Hi Devin, thanks for your question. Great to hear you are managing to get back into some training after your sports being impacted by COVID. In answer to your questions;
– The numerical recommendation for a safe caloric deficit is -500calories from your maintenance daily calorie requirements. If you input your numbers into this online calculator it will give you those numbers – https://globalrph.com/medcalcs/harris-benedict-equation-updated-basal-metabolic-rate/
– When I work with uphill athletes supporting them with a nutrition plan/guidance, usually by adjusting nutrition to suit the demands of training will support a natural change in body composition without necessarily having to restrict intake.
– To help, keep a food diary via an online app or simply write it down and see if there are any extras creeping in that you can change easily to help create a natural reduction in intake without feeling like you are ‘dieting’.
– In terms of your training volume, much of the uphill athlete training is low intensity. As long as you are making sure you support your training sessions with good intake around them before/during/after especially around the higher intensity sessions e.g. strength, hill sprints, intervals. Then you can reduce intake away from those sessions so you are not compromising training adaptations, immunity and recovery.
Hope that answers your questions?
Rebecca Uphill Athlete Dietitian