On the 750 deficit I look / feel better and perform better in the gym, which lets me know I'm holding on to more lean tissue. The big caveat however is that this was done without tren, which can be a game changer. I'll never forget a session i had in my 20's when I was running a keto diet eating mostly white fish with nut butter sauces as my fat source. I was running tren 100 mg eod and weighed about 245 lbs. I was able to pull a set of 12 clean BB rows at 365 on 700 calories. Tren changes all of these metrics, but it's a personal preference on if / how long to run it.

Just yesterday for example, my deficit was about 1400 calories - 12k steps, two 30-min sessions of cardio, 2 hour training session - woke up feeling like shit, flat, and 2 lbs HEAVIER, likely from inflammation and holding water. That said, I haven't had a rest day from the gym in a week, overdue for that. And it's just one day among others where the deficits were 500 - 1000.

 

[buck]

I ran a deficit for 6 months for my first show to lose 1-2 lb a week between that and the cardio

 

[Buffed Shark]

I ran a deficit for 6 months for my first show to lose 1-2 lb a week between that and the cardio

We are talking about above average deficits. 500 cals is a standard social media deficit at this point. Helathy but slow especially for those who have more than few lbs to loose

 

[Buffed Shark]

My weight did drop more on the 1500 deficit but i looked like ass. Flat, tired, etc. On the 750 deficit I look / feel better and perform better in the gym, which lets me know I'm holding on to more lean tissue. The big caveat however is that this was done without tren, which can be a game changer. I'll never forget a session i had in my 20's when I was running a keto diet eating mostly white fish with nut butter sauces as my fat source. I was running tren 100 mg eod and weighed about 245 lbs. I was able to pull a set of 12 clean BB rows at 365 on 700 calories. Tren changes all of these metrics, but it's a personal preference on if / how long to run it.

Just yesterday for example, my deficit was about 1400 calories - 12k steps, two 30-min sessions of cardio, 2 hour training session - woke up feeling like shit, flat, and 2 lbs HEAVIER, likely from inflammation and holding water. That said, I haven't had a rest day from the gym in a week, overdue for that. And it's just one day among others where the deficits were 500 - 1000.

I know exactly what you mean minus the tren part

 

[wp_375]

I lost 52lbs of fat in ~5 months while adding 20 someodd pounds of FFM which worked out to roughly a ~1200 calorie deficit per day. Calculated with beginning and ending Dexa scans.

Better living through chemistry and all

 

[RockyP]

If I were to optimize things and really push the envelope I’d go something like test / tren / GH / Reta with 1000-1500 deficit for 12-16 weeks. I’d prob start Tren low and push it up higher as the diet went on to increase / max out the anticatabolism. GH is also very anticatabolic itself and this can be done without Tren though I think Tren would make a massive difference as the deficit grows.

 

[buck]

We are talking about above average deficits. 500 cals is a standard social media deficit at this point. Helathy but slow especially for those who have more than few lbs to loose

The original post did not mention any range for the deficit. There was just a general question.

 

[BlackVeil]

4 months. 270 ish (i would have to look at the log here to remember) to 195.
Every single day was pretty much the same, protein shake, and rotisserie chicken for dinner.
Shake was 900, with the chicken probably around 1300 ish calories. I wouldn’t be surprised if my deficit was well over 2000 daily, but I have no idea tbh with how physical my job is.
Test+tren+hgh+tirz.

 

[Buffed Shark]

4 months. 270 ish (i would have to look at the log here to remember) to 195.
Every single day was pretty much the same, protein shake, and rotisserie chicken for dinner.
Shake was 900, with the chicken probably around 1300 ish calories. I wouldn’t be surprised if my deficit was well over 2000 daily, but I have no idea tbh with how physical my job is.
Test+tren+hgh+tirz.

How did you guage how much muscle you kept, strengths changes?

You dont need to track if you are on autopilot deficit makes things simple if u can stick to it

 

[phenominal34]

I lost 52lbs of fat in ~5 months while adding 20 someodd pounds of FFM which worked out to roughly a ~1200 calorie deficit per day. Calculated with beginning and ending Dexa scans.

Better living through chemistry and all

I’d get that dexa scan checked out… or it was a lot of water screwing up the figures. You do realize you didn’t gain 20lbs of muscle or lean mass tissue in 5 months let alone on a 1200 calorie a day deficit.

 

[wp_375]

I’d get that dexa scan checked out… or it was a lot of water screwing up the figures. You do realize you didn’t gain 20lbs of muscle or lean mass tissue in 5 months let alone on a 1200 calorie a day deficit.

Says what it says, don't know what to tell you. I was pretty sedentary and fat as all fuck before and had abs after at 230. I was off GH and everything that might make me keep a bunch of water for around a month before doing the after scan. Both scans were in the morning on an empty stomach post morning shit without drinking anything. Before and after pictures look like you would expect the stated bodyfat percentage to be.

 

[Massreg]

Last prep I ran, earlier this year, I was around 1100 cals for around 10 weeks straight.. My current maintenance is around 4100. It was not a fun time.

 

[Deadpool99]

4 months, doing 6 day water fast and 1 day maintenance calorie cheat day.

Second biggest is 1600 kcals + 160mcg clen + 80mcg t3 for 10 weeks.