Maintenance calories increased

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So, I've been in maintenance/recomp for 4 months. When I started I was eating 1600-1700 calories to maintain, any more and I started gaining. For the last month I've been eating 1800-2000 plus a cheat meal almost every week and I've been maintaining. Is this common with recomp?

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    I don't think it's that uncommon with maintenance whether recomping or not.
    Same experience for me, nailed down my maintenance then after a few months started losing again.

    Your NEAT can reduce when you are in deficit and it can take a while before it returns to normal. It's why people should really experiment with eating more than their basic numbers suggest - to help restore all those little bits and pieces of activity that add together into your NEAT.

    Your training could be having an impact of course, more from improved exercise performance when fully fuelled as opposed to any very minimal increases in calorie needs due to any muscle gain.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,677 Member
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    If you are building muscle, you may need more calories to maintain the muscle. Your metabolism may just be higher now.
  • geltner1
    geltner1 Posts: 85 Member
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    What does NEAT mean?
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
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    geltner1 wrote: »
    What does NEAT mean?
    non-exercise activity thermogenesis