THE ULTIMATE maintenance guide
I get a lot of questions about maintenance and so I thought why not try to answer them all in one place…
This is the ULTIMATE GUIDE TO MAINTENANCE.
Many people find maintenance boring but this is always the end goal and it’s good to remember that.
The reason so many people yo-yo is they are never interested in working on their plan to maintain their results once they have achieved them.
They do the fat loss part and then when they finish their diet they either immediately or gradually revert back to old behaviours - which inevitably leads to weight regain and you quickly end up back where you started thinking about signing up to another diet.
Not this time my friend, not this time.
(sorry I may have spent too much time alone today)
This is the question that sparked this guide:
"Hi - I have a question about maintenance after dieting.
I am close to my target after a steady weight loss. However am confused by what to do when I reach my goal. There is lots of information out there about how to approach fat/weight loss but not what to do after.
Is it better to slowly add back calories incrementally or to immediately go to estimated maintenance ?
I had a look in your podcasts but couldn't easily find the info apologies I did try to self service this.
Btw I have followed you for years and you speak sense always. Everyone seems to want to be a coach pumping out the same diet by numbers info - so it's refreshing to read straight common sense amongst the BS”
Frisrtly, thank you!
Secondly,
Your maintenance calories will generally be lower after your diet.
There are a few reasons for this.
1) You’ve lost weight. A reduction in BMR (basal metabolic rate) is part of successful weight loss. You cannot avoid it. If you lose a lot of weight and you now have less mass then you will require less calories to maintain this mass.
A lot of people fear monger around this - ‘if you diet then your metabolism will reduce and you’ll just need less calories’ this statement is true but lacks context and understanding.
Heavier people have higher calorie needs at rest. If you want to lose weight then your resting calorie needs will reduce. End of.
This isn’t a problem because they only marginally reduce and in proportion to the weight you lose.
The % of lean mass you have will play a small role. Usually less than what most people think for example 1kg of muscle burns ~10-15 calories a day (not 50 as is often claimed)
And if you’ve ever tried to build 1kg of muscle - you will realise it’s HARD! Especially when dieting.
2) Adaptive thermogenesis
People who have lost a significant amount of weight often have a * slightly * lower basal metabolic rate than we would expect given their weight & body composition.
Researchers found the difference in resting metabolic weight between dieters maintaining weight loss & weight matched controls to be about 72- calories a day - in other words, not a big deal.
3) Reduced non exercise activity thermogenesis.
Most people will spontaneously move less when they reduce their calorie intake. This can be more easily monitored now that people have step trackers but do be aware that the 100kg version of you who did 10,000 steps a day will expend more calories than the 75kg version of you after your diet as you have less excess weight to carry around.
For these reaons brining your calories back up to your pre diet maintenance needs will likely mean you are in a calorie surplus and will thus start regaining the weight you’ve lost.
Here is what to do to find your maintenance calories..
I do recommend increasing calories relatively slowly but it’s not because you’re going to slowly train your body to maintain on more & more calories or that you can magically reverse diet.
It’s psychological - people, especially women often freak out when they increase their calories and see the scales go up slightly so I like to mitigate this & err on the side of caution as most people overeat rather than under eat.
You will also likely experience a slight increase in energy expenditure as you come out of a deficit due to increased spontaneous activity aka NEAT and the thermic effect of food which is a % of total calories consumed.
This is an example of my approach for most although this does change depending on the client and situation.
Increase intake to 100 calories less than predicted maintenance - then monitor and adapt as needed.
Remember maintenance is not a static number. In fact, it is technically different every single day because you will expend slightly more or less every day due to activity levels, menstrual cycle, thermic effect of food, temperature etc.
There is no need to slowly creep up your calories by 50 a day as some suggest.
Doing this and thinking you’re increasing your metabolism and avoiding fat gain is silly - you just end up staying in a deficit longer and if you’re done with fat loss - why do this?
If you are working with a coach they should be able to predict your maintenance needs based on your current weight, average calories and most importantly - the rate at which you were losing weight.
This is the most important factor as it gives you real world data as opposed to theoretical numbers based on a simple calculation.
If you are not working with an excellent coach you can use a basic calorie calculator which will give you an estimate.
Stick to this for 2 weeks and then adjust if required (e.g. if you are still losing weight)
Realistic expectations at maintenance are very important or people freak out and think they are doing it wrong..
Weight will increase slightly - this isn’t fat it’s just more food volume & more glycogen stores in muscle.
Weight will still fluctuate - your weight will fluctuate forever more.. it is meant to. this totally normal.
Even at maintenance you will probably end up going through periods where you gain a little fat. The difference with a long term maintenance goal is you make changes to account for this quickly.
It’s the difference between life long miserable yo-yo dieting and tightening things up for a few weeks when you notice your favourite jeans are a little tight.
To remind you maintenance is the most important part of dieting and it’s the part most people ignore.
Losing fat is cool, but you’ve likely done that before.
Have you ever MAINTAINED fat loss? THAT is REALLY cool
& if you want to maintain your results you need to maintain the behaviours that helped you achieve those results so make sure you have a way of living that allows you to enjoy your life while staying in shape
Need help? this is exactly what I do.
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