Maintenance
“Maintenance is the true test of finding healthy balance and learning what moderation looks like.”
Hitting or achieving your health and body goals is a wonderful thing and feels soooo good! But it certainly doesn’t mean your journey is over. If and when you hit your goals, you can’t stop, you can’t go back to your old ways and stop putting in an effort. Because if you do, guess what happens, you gain it all back (plus potenially more), and the health issues that come along with having poor nutrition and lifestyle habits.
For some people, the journey is easier then the maintenance aspect of things. Regardless, it needs to be your new lifestyle if you are to maintain it.
Remember, day to day weight fluctuations and changes in weight throughout your life are entirely normal. Also, gaining or losing a few pounds over time is nothing to worry about. Its when all of the weight creeps back, or all of it and then some… thats what we don’t want to happen.
To start, there are a few guidelines to maintaining your results successfully.
Once at your goal weight, you have 3-5 lbs on either side of it to play around with/fluctuate.
During maintenance you can choose to add carbs to your 3rd meal or have an extra refeed meal or half refeed day a week.
During maintenance you must aim to exercise "at least" 3 times a week but more will make maintaining your weight and health easier.
During maintenance you must maintain good sleep hygiene and quality.
In order to be successful at maintaining your weight, you must have a good support and accountability system! This helps avoid complacency and keeps you responsible!
Research shows us that those who eat more protein, maintain their weight better.
Research also shows us that those who track their nutrition and macros etc. tend to be more successful at maintaining.
As mentioned above; You must maintain consistency! Once you’re at your goal weight and in maintenance mode, you can’t let all hell breaks loose or you will gain the weight back
Regular exercise and higher protein are a MUSR to maintain your goal weight and body.
“There is no freedom without responsibility.”
How Many Calories to Maintain Weight?
You can figure out how many calories you need a day to maintain your weight the same way you figured out how many calories to lose weight in the first place.
Use an online calculator or quickly estimate with these two steps:
Step #1 – multiply your current weight by one of the following
- Women = weight in lbs. x 10
- Men = weight in lbs. x 11
Step #2 – Add in exercise and daily activity by multiplying by one of the following
- 1 – Little to no exercise.
- 1.1 – Light exercise or training 1 to 3 days per week.
- 1.2 – Moderate exercise 2 or more days per week.
- 1.4 – Hard exercise 3 or more days per week.
- 1.6 – Working out 2 or more times a day.
Step #3 – Track your food intake and exercise vigilantly for 2-3 weeks and if your weight stays the same each week, you know this is the amount of food and exercise you need for maintainance. *But remember this may change with adaptation.
If your maintenance calories feel pretty far away from your current intake (calories recommended in step 1 and 2), or you’ve just been on a very low-calorie diet for a few months now, it might be a challenge to increase your calories to maintenance right away. Instead of going straight to maintenance calories, start by slowing increasing your calories by about 100 to 200 calories a day and give it a few weeks to even out. If your weight stays pretty stable after three weeks, add another 100 to 200 calories a day and repeat until you reach your true maintenance level.
But remember, its not all about calories! Food quality and hormones play a big part, and movement too.
And calories are very very much just an estimation, they are not accurate – not on labels and not on calculators.
The reason most people regain the weight is because they stop doing what got them the results in the first place. Maintenance does not mean you can go back to eating whatever you want… it just means you hit your goal and now you get a little more flexibility.
This is a “lifestyle” for the rest of your life, if you want to maintain your results!