Hi,
after a reasonably aggressive cut over 12 weeks, how many weeks might someone reasonably take to build their cals back up to maintenance to avoid the rebound weight regain effect?
I’m thinking of increasing mine over 4 weeks from 2000(my daily intake during cut) to 2800 (my maintenance cals at target bodyweight, based on NIDDK bodyweight planner), say by going up 200cals per week?
So in my case April might look like this:
Jan - end March:
2000cals per day, approx 800-1100cals per day deficit
April
Week 1: 2200cals
Week2: 2400cals
Week3: 2600cals
Week 4:2800 cals - maintenance level.
Does that sound reasonable?
Weekly I have a careful, planned, 2800calorie carb refeed day - I get about 400-500g carbs on those days, and they keep me in the game! I walk 10-15k steps per day.
I then plan 4-8 weeks at maintenance before a month long mini-cut in June/July to make myself into a beach god…well that’s the plan…
My lifts are doing ok on -800cals per day - just won’t be getting any 1RM PRs (or even rep PRs) for a while! But I can get those in the autumn when I do a careful, tracked bulk.
Interested in your thoughts on whether 4 weeks is likely enough time to move back up 800cals per day without excessive rebound.
Thanks for all your great resources!