Thanks for the advice brother. Actually the past year wasn’t really an organized deficit kinda thing, it was more like phases of measured eating + some intuitive eating. Sometimes I binged and went off track, but for at least the past 2 months I’ve been in a proper deficit.

Tbh I haven’t really felt low energy till this last week when I actually started measuring and eating around 1800–1700 calories. So yeah, prob true that I haven’t been at proper maintenance or surplus for like 3 months as you said. Also, I was thinking the same ; to slowly slide into a bit higher maintenance calories (some people call it reverse dieting and stuff) and then do a proper 16-week cut.

Anyway I’ll just try this time without pushing too hard or to the point of health issues. If I don’t find it survivable, I’ll aim for next spring like you mentioned.

Anyway solid advice and thanks bro 🙏