Calories for cutting weight?

[ivkonst2017]

On what calories have you been cutting weight?

I'm about 25 percent body fat, currently 98kg, 1.85 and have muscle as well, working on a desk with relatively low level of activity. I have been lifting 3-4 times a week for the last 3 years. Im also on 2x500mg metformin for the last 2 years. I'm on TRT as well with no other apparent health issues. TSH is around 1, but FT3 is around 2.8-3ng/l from a scale from 2-4.4.

Before I started cutting 4 months I was 103kg eating on average 3000-3500 calories. Initially I dropped 3kg the first month on 2500 kcal, but then weight loss stopped. I dropped down to 2300-2400kal and feeling hungry decent amount of the time, but weight loss is almost non existing. I train 4 times a week with weights for 1 hour intensively(doing compound as well as isolation movements) and some cardio occasionally when I have time. I do not go below 6000 steps per day.

In 2019 when I was not yet on TRT I lost more easily around 8-9kg on 2200 kcal for maybe 6 months but I lost a lot of muscle as well(later when I started TRT my appetite exploded and I bulked up to 103kg for year and a bit quarantine times included without wanting it).

Shouldn't weight loss on TRT be much easier?

 

[JohnTaylorHK]

On what calories have you been cutting weight?

I'm about 25 percent body fat, currently 98kg, 1.85 and have muscle as well, working on a desk with relatively low level of activity. I have been lifting 3-4 times a week for the last 3 years. Im also on 2x500mg metformin for the last 2 years. I'm on TRT as well with no other apparent health issues. TSH is around 1, but FT3 is around 2.8-3ng/l from a scale from 2-4.4.

Before I started cutting 4 months I was 103kg eating on average 3000-3500 calories. Initially I dropped 3kg the first month on 2500 kcal, but then weight loss stopped. I dropped down to 2300-2400kal and feeling hungry decent amount of the time, but weight loss is almost non existing. I train 4 times a week with weights for 1 hour intensively(doing compound as well as isolation movements) and some cardio occasionally when I have time. I do not go below 6000 steps per day.

In 2019 when I was not yet on TRT I lost more easily around 8-9kg on 2200 kcal for maybe 6 months but I lost a lot of muscle as well(later when I started TRT my appetite exploded and I bulked up to 103kg for year and a bit quarantine times included without wanting it).

Shouldn't weight loss on TRT be much easier?

The usual recommendation is 500 lower than your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. The difficulty comes in how you calculate TDEE. There are many websites that will do this for you. I use the one that comes with the www.cronometer.com. Others, such as TDEE Calculator: Learn Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure estimate much higher. I am happy with my weight and can keep it within +- 2 lbs. I believe cardio is essential for CV fitness, but the amount of calories you burn tend to be small. Much better to not eat those calories in the first place. I follow a medium to low carb diet, usually taking 65gms or less of carbs per day, with 80gms of protein, and filling the rest of my 1850 calories with butter and olive oil. I am much lighter than you at 125lbs, but I've been doing this for 3 years and lost 28lbs in the first 3 months. I'm between 10% and 15% body fat. Good luck!

 

[Vince]

How many calories do you need to gain or lose weight?

This easy tool helps to determine how many calories you need to gain or lose weight. Use the desire weight as an input and do it again with your current weight. The difference will be the calories you would have to add or decrease to get to your weight gain or loss goal...

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