This great video by Dr. Mike Israetel (a bodybuilder with a PhD in Sport Physiology) talks about maintenance phases between ~12 week (3 month) phases of weight loss. These maintenance phases, he says, should be as long or even longer than the preceding weight loss phase. He says this is necessary to prevent regaining the weight.
https://youtu.be/4FCxeBqMZlw?si=u5ZTndsmCMjHF5Pq
My first reaction seeing this was “but then losing weight would take so much longer!” but he has some really good points. Losing weight and then regaining it doesn’t just lose you time, you also had to suffer through a hypocaloric state for all the time.
I see a lot of people on calorie counting subreddits talk about eating in a deficit for months and months. Does anyone have experience with maintenance phases in between weight loss phases, or does anyone have the opposite experience? If you’ve eaten in a deficit for 6 months+ have you had success or regained the weight?
by taksus
4 Comments
I did this and it was successful. I lost about 15-20 pounds by going to the gym, walking more and being more mindful about food. (F, 5’5, 200-177) I eventually hit a plateau, and maintained for about a year through intuitive eating. I’ve been dieting for about 3 months now and losing at a slow but steady pace.
Probably. I do cardio / weight lifting and maintain a slight deficit by being in a moderate deficit M-F and eating at maintenance over the weekend (refeeding). That’s to help lose less muscle though not to lose more overall.
Interesting. I’m just coming out of an unplanned maintenance phase now and doing the maths, it came just after hitting 10% weight loss. I was really mentally burnt out and fed up with dieting. So I guess he’s onto something!
So, I have been fighting morbid obesity for about 10 years now. In the past, I’ve always consistently lost weight for anywhere from 3 to 9 months each time before falling off and regaining all of it and then some.
More recently, I started with 145lbs to lose. I’ve been alternating between fat loss and intentional maintenance for the past… almost 3 years now.
I haven’t had any periods where I feel like giving up. I don’t struggle with binges anymore…. although I do ignore calories on major feast days, such as Christmas dinner. I haven’t regained any weight.
During maintenance phases I stay focused, I still log my intake, I evaluate/reevaluate progress made on health habits, and do advanced planning for the next loss phase. And I work on non-food/fitness related goals.
I lose like… 15-20lbs, then switch to maintenance for like 3-6 months.
I didn’t do it because of … anything really… just found that I needed a break, but didn’t want to overeat while I was on my break… and it worked pretty well so I continued doing it.
That said… I don’t think this would have worked for me even 5 years ago. I didn’t know enough about what I was doing or about how my body works. I definitely didn’t have the skills or the fortitude to do it. I hadn’t built up enough healthy nutritional habits for maintenance to not feel like a diet. And I definitely wasn’t getting the nutrients I needed… not even just my macros. So I can’t say it’s best for everyone, because there’s a time when it wouldn’t have worked for me.
But all of the points listed ring true for me. I feel better, healthier, stronger; I have more energy. I’m sticking with it longer than I have with anything else.
I think I needed to get the basics down with just CICO before it could work, though.