Are you finishing a diet, cycling through cut/bulk/reverse phases, or not sure how much is a normal amount for you to eat? I’ve been confused by this many times myself. Constantly I questioned if I was ever in maintenance.
You can research generic calorie calculators, make assumptions from thousands of resources online, or simply listen to your body. I’m my opinion, the latter is your best guide.
However, I know eating intuitively can be hard. It sounds so easy from social media and blog posts. But I know it isn’t that simple.
With years of diet culture under most of our belts, it can be overwhelming to understand your body’s actual needs when they go against what you think it needs. That’s right, that “oh if I eat 500 calories less a day I’ll lose a pound a week,” magic pill we’ve been fed is not that simple in reality.
Because of these “should’s” we have been told for most of our lives, knowing what our body actually wants and needs can be challenging.
I get it as I’ve struggled with this many times.
Below are some tips on how you can recognize what maintenance can look like for you without using any one size fits all calculators.
Top Maintenance Indicators:
Weight
If you have been weighing yourself consistently your weight really won’t change much. Yes, it can fluctuate by 5(+/-) pounds. Over a period of time (weeks, months, years) it won’t have massive swings if you are in maintenance mode.
Your body will have a sweet spot that it is happy in. If you are fueling with quality nutrients, getting movement, and resting adequately it will settle into a healthy weight naturally.
Keep in mind, this does not apply if you have been doing any changes to your diet and lifestyle. If you are doing a cut, bulk, or even a reverse diet, your weight can change. And at that point, you likely are not in maintenance anyway.
Measurements and Clothing Fit
Similar to weight, your measurements will not change much if at all if you have been in maintenance. Even without taking physical measurements, indicators like how your clothes fit can be enough to tell you.
If you have been living the same lifestyle for over a year and your clothes fit just the same at the beginning as the end, you, my friend, are most likely in maintenance.
Hunger and Satiety Cues
This one may seem obvious, but after my somewhat rant at the beginning of this article, it’s not always easy to tell.
If you are anything like I was, you ignored hunger cues because “it wasn’t time to eat” or “I need to eat less.” I had plenty of reasons why I shouldn’t be eating more food.
Because of that, it was a struggle when I was working on my own health journey and my past experiences made me hesitate to listen to my body.
However, I did still have natural hunger cues and I was able to get over my head trash with a lot of hard work.
When you are in maintenance mode, you will have more consistent hunger cues. That doesn’t mean you will feel hungry at the exact same time every day. Generally, you will have a pattern of hunger and satiety cues with minimal variability.
When your hunger and satiety cues are consistent, it is likely you will naturally eat a consistent amount of food to satisfy your needs. This can be done by tracking your calories but you also will naturally be able to do this.
If you are eating based on how you feel, you are probably in maintenance mode.
When Should You Be in Maintenance?
Maintenance shouldn’t be hard. It should be easy and part of your life.
Often we can make it difficult by always dieting and putting unnecessary stress on our bodies.
Just like a car, your body needs consistent fuel and care to perform optimally. Now I know it’s probably not the best analogy because we are humans, not machines, but hear me out. You should always maintain your car. The same goes for your body, you should always maintain it.
You Should be in Maintenance For Most of Your Life
Making positive intentional changes in your lifestyle will take you out of maintenance and that is a great thing. Training for a race or competition will likely change how you consume, exercise, and recover. Going into a cut or bulk will also have varying changes on your body that take you out of maintenance.
Regardless of the different stages of life you are in, these changes shouldn’t be forever. You can make slow intentional changes that gradually adjust your maintenance. For example, a reverse diet can do this. However, if you are making a temporary adjustment for a specific goal, it shouldn’t be a forever adjustment.
If your dieting in a deficit for more than a few weeks (hopefully not more than a few months), your body will begin to accept that as maintenance over time. By doing that your metabolism can slow and you will have a harder time achieving your goals or just living life because you have to eat fewer calories.
Your Body Wants to Feel Safe
By eating enough food to sustain basic bodily functions on top of supporting your activity levels, your body will feel safe.
We don’t live in caveman times where we are constantly searching for food to survive. Most of us have access to grocery stores. What a luxury at our fingertips.
When your body is in a position where it is getting adequate nutrition, movement, and rest, it will thrive. Depriving it of any of these three can negatively impact its functioning and likely you won’t feel great.
So my point here is that it is okay to make strategic changes in your diet as long as you revert back to maintenance in a timely manner. You should be happy living in your own skin. Fuel your body regularly to aid in that happiness.
Have thoughts or a question about maintenance? Please comment below and follow for more!
