Melkor, question on deficit?

This is what is going on: I 'average' about 1650 calories a day with a 1000 calorie deficit 'daily'...by whole life revolves around when I go to the gym and eating, now including college for 3 hours 2 days a week. Obviously some days are 1250-1300 and other are 2000+ calories a day..depending on food, workout and so on.

5'3 142lbs, BF 17.9% last time I felt comfortable about the check- I'm solid! 29yrs old female

Do total body 3 days a week (lifting like a man)...husband is talking me into 2 total bodies Tues & Sat with a total leg day on Thursday. I stack this with a 45 min cardio at 65% burning about 500 calories..resistance is good. Total bodies last between 1 hour to 1 1/4 hour...1/4 because guys working out jaws instead of backs-chest-legs & so on. I do cardio on off days with 'either' Max resistance or intervals, I sometime do Kenpo. These burn between 650-800 calories for the hour I do them.

I don't work and I don't have kids just dogs. I live a very stationary life besides my gym routine. Just changed my eating and adjusted my micros to high carbs 150-200 grams, mid protein 117-135 grams (support muscle growth/preserve muscles) and mid fats 25-34 grams (all healthy)- This change has taken place within the last 3 1/2 weeks..since I starting coming hear religiously.

I'm concerned that even though I am seeing phenomenal resolutes that I would see better resolutes if I downed my deficit to 700. The scale hasn't dropped, though I know I am losing fat, The main question is how long should one stay on a specific deficit before seeing if something else works better or should I not rock the boat and stick with it until I don't either see a loss in fat or both no loss in fat and no drop in scale?

*I know the scale is only one indicator of your health and I intend on going this Friday to get the BF ran again....And if, if I lower my deficit should I increase my protein to absorb some of the carbs.

My main goal is to drop some body fat..I know the scale may never say 120 unless I was at 10% or something but I just want to lean down to a decent 14-15% , preserve as much muscle as possible, and look good by October 15th or in October. (I don't in any way dare to believe that my BF can get that low in 1 month) I've done the Velocity Diet and other high protein diets, also this workout schedule is no big deal for me. It has become second nature.

 Actually, since your body fat is relatively low your available fat mass is also low, and thus your maximum calorie deficit.

 At 142lbs and 17.9% BF, your available body fat is just (142*0.179=) 25lbs. Your body's maximum capacity for mobilizing energy from fat stores is 31cal/lbs fat mass/day, so your theoretical maximum deficit is 788cal/day, roughly.

 You'd actually see better results if you dropped your deficit down to 500-700cal/day, because when your deficit is more than what your body can mobilize from fat stores, the rest has to come from somewhere else - and there aren't that many options besides muscle protein. It's one of the reasons why those last few pounds seem so stubborn - your body simply can't move the energy out of them all that fast.

-k thanks a bunch I was checking the numbers over and over again and ran into the same thing..thank god I haven't hindered my muscle growth/development by doing it too long.

Thanks again just needed to hear it from someone else who knows what they are talking about..went to my resource 'Guardian' on another board and my friend & resource for education and proper diet has died.

Melkor could you tell me how you came up with these numbers?  how did you get 788 calories?  Could you give me the formula thanks

(weight in lbs * body fat percentage=) body fat mass in pounds.

 Theoretical max deficit/day is 31kcal/lbs fat mass(S.S. Alpert Journal of Theoretical Biology Volume 233, Issue 1, 7 March 2005, Pages 1-13 ), so

(lbs fat mass*31=) theoretical maximum daily deficit.

 Phord's calculator takes that into account if you enter a guesstimate for body fat or your measurements - and given the uncertainty inherent in most guesstimates of body fat I wouldn't push your theoretical deficit to the redline maximum, but it's helpful to have a ballpark figure for what's a useful calorie deficit target.

Please tell me if I have this right.. I am 5.1.5'' female and i weigh 127. If I put those numbers into Phords caculator I come  up with 252 for my activty deficit and 635 for my safety deficit. Does that mean that I should have a 635 deficit a day to obtain the best results? Is that my theoretical maximum daily deficit?

Yes, that's the maximum safe deficit you can have - and you're better of creating it through increasing your activity rather than by cutting calories, from a nutrition PoV.

wow, im starting to feel particulary lazy with my diet & exercise. but really erika, i think the scale for you is not really an indicator of health, i would not pay too much attention to it. it wont really tell you anything that matters in your stage.  just concentrate on the tape measure. 

oh & im so jealous of you. able to exercise like crazy, really pay attention to your diet AND (most importantly) play with your dogs. & i would love to go back to studying.

i find that zig zagging has helped me lose some body fat while maintaining muscle. i like to keep my body off balance.