Hey all! First off, I just wanted to thank Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum and Dr. Austin Baraki for their superb information in the health and fitness space.
I had a question about going into a maintenance phase in terms of caloric intake. I am a male with the following stats:
age - 31
height - 6 feet
weight - 216
I am fairly active, going to the gym 5x per week. I have noticed recently that I have been having trouble with cutting. I have found that at about 2500 calories, I can maintain my body weight. I have been eating at around 2000 calories, seeing little changes on the scale and body composition. I have been slowly cutting calories slowly for the past 10 weeks and have been seeing pretty good changes. Of note, I have moved recently and have had a bit of decrease in my activity (I was averaging anywhere from 10k-15k steps everyday before, but now I am averaging about 8k). My goal is to get around 200lbs when all is said and done. I was wondering if I should eat at maintenance calories for a bit in order to reset my metabolism, and then proceed into another cutting phase, or should I “suck it up” and keep moving forward until I reach my goal?
Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
JMatt,
Thanks for the kind words. I think whether or not you want to continue losing weight vs swapping to a maintenance phase is personal preference based on how you feel regarding your current adherence, social life, etc. I don’t see a clear reason to pick either one. Resetting your metabolism isn’t really a thing, but replenishing your psychological resources if needed can be.
That said, your maintenance intake is likely closer to 2900-3100 Cal/day. 2500 Cal/d would be a decent-sized deficit if adhered to. I’m guessing setting your daily Cals at 2000 has resulted in an average daily intake over 2 weeks of around 2600-2700 Calories based on your weight trajectory per your report.
-Jordan
Thanks Jordan!
I think there’s some truth to that. I have moved closer to family recently, and am probably not as vigilant with tracking. I also started a new job, which has contributed to this as well.
I want to reach my goal for more of a personal aesthetic look, than anything else. I have been using macrfactor to track which has been an amazing tool. That’s where I’m basing my TDEE at 2400 kcals from for maintenance. But this will probably change if I better adhere to tracking as close to accurate as possible. I do agree that I need a mental readiness check before cutting again, so I think a quick maintenance phase is needed for now.
Thanks for the awesome advice and forum to post on! I appreciate all of your work in both a personal and clinical sense!
Copy that. Do the break and then get back to it!
For completeness, your maintenance is almost certainly higher than 2400 Cal, again likely closer to 2900-3100. Not really a cause for concern, just something to keep in mind.