I have been lifting for about 9 years now, with a couple injury breaks/setbacks.

Throughout that time, I have consumed a large amount of literature/podcasts/YouTube content on diet and nutrition.

My genetics predispose me to carrying all of my weight in my gut. My dad, uncles, and grandad are or were skinny with pot bellies. Not ideal.

I have tried a number of different diets with limited success- I did paleo and “near-paleo”for ~1 year on two separate occasions. Both times I got good-not-great results.

I’ve done basal metabolic rate tests periodically over the last couple of years which put my BMR at around 1900 calories.  I’ve used that number as a basis for calorie cuts or bulks without a huge impact.

This spring, following a 10 day vacation, I found myself at my second highest weight, and decided it was time to do something about it.

1. I added cardio every day. I don’t go for time or distance goals, I do calories as displayed by whatever machine I’m using. I alternate through the week with treadmill, elliptical, rower, assault bike, and one outdoor run or ruck. (When you look at a food item with 300 calories and convert that to minutes on the assault bike, it’s much easier to eat healthy )

Then I do my lift, which is a slightly modified westside conjugate method. I lift 4 days a week with 2 lower body, and 2 upper body days, with Wednesday in the middle usually being my outdoor run/ruck.

2. I only eat one meal a day, which is dinner. I do not limit my calories, but it varies between 600-1200 calories. I don’t sweat it. I do limit carbs to <100 per day.

To supplement, I have ~ 4 protien shakes throughout the day. One when I wake up at 530, one after I lift at about 9, and two at lunchtime one hour apart.

My usual day is 1200-1400 calories. But that’s too little! you might say.

For a sustained period, yes. But in the last month I have lost 16 lbs, where normally it has taken me 3 months to lose that amount.  I have about 10 lbs to go, and I expect the progress will slow. In the meantime, my lifts are staying steady or slowly going up, my run times are going down, and I feel great in terms of energy.

All that to say, sometimes it takes a more extreme approach than what conventional wisdom would say. I think my genetics allow me to function on fewer calories than most people, which is probably why to get results I need to cut them more significantly.

TLDR: sometimes you need to get drastic to see results. If you’re a bit hungry throughout the day, and you’re leaving sweat puddles at the gym, that’s a good sign you’ll meet your goals.

Yep

Or it might be that drastic differences are easier to maintain than minor differences.

Which is easier to recognize? Eating too many desserts in a week where you are allowed some or eating too many when you are allowed none? Stark contrast is easier to observe and monitor than subtle contrasts.

Also, not every apple has the same number of calories. Use the calorie numbers (for exercise and food) as rough estimates. Trying to micro-manage small caloric intake restrictions over long stretches may fail (or even be counter-productive) simply because you aren’t actually limiting the calories. There’s no way to test the apple you pull out of the bag to determine if it’s more or less calorically dense than this hypothetical apple calorie count you found on a chart somewhere.