Ignoring those people who deny the energy balance equation or even the concept of calories, the fact is that losing fat requires a calorie deficit. But that raises questions of how to set the deficit (i.e. exercise vs. diet vs. a combination) or even the size of the deficit. Today I’m going to focus on the latter and examine the pros and cons of different size calorie deficits.
To keep the article from getting too complicated and long I am going to assume for simplicities sake that whether or not the deficit is created via dietary restriction or exercise the end result is basically the same. Please note that this really isn’t a safe assumption. There are differences but those have to wait for another article.
Defining Different Sizes of Calorie Deficits
For the sake of this argument, I’m going to define the deficits as follows:
- Small: 10-15% below maintenance
- Moderate: 20-25% below maintenance
- Large: anything bigger than 25% below maintenance
Note, I’m not saying that these definitions are the exactly right ones, they are simply how I define the terms. … Keep Reading