Necessity of Intermediate Maintenance Phase Before Bulking Post-cut

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Dr Feigenbaum.

From (https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/forums/nutrition-q-a-with-dr-jordan-feigenbaum/48414-calorie-intake), I quote you:

If you want to gain muscle after losing the body fat, I would then recommend a calorie surplus and I don’t necessarily think you need to have a maintenance phase first unless you were previously overweight/obese based on waist circumference.

Does this apply to any male who had less than a ~37" waist circumference before dieting down or are there any caveats here? Barring any metabolic disease.

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Sigh. That particular sentence was for the individual specifically I was talking to. From the same thread:

I don’t think anything about a maintenance cycle before a cut or a bulk without additional information. In general, I like folks who have lost weight to try and maintain that and prevent weight regain.

So, yea, there are caveats. If you read that thread and others, I think you know where I stand on weight maintenance phases before gaining weight. Would recommend for most, but not all. Leon was relatively thin prior to losing weight (and didn’t lose much), for example.

3

Sorry, I don’t mean to misrepresent you :smile:.

After sifting through tens of post regarding weight gain/loss, this was the first one where I saw you suggest a maintenance phase wasn’t crucial post weight loss, given the context. In order not to barrage you with various scenarios and hypotheses, I was hoping to get some sort of guidelines (if possible) to base decisions on, such as soft cut-offs for weight and/or waist circumference reduced, and other relevant variables.

Thanks.

4

Sure, I could see the utility in that, though it is too lengthy for a forum reply. The individual in the specific thread you quoted did not lose a lot of weight and was already well under the cut-points for weight loss being a good option (for health) before he lost weight. Just not really a big reason to do a weight maintenance phase there.

If you have a specific question about weight maintenance that you feel has not been adequately addressed, I am happy to answer it though!

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