Wrt fat loss, it is common to hear "you should gradually reduce calories. Otherwise, if you cut calories too fast, you will have nowhere to remove calories from once your metabolism adapts and fat loss stalls." This is bullshit. And it's a variation of the "metabolic damage" boogeyman. When people heed this advice, what usually ends up happening is they end up in this limbo "dieting" phase where no progress is made—because they end up not cutting enough calories which lands them in the maintenance range. This is such a common problem that many physique athletes will set aside 16-20 weeks for prep but they actually won’t make any meaningful progress until the last ~8-10 weeks when they realize they are behind and they need to cut kcals asap.
Assuming same BW and body composition, once kcals are below the lower threshold of maintenance, metabolism does not continue to downregulate. Obviously, metabolism rapidly adapts to kcal intake down AND up within the maintenance range. That's why maintenance is a ***range***.
It is much more productive to approach fat loss with the mindset of "I'm going to set my calories at a deficit and range which GUARANTEES I will be progressing every week, that the bodyweight WILL be decreasing every week, and I will use refeeds to pump the brakes (e.g. if already pretty lean, losing more than 1 lb per week)." Unless you're a rank newb, as a natural you will NOT put on muscle in a calorie deficit or maintenance. What this also means is you generally are also not losing any fat if BW is not going DOWN every week.
How aggressive should this deficit be? I can't give you absolute hard criteria but let's play around with a scenario:
Bodybuilder's lower threshold of maintenance is 2,000 kcals. If they employ the typical strategy to gradually reduce calories from an offseason kcal intake of 3,000-3,500 kcals, they likely won't start seeing **consistent** fat loss until they get down to 1800 kcals. If he uses a more aggressive approach, what is a safe kcal intake from a LBM preservation standpoint?
1,000 kcals/day? Probably too aggressive even with refeeds.
1,400-1,600 kcals/day? Likely just fine, especially with refeeds deployed at the optimal time with optimal amounts/kcals/carbs.
You probably should have 4 meals per day.
You probably should emphasize peri-workout nutrition.
From a satiety perspective, I think it's ideal to set up your diet (e.g. food choices, volume per meal) so that you can achieve pretty good satiety through the entire day with a final total daily kcal intake that is significantly BELOW the "safe" kcal intake. It gives you the freedom to add food to get back up to the "safe" kcal intake from a baseline of already being pretty satiated throughout the day.
When in a significant calorie deficit/low kcal intake, you will generally experience much less olfactory/palate fatigue and your taste buds will be highly sensitive to flavors—even from foods that others would consider "plain and boring." If pure junk such as donuts is like 10/10 enjoyment, and your experience of "plain and boring" food is 7-8/10 enjoyment, I would capitalize on this—especially if you pick the right foods and can hit a volume threshold to achieve satiation at each meal.
My go to is puffed kamut + TN flavor packs. Oh and leave the pure junk for refeed days, which will be quite frequent if you’re in an aggressive deficit.
Here is what my baseline "satiated all day" diet looks like. I will typically add kcals towards the end of the day to get the kcals from 1440 kcals back up to ~1650-1750. If I plan to eat out at night and I want to keep it a low day (not refeed), I will substitute that meal for meal 4; with a leeway to hit 1600-1800 kcals, that leaves me 500-700 kcals to play with.
Let's say I eat out my last meal of the day and want to really enjoy myself but not turn it into a full on refeed/binge. I go into that last meal having already eaten 3 meals that tasted great, left me satiated, and conferred good satiety throughout the day. I have only eaten 1100 kcals. Let's say that last meal is like 1800 kcals which puts me at 2900 kcals for the day. Since the upper threshold of my maintenance is around 2700 (lower threshold of maintenance is 2000), I'm going to barely put on any bodyfat. And I'll get right back to baseline or even below with ~1 low day.
I'll walk you through exactly why I have my diet set up like this. And for more details, you can refer to my other two articles on satiety. Here. And here. I really can't stress this enough. A lot of lifters want to maintain a very lean physique year round but end up having to settle with being soft bc they can't psychologically handle their poorly constructed calorie limited diets. Pick the right foods, construct the diet optimally, and you will find staying very lean year round or dieting down pretty easy.
Goal here is satiety all my waking hours, hitting satiation ceiling all meals, enjoying all meals (aka TASTES GOOD), eliminating cravings. None of this intermittent fasting bogus. I hit the satiation ceiling with all 4 of these meals. I look forward to all these meals and enjoy all of them. Don't be fooled by the low calories/meal. When it comes to satiation, GRAMS of total food volume is way more important. Again, if you doubt this, read my satiety articles linked above.
Couple servings of fruits and veggies to hit micros. Out of all protein sources. I feel broccoli and cauliflower pair best with lean ground beef.
I stick with savory protein sources every meal bc of IMP + MSG umami synergy which enhances satiety (between meals). This IMP + MSG umami synergy is only possible with savory protein sources—so ditch the shakes and anabolic ice cream. I put a couple drops of maggi sauce (MSG) on every savory protein source (soy sauce and aminos are good options as well). Btw, the umami in eggs is only in the egg yolks, NOT egg whites. When dieting hard, if you don't consume enough micronutrients and vitamins, you will feel hungrier throughout the entire day. And when it comes to micronutrients, it is hard to beat salmon, egg yolks, and beef. I use my sous vide to cook my chicken breast at 142 degrees for 1 hr and salmon at 120 degrees for 45 min-1hr. Texture is impeccable and even fine dining restaurants can't touch what my sous vide can do.
I use puffed kamut as my STARCHY carb source every meal bc it is unrivaled for satiation (within meals). You need to hit an 800-900 gram volume threshold for a meal to even skirt the lower bounds of satiation. I kid you not. Puffed kamut is a satiation bomb. And read carefully, I am not sponsored by puffed kamut. I have nothing to gain by promoting this carb source. I don't even have a damn cookbook to sell you bc the way I prepare my puffed kamut is easy and idiot proof. I use 32 grams (100 kcals) worth of puffed kamut each meal bc when paired with a savory protein source, it allows me to hit that satiation ceiling. I don't recommend more than 100 kcals worth of puffed kamut per meal bc I feel it is overkill from a volume standpoint. If you need more carbs/kcals, I would recommend sticking to simpler and more calorie dense carbs after. No need to abuse the volume. I eat the puffed kamut like a cereal with 800 cc of cold water + 4 grams True Nutrition Chocolate Flavor pack + couple drops of ez-sweetz sucralose. By itself, puffed kamut is nutty and slightly buttery but it is NOT sweet. Whatever liquid you pair with puffed kamut needs to be sweet and needs to have a somewhat strong FLAVOR (like chocolate).
A common rebuttal I get is "Aren't you just adding as much water/liquid as you want to your meals then? I can do the same with vegetable soup and oatmeal." No, this is not the same thing at all. The goal is to find a carb source that LENDS itself to adding liquid so that it ends up being ideal to eat from a texture and flavor standpoint, and hopefully the entire meal ends up surpassing that 800-900 gram satiation threshold. To really drive my point home, let me expand on this. If I eat puffed kamut dry, it is terrible and very dry. If I eat puffed kamut with greek yogurt, it is also too dry. If I eat puffed kamut with only 300-400 cc of cold liquid, I run out of liquid before I have finished the puffed kamut—and it is too dry. In fact, the way I landed on 600-800 cc of cold liquid as the ideal amount is the first time I ate 100 kcals worth of puffed kamut in cereal form, I only added an amount of liquid that I would use for a 300 kcal bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. It wasn't until I started eating the bowl of puffed kamut that I realized it needed way more liquid to TASTE GOOD. So I kept titrating the liquid volume up until I found the volume (600-800 cc) where eating the bowl of cereal was enjoyable, tasted good, and I finished the cereal about the same time as I finished the liquid. So, it really ISN'T about adding as much liquid as I want to a food. Otherwise, I'd just grab 32 grams of oats and fill the bowl to the brim, or crumble rice cakes into a bowl and fill the bowl with water. And by the same token, that is why I recommend 600-800 cc of liquid per 100 kcals of puffed kamut and not 1600 cc. Bc 1600 cc of liquid would make the dish too watery.
There's countless threads online of people dieting down that go something along the lines of:
"Hey I eat a lot of high volume vegetables, fruits, soups and while the volume expands my stomach, I still don't feel satisfied after the meal."
It's because when it comes to satiety and satiation, it's not just about volume. Otherwise, we could just chug water when dieting down without psychological deprivation. Our brains want to FEEL like we've eaten a sufficient amount of STARCHY carbs. And I honestly cannot find another starchy carb source with the characteristics and texture of puffed kamut. If you don't believe me, you can simply experiment and compare with oatmeal. Keep adding water to 100 kcals worth of oatmeal until you hit the threshold where you inevitably start telling yourself "Wow this is just watery ass oatmeal and doesn't really taste that great at all. Dieting sucks." That threshold will be far far below 800-900 grams.
Vegetables and fruits do not even come close to rivaling puffed kamut. We are evolutionarily wired to crave starchy carbs—and the texture of starchy carbs. And if you ever have a bowl of puffed kamut like I described above, by the third bite you will know what I mean. If you've been dieting hard on baby food texture oatmeal or cream of rice, you will be asking yourself "Wow, this is the texture (firm, chewy) I've been craving and missing out on. And how the hell is this only 100 kcals? This definitely hits that "I want starchy carbs" craving."
I know I touched on this above but I'll just emphasize here how important a savory protein source is for me to achieve satisfaction each meal. YMMV but even with how voluminous my prepped puffed kamut is, how good it tastes, and how much it stretches my stomach—my brain still craves that umami protein source in each meal. And it's not until that first bite of savory eggs, chicken, beef, or salmon hits my mouth that it hits my brain—"Yes, this is what is missing from the meal."