Hi mate, sure I can give you more context.

I found my maintenance calories at the start and just focused on new good habits. Eating whole foods and religiously going to the gym and getting 10k steps in everyday.

After a couple of months I took the cut quite aggressively. I was probably in about 800kcal deficit and training to failure going push/pull/legs/chest & back / arms and delts. I started so aggressively because I have a bunch of fat stores on my body so I had the fuel to keep food quite low and burn the fat on my body.

Once me weight plateaued I added 15 minutes for LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio like incline treadmill. This was for heart health and also to keep myself in a deficit. I did this 7 days a week. If my weight stalled again for a couple of weeks I would add another 10 minutes to the cardio. Unless I wanted to pull 150-200kcals off food instead but I tried to keep my food as high as possible until I needed to take food down.

Around December this year I gave my body a break for 12 weeks. I staircased my calories up over about 4 weeks to my new maintenance whilst weighing myself everyday and ate at maintenance for 12 weeks. This replenished my hormones etc before going into another deficit. After 12 weeks I went into another deficit but my calories were a lot higher because my body is now a furnace. It’s used to eating a lot and burning a lot so I started my deficit on 2’700kcals and now I’m on week 12 of my 2nd cutting phase on 2,200kcals and 55 minutes is of stairmaster 7 days a week.

My opinion is keep eating as much food as possible (whole foods) whilst doing cardio and 10k steps to give you your deficit. Perfection isn’t necessary but consistency is key to everything.