Your Deficit is Tattling on you
What your deficit rate of loss reveals about your true maintenance range.
Your Deficit Is Tattling On You 😬
Have you ever started a fat loss phase and your rate of loss was significantly more than expected?
You think you're eating 300 calories below maintenance...but the scale says: “Nice try.”
This happened in a recent client check-in, and it’s not an anomaly.
Here’s the breakdown 👉
The Check-in
Client B is 4-weeks into her spring fat loss phase, and we dropped 300 calories, expecting around a ~0.6-0.7 lb/week rate of loss.
The reality: we’re averaging closer to -1.2lbs/week.
The Check-in
This isn’t just a glycogen flush or a metabolic miracle of eating at maintenance for a while.
I told her:
B I have good news and I have bad news:
The good news? You’re crushing this deficit.
The bad news? You suck at tracking at maintenance 😅.
B laughed and nodded, because she knew what I was getting at.
What Happened:
So what happened? She didn’t just drop 300 calories and have a miracle fat loss phase.
She dropped 300 + all the unlogged extras:
A few drive-by donuts 🍩
Leftover Halloween candy 🍬
An extra ice cream cone after Friday date night
She went from “kinda” tracking to ACTUALLY tracking, and that’s where the extra deficit came from.
Here’s a visual of that 👉
What Happened:
Why This Matters
Her original “maintenance”? Not 1900. That was her under-tracked intake. Her actual maintenance is closer to 2200. And here’s why that matters 👇
Some of y’all think this is no big deal, “I don’t mind under-tracking. I’m not gaining.”
But here’s the problem: You’re not consistently eating at maintenance. What you’re actually doing is:
✅ Accurately tracking some days at 1900
🍩 Eating 2600 other days (unlogged)
Over time this creates a low-adapted maintenance state, which means future deficits? Will be harder, slower, and less effective.
Why This Matters
If you’re gonna track maintenance, track maintenance.
Not just the things you want your coach or you to see.
If you’ve been stuck second-guessing your “maintenance”… your current deficit might already be doing the math for you.
Let your data work for you, not against you.
