Ep 136: How to Maintain a Lean Physique Year-Round (Without Cuts or Bulks)

How do you transition out of a dieting phase to maintain your results? Do you keep cycling between cutting and bulking? Or can you live at maintenance for a while, and if so, how do you do it effectively?

In this episode, Philip (@witsandweights) shares a proven blueprint to effortlessly transition out of a fat loss phase or an intense cut into a sustainable maintenance phase so you can recover from the deficit as quickly as possible, optimize your performance without going to extremes, and lock in your hard-earned lean physique year-round. 

Maintenance is a critical but often overlooked fitness phase, especially when transitioning from a fat-loss period. Even though cuts and bulks are often emphasized for those going after body composition changes, sometimes living at maintenance is the best option to sustain an optimal physique and performance level that has already been achieved. Maintenance allows for metabolic recovery from a calorie deficit. Athletes who rely on a particular strength-to-weight ratio should avoid the extreme changes that come with cuts and bulks, and sustaining an ideal physique year-round provides its form of consistency.

Today, you’ll learn all about:
3:07  What inspired this episode
7:21  What is maintenance, and why is it important?
10:16  Psychological shift to maintenance
16:06  The physiology of maintenance
20:19  Setting calories and macros for maintenance
24:32  Jumping to your maintenance calories
27:41  Weekly adjustments
31:53  Structuring your nutrition around your workout
35:01  Two advanced strategies
38:44  Five common pitfalls during maintenance
49:34  Outro 

Episode Resources:

• Free Rapid Fat Loss Guide
• MacroFactor app – use code WITSANDWEIGHTS to extend your free trial to two weeks (and support me and this show!)
• Ep 96: Why Reverse Dieting Doesn't Work Like You Think (and What to Do Instead)
• Ep 116: 7 Lessons from My Rapid Fat Loss Micro-Cut (Aggressive Dieting is Not for Everyone!)
• Ep 126: More Carbs, More Muscle (Why Low-Carb and Keto Are Keeping You Skinny Fat)

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