[coldtea]

>Can someone explain this to me? I try to stay under 2000 calories. To me it means eating almost nothing.

2000 is "almost nothing"? What are you used to eating? Is it regular natural food or food industry crap loaded with sugar and calories? Here's two examples of eating througout the day:

- 1 cup Greek yogurt + 3/4 cup berries (~230 kcal)

- 10.5 oz salmon + 5 oz baby potatoes + 5 spears asparagus (~750 kcal)

- 1 banana (~105 kcal)

- 7 oz grilled chicken breast + 3/4 cup cooked rice + - 2 cups vegetables (~585 kcal)

- 1 oz mixed nuts + 1 apple (~280 kcal)

OR

- 1 cup Greek yogurt + 3/4 cup berries (~230 kcal)

10.5 oz ribeye steak + 5 oz baby potatoes + 5 spears asparagus (~1,000 kcal)

- 1 apple (~95 kcal)

- 7 oz grilled chicken breast + 3/4 cup cooked rice + 2 cups vegetables (~585 kcal)

- 1 oz mixed nuts (~175 kcal)

Both are around ~2000Kcal. Are these "almost nothing"?

>Let's say I have berries and yogurt. That ~300. Add a morning latte (no sugar). Now we're at 500. I've effectively had a tiny breakfast and already spent 1/4th of my calorie budget.

Make the latte into a black and it's 0 calories. But even with latte, you consume 1/4 of daily calories, in one of the 4 (3 + snack) meal of the day. Sounds about right.

[code_biologist]

This isn't enough for me as 82kg mid 30s man. I will lean out by 3-5 kilos and lose strength for lifting weights.

What fats do you put on your potatoes + asparagus + vegetables, plus cooking fats for the meats? No idea how many cals "enough olive oil to lubricate" is. I consciously use cooking fats to creep in more healthy calories to sustain me.

[lbreakjai]

You have to accept that losing weight and gaining strength are generally antagonistic goals. You won't hit personal bests, you may even see the numbers go down, but as long as you have adequate protein intake and enough stimulus, your muscle mass should mostly be preserved, and what little you lost will be back as soon as you're back to eating at maintenance or at a light surplus.

[coldtea]

>This isn't enough for me as 82kg mid 30s man.

Enough for what? For losing weight, as a 82kg/mid 30s they're fine. In fact, you can live forever (and live longer that on higher calories) on those.

And you don't need to lose that much to begin with if you're at 82kg and like 5' 8"+ anyway. Perhaps your "ideal" weight is like 70kg or so, but if you're average height and 82kg and active, no real need to hit that for general health.

>What fats do you put on your potatoes + asparagus + vegetables, plus cooking fats for the meats?

Spray some EVOO a few times. A few sprays (less than 1 tbsp total).