Sorry for the late reply! The best thing to do to calculate your needed deficit is to add up what you’re getting now. ALL those online calculators are bullshit since if I went by those, I’d get fat. It’s always bloated numbers that don’t make sense, at least for me. I would say start at a 500 calorie deficit of what you get in total for a cut. You can always remove more, I would say trim 200 more until you get it where you start dropping a pound or so per week.
The best thing to do is get your body weight in protein, close to or slightly above is fine. You’re drinking plenty of water so even 1.5 per pound in protein is fine. It will help you retain your muscle while living off your fat.
I got down to 8% fat by doing a lot of HIIT for like 40 minutes. I was doing that Insanity at home program. I was pretty shredded from it. Try to keep your carbs at maybe 60% of your protein level to test the waters. I’m carb sensitive so I try to keep it low. For fat (I forget how I got the calculation, it was some trainer I follow on YT I think) you need to get between 30-60 in fat per day (I get 40)
This is my first real cut. I was really lean before since I started lifting after losing a bunch of weight first. After injuries and taking an extended break, I’m trying my best to look like I used to years ago.
I do a six day routine.
Sunday is Chest/Abs and cardio in the afternoon
Monday is Cardio once that day
Tuesday is Arms with cardio later
Wednesday is Legs with cardio later
Thursday is Back with with maybe cardio
Friday is Shoulders with maybe cardio
My meals are four solid meals and two protein shakes. You should drink a shake before bed. Never go to bed hungry. One scoop is fine with water. When I was trying for size, I’d put peanut butter in with it. It did help a lot.
Don’t get cardio crazy if your calories get too low, you don’t need it. I fell into that trap and you don’t lose anything. I had to add calories since after what I burn I would get less than a 1,000 a day and your body retains the fat since it goes into survival mode.
I’m 5’8, 168.4 at maybe the same body fat as you. This was the first week of adjusting calories for me. I’m always hungry but it’s gotten better and I can go longer without that urgent gotta eat feeling. I used to weigh in the 140s. I don’t want or need to be again. I just want to have noticeable lines. Having washboard abs would be nice for vacation but it’s not healthy to be like that all the time.
Weigh yourself once a week. I better be under 168 tomorrow. I’m hungry as I type this right now.
First off, no need to apologize for the delay, as you can see I’m even further behind myself. Life has been a bit complicated lately but that’ll probably be over by the end of the month and I’ll be around more often.
Second, as Thainitty said, you’re really putting in the work! It’s always inspiring to hear someone going balls to the wall. 5 pounds in 3 weeks is pretty impressive while maintaining muscle!
Also appreciate the write up. My biggest takeaways from what you wrote is firstly: don’t trust the online calorie calculators as that’s precisely what I’d been using.
Secondly, I think I was having too less calories because I was already burning so much from the constant boxing/MT combined with weight training, so my body was probably more inclined to hold onto the fat in starvation mode.
Thirdly, I’ve always wondered about the eating before bed thing, because I like to do that to avoid feeling hungry and being unable to sleep, but there’s so much mixed literature out there on that.
Good to hear it from someone who’s actually posting results, that it is indeed fine to do, and it’s just about net calories and not all the timing so much.
I’m definitely gonna implement these changes, and let’s see where I get in a month’s time.
Again thanks for the in-depth wisdom, it is indeed appreciated. Excuse the lateness of my reply again, it’ll be like this for the next little while.
That vid you posted is perfect as well as it’s a boxing routine so can only help get my performance up. I’ll try it out this weekend.
just didn’t want to see you get hurt more....get a massage, like a good one not a happy ending one 
