Putting a client on low calories isn’t bad coaching, doing it without reason is. That’s not coaching, it’s just poor practice.
Terms like “low” or “high” calories are subjective. It’s unreasonable to judge someone’s plan, or how they feel, purely based on intake alone.
The discomfort or difficulty that comes with dieting isn’t caused by a specific calorie number. It’s driven by three main factors:
The size of the energy deficit: the gap between how much energy you burn and how much you consume.
Your current body composition: individuals with more lean mass and less fat mass often have higher energy needs and different hormonal responses to restriction.
The duration of the deficit and the recovery between phases: long periods of dieting without structured breaks can amplify fatigue and metabolic adaptation.
In other words, how someone feels on a certain calorie intake is entirely relative. Context always matters.
Stop Comparing Calories
It’s easy to assume that the athlete eating more food is in a “better” position during prep, but that’s not necessarily true.
Two individuals can both lose the same amount of weight each week, one eating 1,800 calories per day, the other 2,200 calories per day, yet both are experiencing the same relative energy deficit.
That’s because the calorie number itself doesn’t determine how you feel. What matters is energy availability, the calories left for basic physiological function after accounting for exercise.
Factors like body size, muscle mass, non-exercise activity (NEAT), and total energy expenditure all influence this equation.
The athlete on higher calories may simply have a larger engine to fuel, more muscle mass, more movement, and higher energy needs overall. Despite eating “more,” their deficit relative to expenditure could be just as steep.
Why Energy Availability Matters
When energy availability becomes too low for too long, the risks start to stack up:
Impaired recovery and training performance
Menstrual dysfunction and reproductive hormone suppression
Reduced thyroid activity
Lower bone density and turnover
Poor sleep, irritability, and psychological strain
In bodybuilding, athletes inevitably flirt with low energy availability during contest prep. The goal of a skilled coach isn’t to eliminate that entirely, it’s to manage it responsibly, minimising harm while still achieving the desired physique outcome.
Practical Takeaways
“Low calories” are relative to you, not the person next to you.
Every athlete’s maintenance intake, output, and recovery capacity are unique.
Fatigue, hunger, and low motivation are expected when dieting, but chronic depletion isn’t a badge of honour.
Recovery phases, refeeds, and periodisation exist for a reason: to restore energy balance and protect your health.
If you’re unsure whether your calorie target or prep strategy is sustainable, we can help. At The Bodybuilding Dietitians, we create evidence-based nutrition plans tailored to your physiology, training output, and long-term goals, not arbitrary numbers.