I’m afraid the answer to this question might be along the lines of “depends on the individual” but I was hoping some generalizations can be made.
I’ll use myself as an example. I started training seriously in November 2019 on the beginner template and finished it in May 2020 if my memory serves (probably ran it too long).
Then I switched over to PowerBuilding I and ran it a few times. During that time, I started a cut in order to lose body fat. I eventually got impatient and wound up cutting my calories by way too much which made me feel crushed in the gym.
As a result, my lifts went way down and I lost a ton of muscle in the process. I went from 187# to 157# at 5’11”. I’ve slowly built back up over the past year or so to 180# and while my waist is not as big as it was when I started my first cut, it is larger than I would like.
I’d like to lose the excess body fat (again) but do it patiently in a more controlled way after learning a lot of hard lessons.
Now, the main reason for my post - I’d rather not enter into a calorie deficit again and was wondering what would/could happen if I just ate at maintenance calories consistently and continued to train hard and intelligently for the next 6 months to one year. I wouldn’t expect I’d gain an absurd amount of muscle but could I see some improvement in lbm and an improvement in body composition (lose some of the fat)?
I’ve read a wide variety of opinions on this ranging from, it’s impossible to lose fat without a cut or gain muscle without a bulk, to maintenance is the way to go, etc.
You’d likely gain a little muscle and lose a bit of body fat, though how much and at what rate varies by individual.
I will say this, the fact that you’ve been training for 2 years is awesome. I think having longer term outcome-oriented goals is useful to steer you in the direction you want, whereas short-term process-oriented goals are more appropriate.
I would aim to do things gradually over time, slow and steady, and seek help when needed.
I have to admit I’ve been quite frustrated and disappointed when thinking about how much more progress I would have made and how much further along I’d be if I’d handled my weight loss in a much more patient and intelligent manner.
It was not fun essentially erasing progress and starting over but I feel like I did learn a lot in the process and certainly learned to do things better next time.
With that said, if I’m aiming to lose some fat, would you recommend maintenance or a small deficit? I measured my waist this morning via your method and it was about 33.75 inches. Or would I be safe to continue bulking a bit longer?
32 year old male, 5’11”, 179 pounds, 33.75 inch waist
I don’t think you’d be significantly further along if you changed your approach earlier on, as it’s only been 2 years. That’s really not much in this game. I don’t think you’re starting over each time either.
In any case, if you wanted to lose fat as your primary goal, I’d eat in a deficit.
If you wanted to gain a bit of weight, I think that’s fine with your current stats. I’d go slow and cut it off when the waist measurement got to 34.5/35 or so.