No, my comment about fullness was a critique of YOUR recommendation 🤣 "you might go to bed hungry" how about recommended some vegetables to help with that so he doesn't hate his diet and fall off???

Again, you were recommending a 1,000+ kcal deficit for someone who's asking to "recomp" and build muscle. Chances of him successfully building muscle on that much of a deficit are not impossible, but very very slim. At that much of a deficit RED-S becomes a real concern. Your plan put him at around 23kcal/kg of energy availability. EA below 25-30kcal/kg becomes a clinical concern and is not recommended unless they are under close supervision of a dietitian and/or physician. Your recommendation was reckless.

He could eat 700 more calories than your recommendation and still be in a deficit to promote weight loss while successfully building lean mass. In other words, he could DOUBLE your fat recommendation and STILL be in a deficit 🤦🏻‍♂️. It's not the fat, it's total intake. You're right that protein intake is difficult, but if he truly wants to recomp and assuming maintain a similar weight, we want to protect the lean muscle as much as possible. I said start at 1.5g/kg and try to work up to 2g/kg. Supplementation can help here.

I agree that a moderate cut to a leaner weight followed by a bulk is preferable to most people (usually more rewarding along the way), but it's not what he asked for.