You may have come to this article looking for guidance on the exact way to reduce carbs, fats, and protein when your diet stalls.
But as someone whose job for the last decade has been coaching people online to get them shredded lean, I must tell you that making a reduction is the last thing I look to do, and I think that is the key reason why my clients are successful.
To explain, I need to first show you the bigger picture of what goes on when we diet. This guide has four sections:
- Why Adjustments Are Needed As We Diet
- Why Fluctuations In Weight and Appearance Happen
- How I Recommend You Track Progress
- When and How To Make Diet Adjustments
There is no denying that the level of conditioning you can get to and sustain has a genetic component about it, but this guide will give you the best shot at getting as lean as is possible for you.
(See here for my guide on how to bulk.)
Why Adjustments Are Needed as We Diet
We need to make adjustments to our calorie intake as we diet if we’re to be successful with our fat loss goals. This is because our initial calorie and macro calculations are estimations, and our energy needs change over time due to various compensatory mechanisms.
Weight fluctuations often mask fat loss, so it can be hard to know when to adjust. This is something most people are completely ignorant of, slashing calories when weight loss stalls and failing their diets because they can’t sustain it.
We want to remain eating as much as possible for as long as possible, and we want to make those cuts from the macros in the least compromising way.
To know when (and when not) to make adjustments, it’s essential to understand first why you need to make adjustments, why fluctuations in weight and appearance happen, and how to track your progress so that you have the right data to interpret.
The key from there is to give yourself a rule framework so that you don’t get impatient and do stupid shit.
Why Your Initial Calorie and Macro Calculations Are Only Estimations
“But the calorie and macro calculator says I should be losing weight!!”
Incorrect. The calorie and macro calculator, as with any calculator, is merely a tool to help you estimate what your intake should be for your goals. Additionally, our energy needs change over time due to various compensatory mechanisms.
There are three key parts of your calorie intake calculation. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR), an activity multiplier, and the adjustment to create the calorie deficit needed to lose weight at the rate you are targeting. The equation looks like this:
Target Daily Calorie Intake = BMR * Activity Multiplier – Calorie Deficit Needed
The BMR component of this is an estimate based on group averages. There are simple formulas and very sophisticated formulas, but they all give estimations based on group averages.
The activity multiplier is an estimate based on how active you are. There is a subjective component to this. No amount of explanations can help get around that; trying to rely on activity trackers to estimate, given their inaccuracies, is not the answer.
We have little choice but to use an initial calculation knowing that it may need to be adjusted, track our progress, and then adjust based on the outcome. This is what I do with all clients and you cannot deny that it works well.
Metabolic Adaptation — Why Our Energy Needs Decrease As We Diet
Calorie balance is what determines whether we lose or gain weight. The ‘problem’ is that energy intake affects energy expenditure. This is called metabolic adaptation.
There are particularly strong protective mechanisms designed to keep us alive during times of famine, which is why it’s easier to get fat than it is shredded lean.
It requires a 3500 kcal energy deficit to lose 1 lb of fat (7700 kcal for 1 kg). This ‘3500 calorie rule’ is often criticized because it is sometimes stated without acknowledging that our energy needs change as we diet. If this weren’t the case, all currently-weight-stable Thelma would need to do is cut out her morning frappushittino to end up skinny.
But we know it doesn’t work that way. What starts out as a calorie deficit, is eventually eroded away.
Let’s take a look at the components of Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)
Source: Trexler et al, Metabolic adaptation to weight loss: implications for the athlete. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2014. 11(1): p. 7.
- Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is our resting energy expenditure (REE) and makes up the largest component of our total daily energy needs.
As we get smaller, our BMR drops because there is less of us to maintain. However, the BMR drops further than what the tissue losses alone would predict, due to a compensatory mechanism called adaptive thermogenesis. Thyroid hormone levels decrease and mitochondrial efficiency increases, reducing energy expenditure. - Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is a posh name for energy used during “non-exercise” movement such as fidgeting or normal daily activities. This also decreases when we diet. It happens more for some people than others.
- The thermic effect of food (TEF) is the energy used to ingest, absorb, metabolize, and store nutrients from food. As we eat less, this decreases also.
- Exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT) is a posh name for the energy used during exercise. The lighter we get, the less energy we expend.
Because there are differences from person to person, it’s not possible to calculate the level of metabolic adaptation we will have, we just have to track our progress and adjust things along the way.
Am I Metabolically Damaged?
In short, no. Hormonal issues requiring medication do exist, but it’s unlikely that you have dieted your way into one.
This is a concept born out of desperation for people to explain their lack of progress when dieting. But it can be explained by three things:
- People think a single calculation at the start of a diet can predict progress through to the desired result. But as I’ve just explained, this is not true.
- Underestimating calorie intake and overestimating energy expenditure. This is well documented in the scientific literature.
- Water retention and sudden whooshes masking fat loss. This is especially common during periods of high stress (and for women over their monthly cycle), and something people aren’t aware of. (More on this in the next section.)
There are two other important responses to a sustained caloric deficit worth highlighting: increases in ghrelin and decreases in leptin. These two hormones are, broadly speaking, responsible for hunger and satiety.
So whenever someone says, “Hey, I’m eating only 1200 kcal and I’m not losing weight! What am I doing wrong?!”
The chances are that they’re underestimating calorie intake, or they are losing fat but they have some water retention, or the way they are tracking progress is inadequate to conclude that progress isn’t happening. (I’ll come back to this later).
When you factor in that shorter people have lower energy needs in a world with large portion sizes, it’s natural for this misery to be compounded and life to not seem fair. (It isn’t.)
The reality is, we just have to eat less and less to keep progressing as we diet. And at the same time, hunger increases, satiety decreases, and this sucks. This is why we need to be smart about the adjustments we make and not slash calories needlessly.
Why Fluctuations In Weight And Appearance Happen
In my articles on how to set calorie intake and when to bulk vs cut, I presented the following sketches representing fat, muscle, and weight changes for cutting and recomp phases over several months:
But in reality, the body weight line will look more like this:
The short-term fluctuations rule out any possibility of gauging progress on a day to day basis, or even week to week. But attempting to do so is a mistake people often make.
Educating yourself on the reasons these fluctuations in weight happen will help you tease out real progress from noise.
The Reasons For Large Daily And Weekly Fluctuations In Weight
It is essential to understand that scale weight change captures more than just fat mass changes.
Weight is affected by hydration status, gut and bladder content, liver and muscle glycogen storage, and any muscle mass changes.
Fat mass changes are slow to happen; muscle mass changes happen even more slowly. So, any large weight fluctuations you experience in a short time frame (hours or days) will not be muscle or fat.
You’ll have no doubt noticed that your weight fluctuates during the day. This is because of some obvious reasons, like toilet visits, water, and food intake, but also some less obvious ones, like sweat, and water loss through respiration at night. (This is why you always weigh less in the morning and your pee is yellow for that first toilet visit — you’re dehydrated.)
Just as you know not to weigh yourself at different times of the day and conclude whether you gained or lost any fat, you shouldn’t try to gauge progress day-to-day either.
Even when calorie balance is unchanged:
- If you eat saltier foods, and you will retain more water for a few days.
- If you eat more carbs than normal, they will be stored with ~3 g of water as glycogen. (And if you eat fewer carbs than normal, then you’ll use this glycogen and retain less water than normal.)
If you take a couple of days off, unless you overeat by a lot, the majority of your weight gain will not be fat:
Additionally, water retention, though common when we’re stressed, can also happen seemingly at random and can mask fat loss also. These fluctuations all affect your weight and how you look.
What is important then is not the short-term fluctuations, but the long-term trend lines. This is why the way we track our progress can make or break a diet.
How I recommend you track progress (and The MethodS I suggest you avoid)
Tracking progress is as much about knowing what to track as what not to track. Taking too many data points can almost be as bad as taking too few because you will then struggle to read the signal through the noise.
The Two Tracking Methods To Avoid
Don’t try to track your progress by a body-fat percentage estimation tool. All methods have inaccuracies and inconsistencies. I’ve talked about this here, here, and interviewed one of the world’s foremost experts about it.
Do not try to use an activity tracker to estimate your calorie burn and adjust your diet each day to the numbers it gives. These devices are also notoriously inaccurate. The activity multiplier in your TDEE calculation took care of your activity levels. Yes, they will vary a little from day to day, but this is a small part of a much bigger picture so you don’t need to worry about it.
The 8 Ways I Suggest You Track Progress
Choose one morning each week where you set aside 10 minutes to do these things. I get clients to do this on a Saturday and they update me with this data every two weeks in a spreadsheet that looks like this:
1. Weigh yourself every morning. Do this upon waking, after the toilet, before drinking anything. Note the weekly average on Saturday morning.
2. Take body measurements in 9 places. At your navel and 3 finger-widths above and below, hips, chest, arms, and legs. Note each measurement to the nearest mm.
3. Take front and side photos once every four weeks. Use the same camera, angle, pose, and lighting. Don’t rely on anyone else to take them for you.
4. Note the adherence to your weekly calorie targets as a percentage. If you go 15% over your calorie targets, write 115%. If you go 10% under your target, write 90%.
5. Rate your training adherence as a percentage of the number of training sessions completed each week. This should nearly always be 100%. If you keep missing sessions, you need to reorganize your schedule or reorganize your training volume to put it across fewer training days. (My guide for that here.)
6. Note subjective feelings of sleep quality, stress, hunger, and fatigue/lethargy on a scale of 0–5. If you have zero issues, write 0. For extreme issues, write 5.
7. Keep summary notes on your key lifts. Choose 3-6 lifts and write either ‘Progressing, recovered’ / ‘Not progressing, recovered’ / ‘Not progressing, not recovered’ each week. This will give you a snapshot of where you are at.
8. Keep a detailed training log. Log all of your working sets, but don’t clutter it by adding your warm-ups.
You can download a spreadsheet to log your data the way I get clients to and see more detailed explanations about how to take each of these data points in my guide to tracking progress.
When and how to make diet adjustments — My decision-making framework
There are two types of adjustment when dieting. The first is correcting your initial calorie calculations (if necessary). The second concerns the ongoing assessments as to whether you need to make an adjustment to keep progressing.
How To Assess and Correct Your Initial Calorie and Macro Calculations
Wait four weeks! You’ve got to wait long enough for a trend line to develop, otherwise, you’re just guessing. The blue line is how you can expect your body weight data to look:
The large initial dip you see is common when people start dieting. Less food eaten means a lower average gut content. Your carb intake will be lower, which means your glycogen stores (and thus water levels) will be lower.
Your first week of data will be fairly useless then. Your second week of data onward starts to become useful, but it takes a few weeks to assess the trend.
Additionally, if you’re new to calorie and macro counting, you can expect to make some mistakes in the first week or two, which you’ll fix. This adds more noise to the data.
Women need to wait four weeks so they are comparing the same time of their monthly cycle.
Let’s say your weight data looks like this:
| Start | 160 lbs |
| Week 1 average | 155 lbs |
| Week 2 average | 153.9 lbs |
| Week 3 average | 153.2 lbs |
| Week 4 average | 152.0 lbs |
Looking from the end of week one to the end of week four, you’re averaging 1 lb per week. Sure, some weeks have a little more or less than others, but that’s just how things are in the dieting game. If 1 lb was your target, then there’s no adjustment to be made at this point. However, if you are losing weight slower or faster than targeted, you need to make an adjustment.
Here’s the formula you use to adjust your diet:
Daily calorie adjustment = (Actual rate weight loss – target rate of weight loss) x 500
- So, if your actual rate is 0.5 lbs, you need to subtract 250 kcal daily.
- If 1lb was your target but your actual rate of weight loss is 1.4 lbs, you need to add 200 kcal daily.
“But from what macros should I adjust these calorie amounts from?“
I’m glad you asked…
How To Adjust Macros
We want to choose the least compromising way to reduce calories from your diet. Recall from my nutrition setup guidelines the broad function of the three macronutrients:
- Protein is important for satiety and muscle mass retention.
- Carb intake is important for maintaining training quality.
- Fat intake is important for hormonal function and for keeping your diet from being boring as hell.
Protein is arguably the most important of the three. Unless you’ve set your protein intake higher than I have suggested, I’d recommend that you keep protein as is, and reduce calories from a mix of carb and fat intake.
If you’re following my macro guidelines, you’ll almost always have a little more room to reduce carbs than fats. Therefore, I’d recommend your calorie reductions come from somewhere between a 1:1 and 2:1 ratio of carb and fat calories, respectively.
Bearing in mind that 1 g of carbs is 4 kcal, and 1 g of fats is 9 kcal, here’s a quick reference table of how to make reductions of different calorie amounts:
| Calorie change | Even(ish) split (Recommended) | More carbs (Recommended) | Fat only | Carbs only |
| ~100 kcal | C: 15 g, F :5 g | – | 10 g | 25 g |
| ~150 kcal | C: 15 g, F: 10 g | C: 25 g, F: 5 g | 15 g | 40 g |
| ~200 kcal | C: 25 g, F: 10 g | C: 40 g, F: 5 g | 20 g | 50 g |
| ~250 kcal | C: 30 g, F: 15 g | C: 40 g, F: 10 g | 30 g | 60 g |
| ~300 kcal | C: 40 g, F: 15 g | C: 50 g, F: 10 g | 35 g | 75 g |
| ~350 kcal | C: 40 g, F: 20 g | C: 55 g, F: 15 g | 40 g | 90 g |
So, if you need to reduce your calorie intake by ~250 kcal, I recommend you achieve this by either reducing 30 g of carbs and 15 g of fats, or 40 g of carbs and 10 g of fats daily.
If you need to increase your calorie intake by ~200 kcal, I recommend you either add 25 g of carbs and 10 g of fats, or 40 g of carbs and 5 g of fats daily.
How To Assess Your Progress and Make An AdjustmenT If Needed
When I coach people I don’t have a formal checklist or decision tree that I go through. (I’ve been doing this so long that it’s all in my head.) However, this is how I tend to think about things:
Some Important Notes on the Adjustments Flowchart
- You’ll notice that a calorie reduction is the last thing to consider. Recall from the start of this guide that we want to remain eating as much as possible for as long as possible because it’ll give us the highest chance of succeeding.
- You’ll notice that “adding cardio” is not given as an option. It’s not something I even think about because it’s so exceptionally rare that I recommend it to a client. Dietary control should be the primary driver of calorie balance, cardio should be used sparingly, if at all.
- Sharp readers will also see that we’re using bodyweight as the primary guide and not panicking if the body measurements don’t change much for a certain period. This is because the measurements don’t always pick up the changes.
- One key assumption here is that you’re losing weight at a sensible rate and so maintaining sufficient training stimulus to not lose muscle mass won’t be an issue. I’ve addressed the topic of training when cutting in another article.
- Here are links to my guides relating to the points I made on managing your food environment, motivation, stress issues, sleep issues, and how to implement a diet break.
If you’ve determined that you need to make a macro reduction, just repeat the same calculation we used before.
Simple.
Now go crush it. 💪🏻
Thank you for reading. Questions welcomed in the comments. 🙏🏻❤️
– Andy
How To Adjust Macros FAQ
If your rate of weight change is not on target, you may need to adjust your macros. However, your weight will fluctuate within each day and across the week, so make sure you weigh yourself each morning, note the weekly averages, and compare across weeks.
1. If your diet adherence has been poor, you can’t fairly judge the efficacy of your current macros, so make sure you fix that first.
2. If your sleep quality is poor or you are under a lot of stress, for those issues first as they can cause water retention, masking fat loss.
Refer to the detailed checklist:
To adjust your macros to lose weight, for every 0.5 lbs, you are short of your weekly weight loss target, subtract 250 calories from your daily food intake. Reduce carbs by 40 g, fat by 10 g — more examples of this in the table.
Protein should be set by body weight. 1 g per pound of bodyweight is a good target for most, but obese people are best to set protein intake by 1 g per centimeter of height.
I recommend 15–25% of your calorie intake come from fats when cutting, 20–30% when at maintenance or bulking. The rest should come from carbs. This means roughly 2/3 of your remaining calorie intake after accounting for protein, should be split toward carbs, with the rest to fats. More on the reasoning for this here: How To Set Your Macros for Fat Loss and Muscle Growth.
People who prefer more fat in their diet can take that higher, but I typically recommend no higher than 25% of calorie intake come from fat when dieting (30% when at maintenance or bulking), as this seems to be the sweet spot.
Though it is not my default recommendation, a few people seem to do well on higher-fat diets than this. See my article: How To Systematically Test If Keto Is Right For You.
Please keep questions on topic, write clearly, concisely, and don't post diet calculations.
Privacy policy.
Hi Andy. When it’s time to make an adjustment, would there be any benefit to making the necessary carb and fat reductions ONLY from your Rest Days? At some point, that will become impossible but again – would you recommend it say for the first couple of adjustments? So that one is still eating a larger amount of carbs on their Training Days?
No, this will likely have a negative impact on recovery.
Hi Andy,
I have a question related to the last shred PDF. For the “Weight & Measurement Checklist – Section 1” where it mentions “Did the scale weight suddenly stop changing?” Does this mean if the scale weight is going up or down, or both?
Thanks,
Peter
Hi Peter, both.
Great, thanks Andy.
Most welcome, Peter.
Andy,
Thank you for all of this incredible information. I’ve spent time reading The Last Shred and most of your articles, but had 2 questions:
1) Some of the calorie targets for the case studies in The Last Shred had different numbers than what your calculator created. Is that just you leaning on experience and expertise? Or was there something I was missing in how you set that up?
2) More importantly, I’m a short dude (just 5’4″) and wondering if there was anything I should consider for my journey since calories are going to get pretty low as a result of being so vertically challenged. Does adding cardio become an option? Or anything else you’d consider when adjusting macros?
Thanks
Paul
Hi Paul, thank you for getting the book and for the questions.
1. I take into account the client’s recent diet history (and any data points if they have them) when starting. So if someone has been dieting for a while and I know what calories and macros they have been eating, and what the outcome has been, I adjust things based on that baseline.
2. You’re shorter than average, so you’re going to have to eat less than average. Be very mindful of portion sizes when eating out. Try not to compare what you eat and what others eat. Consider setting yourself a minimum daily step target to keep your activity levels up, which will help keep your calorie needs up and stop the food volume from getting unbearably low. You could do formal cardio if you wish.
Thanks for the quick reply! And please stop me if I ask too many questions. I’m fascinated by your knowledge and practical approach.
A couple more:
1) since calories are at a premium due to my (lack of) height, would you recommend more frequent diet breaks to help adherence? Or unneeded?
2) extended breaks of 8-12 weeks (or more) worth it? Or just overkill (not just for me but in general)?
3) last question (promise): would love your thoughts on the concept of G-Flux and if you’ve ever applied it (client or yourself)?
Thanks for everything!
Paul
Hi Paul,
1. Only if you feel you need it in order to be able to sustain things.
2. Well, in general, it’s better to rip a band aid off then peel it. But if you have a lot of weight to lose then it’s fine to take it in phases. Just make sure you eat at maintenance rather than above, so you don’t regress. Otherwise, you’ll just get yourself in a diet / regain / diet / regain cycle.
3. I had to google it. Several concepts wrapped up in there, depending on what you have read. Tell me specifically what it is you want to know and I’ll happily answer as best I can.
Appreciate it, Andy.
In terms of G-Flux: the concept that physique changes can occur by driving more energy to the system through increased calorie consumption (based mostly on increasing micronutrient/phytonutrient intake) while simultaneously increasing physical activity to match that energy input and thus offset any potential energy surplus. The idea being more nutrients leads to better partitioning, I believe?
Unsustainable for the vast majority. I was just wondering if you’ve ever written about it or had any case studies, thoughts, etc about the idea. I think John Berardi’s idea of G-Flux is the most referenced/interpreted.
Hi Paul, thank you for the reply.
Gotcha, thought that might be what you’re referring to. Unfortunately, I think it’s nothing more than an idea.
If people work harder in the gym and up their calorie intake to compensate, can I see that leading to a recomp effect (simultaneous muscle growth and fat loss) when it otherwise wouldn’t? Yes. But that’s not because they are training more and burning more, it’s because their training volume wasn’t at an appropriate level in the first place.
Was my thinking, too. But wanted to get your thoughts on it. I appreciate you taking the time.
Hope you’re crushing it today, my man. Cheers.
Most welcome, Paul!
Hi Andy! Amazing article 👌🏼 I just have one question. I have been dieting for 2 weeks now and tracking my weekly average. I lost 0,8 kg but my goal is 0,5 kg a week. So I decided to up my calories by 300 for week 3. First day of week 3 I decided to have a cheat day and the scale went up by 0,7 kg the next day. I therefore eat 300 kcals less for the next 6 days of the week just like I did in week 2. My concern is what do I do if I don’t hit my weekly average because of this one cheat day?
Hi Ahmad, thank you for the question.
Do nothing. Wait four weeks. Look at the trend. Adjust from there. Do not many any further adjustments before this. Your constant fiddling is noble in its intent but screwing you up.
The reasons for this are all in the article.
Got it thanks! I will adjust every month. I have a second question. You say that if the monthly average was on target then we shouldn’t make any adjustments. But if I hit my goal that month (2 kg) do I not need to cut my calories back by about 30-40 kcals to keep on making the same progress each month? Or am I just overthinking this? Also what do I do if I had 1-2 cheat days? Do I just continue as I did or reduce for the rest of the week to make up for those days? I have been eating 2600 kcals for my first 2 weeks but my first 2 days of week 3 were about 5000 kcals. Hope you can help clear this up since this has held me back a lot from weight loss 🙏🏼
Hi Ahmad, thank you for the follow-up questions.
1. If at the end of the month you are ahead of your target, see the fifth yellow box from the top of the flowchart.
2. Best to carry on as normal rather than try to compensate. Otherwise, this can become a mental trap where you tell yourself that a “cheat” on any given day doesn’t matter because you can compensate for it on the days after.
If cheating has held you back from a lot of weight loss as you say, then you’ve set things up in a way you can’t sustain and it’s worth taking a good look at how you have set things up and whether some changes might be needed. This is exceptionally common. Here is my nutrition setup guide.
Hey there!!! Awesome awesome article! Long story short I use to be over weight 6 years ago. I worked hard and dropped weight and got into weight lifting body builder style. I had been building for 1.5 years and decided to cut back fat. I’m around 24%body fat and am pretty muscular. As I have been in a deficit between 300-500calories a day I plan to keep monitoring it for a few weeks. My next step is to bulk but my maintence calories will be different than before since I’m smaller now. Obviously, monitoring monthly trends will show real time results but what’s a good way or rule of thumb to figure out my new maintence calories before building again. Thanks so much!!
Hi Jodi, I have it covered here: How to Find Maintenance Calories After Dieting
Thanks! I just needed to keep looking.
No worries. Happens all the time. 🙂
Hi Andy,
Based on starting weight, I had a protein target of 224 grams and I have only adjusted my fat and carbohydrate intake down a very small amount in the 30 some odd weeks since starting while seeing consistently great results. I am curious about needing to scale back protein intake based on new/current weight and introduce more carbohydrates back into the diet while retaining the appropriate caloric deficit. What are your thoughts?
In any case, I am very thankful for your blog and the 60+ pound weight loss it has helped me to achieve – so thank you very much for sharing so much of your knowledge and insight!
Best,
Jared S
Hi Jared, glad to read you’ve found the guides on the site so helpful so far.
When we have a lot of fat to lose, setting protein intake per body weight can lead us to overconsume it. So, another useful heuristic, in this case, is to set protein intake the same as your height in cm. So if you are 5’11, eat 180 g. Swap the calorie difference for carbs or fats, but I’d just add 45 g of carbs to each day.
Hi Andy,
Given that my body fat % is 7%, well above essential +-4/5%, do you think it would be okay to keep fat consumption low and end up with a minimal fat and major split with protein and carbs? Say I end up eating 50% carbs, 40% protein and 10% fat.
The intention is to limit fat gain as I bulk.
Hi Z M, unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. We can’t just consume a very low percentage of dietary fat in the hope of not gaining body fat. There are conversion processes. Here’s my guide to bulking while limiting fat gain: How to Bulk Without Getting Fat
Hi Andy,
I’ve been cutting for 8 weeks now and have dropped 4.5lbs but have not seen drastic changes in my body in terms of chest/ gut fat. I’ve so far adjusted my calories once 4 weeks ago by dropping calories by 100.
My question is:
I am seeing weight go down gradually which I’m happy about BUT my body composition is being very slow in it’s changes. Do I reduce my calories again or keep it the same until my weight does not change?
thanks
Hi Jamal, thanks for the question.
You’re losing weight at a sensible pace. If you’re training hard, eating a sufficient amount of protein, you’ll at least be maintaining muscle pass (possibly gaining some). I wouldn’t let a visual, and highly subjective assessment, of progress lead you astray. Keep going.
Hi Andy,
So I have been tracking my macros wrong. By that, apparently I have been consuming 145 grams of protein a day, but I thought I was getting 155. I’m a month and a week into my cut now and the measurements and the weight loss is good and on track so far given the last shred info. Should I add back in the protein, or keep as is? Note: my starting weight was 155.
Best,
Peter
Hi Peter, whether you add the 10 g you’ve been missing or leave things as they are, it won’t make a great deal of difference either way. I’d correct it if it’s easy for you to do for your meal prep habits, otherwise don’t worry about it.
Hi Andy, great thanks. I’ll work it into my meal prep for next week.
Most welcome.
Hi,
I do IF from 12-20 o’clock and eat in the evening around 1930 always rice dry 150-170g with 1 to 2 eggs that I aim my Kcal and reach my macro goal.On the internet you can read about the large amount of carbs that makes you fat in the evening. Can I continue without fear that I will put on more fat if I eat more carbs in the evening and what about mixing carbs and fats to slow down the increase in blood sugar levels? Can I eat pure rice without mixing anything in ? Thanks
Hi Matt, thank you for the questions.
Both things you have read are common myths. Rock on. If you’d like to read further, my article on nutrient timing is here: A Nutrient Timing Guide To Maximize Fat Loss and Muscle Growth
Hi Andy,
When cutting, you say aim to lose 0.5-0.75 of your total body weight each week. After 4 weeks should you then adjust your calories if you weigh less now to keep losing weight, or is it best to refer to the Diet-Macro-Adjustments-Decision-Tree and figure it out from there?
Peter
Hi Peter,
The difference is too small to make it worth calculating for over such a short time frame. Consider it after many months.
For example, let’s say you are 200 lbs. If you aim to lose 0.75 % per week for four weeks, this is 6 lbs, 1.5 lbs per week. If you were to recalculate at 194 lbs of body weight, this would give you a weekly target of 1.455 lbs per week, which is just a 0.045 lb difference. Regardless, it would be impossible to know if this difference in your weight is part of the noise of just the typical weight fluctuation (from water, glycogen, and gut content).
Got it, Andy thanks for your reply.
Most welcome, Peter.
Hey Andy, in the Daily calorie adjustment formula, the 500 is used for lb and 1100 is used for kg or should I use 500 for kg too?
I’m almost sure I saw this (lb=500, kg=1100) in another article but I can’t find it and there’s no mention of it in here.
In this article I’ve written it as a weekly number:
It requires a 3500 kcal energy deficit to lose 1 lb of fat (7700 kcal for 1 kg). This ‘3500 calorie rule’ is often criticized because it is sometimes stated without acknowledging that our energy needs change as we diet.
1100 is for kg.
Hi Andy,
I want to reinforce how amazing your work is! I do, however, have one major doubt on how to approach this new stage of dieting.
Up until now, I have found success in losing 1% of bodyweight per week as an average, some weeks were better than others, but the trend was always there.
But now, as I am in the last week, I have actually gained weight.
Week 1: 67.46 kg – start of new adjustment 0.7kg per week ~ 1% BW
Week 2: 66.31 kg
Week 3: 65.74 kg
Week 4: 65.2 kg
Week 5: 65.31 kg
It was clearly working until this week. As a whole, I am entering now in Week 12, so maybe it is time for a diet break? Is it just water retention? New adjustment? Been consistent with food.
Thanks!
Hi Felipe,
Any sudden stall in weight loss, without a change in activity levels or food intake, will be due to water retention. This happens all the time. Don’t adjust anything.
Hi Andy,
I´ve made my calculations of the macros I need to intake daily and Protein macro resulted that I have to intake 200g daily. I can´t imagine how I can intake that ammount of protein daily. Could yo help me with this issue?
Hi Peter, thank you for the question. This is something I’ve answered in my biweekly newsletter, so I’ll copy and paste that for you:
I sometimes get questions from readers asking, “How can I possibly get in this amount of protein?!”
It shouldn’t be that hard. Here is a personal example…
I’m 6ft2 (188 cm) and weigh around 195 lbs (88 kg). I shoot for around 200 g of protein each day. This is how I eat most days of the week:
~6:30 am: 50 g protein shake early in the morning, then train. (I could split this into two, 25 g shakes, with the second one round 9 am, but I prefer the simplicity of this.)
~12 pm: ~250 g of chicken breast (this is a large breast) for lunch in a salad.
~7:30 pm: ~250 g of pork loin done as a stir fry with vegetables for dinner, along with some bread and soup. (I love bread and soup in the winter.)
The chicken and pork alone is 125 g of protein. (100 g uncooked ~=25g of protein. 5*25 = 125)
Add that to the protein shake and I’m at 175 g.
The small amounts of trace protein from the other foods will add up to a little past 200 g for the day, which is roughly what I need for my size.
I don’t find this hard. But if you’re not cooking at home, I can see how it might be if restaurants in your area are limiting. I’d recommend you cook at home. (Or see if there are any quality salad buffet places around where you are free to choose your quantities of protein. This is what I do each day for lunch.)
Hi Andy,
First of all, thank you for all the valuable information you provide. Your website is a gem I’m fortunate to have found ever since I have started lifting.
I have 2 odder questions:
1) I always gain weight during my first week of cutting. Why do you think this happens? I’m sure I’m eating in deficit. I’m very meticulous when it comes to counting calories, not to mention the hunger and cold feet (sigh).
2) Based on your experience is it easier to cut during warmer seasons? I’ve only cut during spring/summer but am tempted to do try to cut later this year, during winter. I’m afraid it’s gonna be harder, due to feeling too cold.
Hi Andrew,
1. You’re eating more fibrous food, which increases your gut content.
2. I don’t see any physiological reason why there should be a difference in success rates between summer/winter and haven’t noticed any differences in clients. That said, if the motivation to cut is tied to looking good for a beach holiday, that can obviously help.
I’ve heard of people reporting that their hands and feet feel cold during their morning fast after cutting for a while, but nothing extreme and certainly nothing that would prevent someone from cutting. Consider losing rate at a slower rate or don’t skip breakfast if it’s a bother. Otherwise, I don’t know what/why that could be.
Thanks for replying!
Regarding the first question, when I cut I keep my diet unchanged and only reduce the size of the meal. Anyway, I know that after the first week, my weight finally starts to decrease.
As for the second question, thermogenesis is what I actually had in mind. I’ve noticed that even a small caloric deficit(/surplus) makes me feel very cold(/hot). I’ve looked around and it seems other people, though very few, have this problem as well. I guess that’s just how my body works
Most welcome. Two further thoughts:
1. If your meals are truly the same, then there is no connection. Your weight fluctuated by chance on the occasions you started dieting. This happens.
2. Perhaps. Just be aware that if you look around hard enough and you’ll find a small group of people to confirm absolutely anything, right or wrong. And as the mind has a powerful effect over the body, if you convince yourself this is a problem you risk exacerbating it.
Hello, Andy!
Thank You for all the knowledge You have shared!
For the first tine i understudt how to manage my bodyweight.
This question is about my wife.
She was a sport addict for a couple of years ( mainly Criss training and trail running). About two years ago She was diagnosed with several disc herniations. She could not keep the same training rythm.
Since then She is on an ascending trend with the bodyweight (about 4 kg in two years, now She is 60 kg).
She is eating about 800 calories a day ( checked and doublececked).
Please help us by giving the major guidelines, we are stucked!
What diet and training should She adopt to lose the surplus weight?
Hi George, I have you covered here: How To Adjust Macros As You Diet To Keep Progressing
Hello Andy.
Can some modified version of this formula works for weight gain?
Daily calorie adjustment = (Target rate of weight loss – actual rate weight loss) x 500 .
Would be: Daily calorie adjustment = (Target rate of weight gain – actual rate weight gain) x 500 ???
Hi Sebastian, I’ve got the calculations for gaining weight here: how to bulk
I don’t want to lose weight but fat, do I still need to be on a calorie deficit?
Hi Gaudy, thanks for the question.
No. In this case, you’ll want to bulk: How to Bulk Without Getting Fat
Thank you! I will read this.
Most welcome.
Hello Andy I am on my fifth week of cutting. My weekly average weightturned out to be the same as last week , but I had days where I weighed 1lb less, should I write down the average or the lowest weight in this case.
Hi Fernando. Always the average.
Hi Andy, I wanted to ask about your idea of not using cardio at all. For the benefit of all the health related effects of cardiovascular improvements it should be considered on a case by case basis. Probably not factored into their daily calories but none the less the pros out weight the cons.
Hi Ryan, absolutely. My comment is in regard to adding in cardio to address calorie balance.