![]() ![]() Increased carbohydrates in the liver and muscles During a maintenance phase, body weight may rise a little due to: Some weight may be gained back but not in the form of fat. So when we increase Calories back to maintenance we recalculate ‘new maintenance’ based on our new size. Think - “smaller human, lower maintenance target”. This is due to you now being smaller after your successful diet. No, provided you’re able to stay at maintenance and not enter a Calorie surplus range, you should not gain any notable amount of body fat.īe aware that your weight maintenance Calorie target after a dieting phase will be lower than your maintenance Calorie target you had before your dieting phase. *This also highlights that competition season might not be the best time to plan a fat-loss phase. For example if your fat loss phase was set to last 16 weeks, but you had a CrossFit comp at week 10, it would be a good idea to commence a maintenance phase at week 8 or 9 to promote best possible performance*. A break from fat loss can provide fuel for recovery, performance and prevention of injury and illness. Maintenance phases are especially useful for dieting athletes who have important competition and training coming up on the schedule. ![]() You’ll be physically and mentally ready to continue towards your long-term goal.Īre maintenance phases important for athletes? Maintenance phases may allow some productive, high performance training to take place which can help reduce the risk of muscle loss.Īll of the above essentially re-prepare you for another phase of efficient fat loss, increasing your chances of long-term success. Maintenance phases can help mitigate any increases in food obsession and general hunger that may impact fat loss adherence. Maintenance phases act as a mental break from dieting to recover any reductions in motivation. This helps you create a gap between the Calories you eat and the Calories you burn (Calorie deficit) when you start dieting again. Maintenance phases are a chance for any down-regulated factors of metabolism to return to normal. You need to ‘stop, revive, survive’ if you actually wish to reach the end goal.Ĭan maintenance phases increase fat loss? The same idea can be applied to a long term fat loss goal. Stopping for fuel, food, a service and sleep is clearly a requirement of a road trip. All of these answers ultimately mean the road trip won’t be completed. The answer could be any of the following micro sleep, fuel runs out, severe hunger, mechanical issues, etc. Ask yourself “what would happen, if I didn’t stop at all”. Imagine you’re driving from Melbourne to Brisbane (for our international readers, that’s about a 2000km drive). They’re a chance to reset, re-motivate and re-prepare for another phase of effective fat loss. Maintenance phases act as a pit stop during a longer term, fat loss goal. You might have also heard the term ‘refeed’ which is basically just a mini-maintenance phase. However, this term ‘diet break’ can create the idea of a “nutrition holiday” or being completely “off” nutrition, so for this reason ‘maintenance phase’ is the preferred term. Maintenance phases are short periods of elevated Calories, throughout a longer-term weight loss goal. ![]() Maintenance phases should last for 2+ weeks. Signs that a maintenance phase should start include: progress plateaus, declines in exercise performance, motivation and heightened cravings, hunger and obsession with food. Maintenance phases involve an immediate increase of Calorie intake to estimated weight maintenance through the addition of more carbohydrates.Ī slower transition away from dieting methods, food variety, mindset and reliance on tracking should occur to achieve long term maintenance eating. Weight may increase but that doesn’t mean body fat. You shouldn't gain a notable amount of body fat during a maintenance phase provided it’s well executed. Maintenance phases are a chance to reset and re-prepare for another phase of dieting. It’s a good idea to plan maintenance phases at regular 4-16 week intervals throughout a longer fat loss diet. ![]()
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