T Nation

How to Maintain Your Achieved Body?

#1

So hello, my question is

When i have achieved lets say 190-200 pounds 10% bf . And this is all i want.
How maintaining that is going to look like. Whats the best way to maintain?
Lets say i have to eat 3000 kcal to maintain my weight by the calculator.
Do i eat like 3100 kcal a day and when i see that i need to cut lets say in 4 months i just cut for 4 weeks or so?. Or do i really try to find that specific calorie intake that absolutley maintains my weight, so it doesent go up or down.

From hormones point of view it aint good to be on surplus and then deficit many times a year. am i right?
So does anyone actually maintains his 10% and how?

Im open for all your comments :slight_smile:

#2

well if that is all…

#3

At the end of each day you are either better or worse than when it started. Maintaining is a myth.

#4

A steady diet of infants. Plus a goat sacrifice every other moon

#5

I agree with this but illusion is probably a better word than myth. Nothing unusual about staying at a particular body weight/fat over the long term.

#6

Maintain?

As you can probably tell from all the semantics maintaining or the “illusion” or some shit isn’t as simple as it seems.

Your body is in a constant state of change and turn over and accounting for all the variables and replicating them everyday is impossible given there’s many variables you can’t control. In reality you’ll have to make adjustments to training and diet to maintain.

However maintenance volume and maintenance calories are landmarks that will be useful for you.

If you look up Renaissance Periodization’s “Hypertrophy Training Guide Central Hub” there is an approximate maintenance volume for each muscle group to work with. For more on the concept of maintenance volume google “Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth”.

Calories wise its hard to constantly be at a real maintenance level so you’ll need to keep track and maybe like you suggested do a small cut every now and then.

#7

My body must be different to everyone else’s than. I find it incredibly easy to maintain bodyweight (not so much strength). Keep in mind I am not 10% bf probably closer to 16-18%

I stopped going to the gym 3 days a week, stopped having protein shakes, started to train Muay Thai 2-4 days a week and stopped tracking calories and in 2 months I lost 1kg (2.2lbs). And that could easily be water weight or waste etc.

I honestly think people have more a maintenance window rather than a set number.

I agree with this though. Without vigilance, the human body will generally degrade as it gets older. It is up to us to slow this degradation through resistance work and good nutrition.