Maintaining weight, but changing composition

amenenema

So I'm at my goal weight, but I achieved it primarily through calorie deficit and running/cycling, which has left me with a little bit of fat still around the middle and very little upper body strength/mass (but DAMN do my legs look good). In the interest of aesthetics, I'm looking to build some upper body muscle and continue to reduce my body fat percentage. (For context, I'm 6'1", 160 lbs and around 18% body fat). Keeping at this weight is important to me, since being competitive in the cycling world is all about W/kg.

My question: Will simply eating at maintenance (~2075 kcal/day), upping my protein intake, and incorporating some heavy strength training be sufficient? Or would it be more effective to eat 300-500 kcal a day excess to build muscle (and obviously gain some weight in the short term) and then "cut" to reduce bodyfat (while continuing to lift to maintain muscle gain)?

I've heard differing opinions on this so any advice is appreciated!

sijomial

It depends on your training history, genetics, current training status and ultimately your goals. I would always advise recomping at maintenance to anyone that is not very lean and at their training peak. If your priority is cycling then you obviousy aren't looking to add a lot load of upper body muscle and extra weight just slows you down. People often randomly state "newbie gains" stall out after a while but I would say ride the wave and see where you get to.

As a 30 year old male you should be able to build muscle effectively at maintenance. Your bodyfat is also too high to consider bulking. Your stats do seem a little strange though!
160lbs at 6'1" is very light for someone with 18% bodyfat. How are you measuring BF?

"Upping protein intake" is a bit of a random statement, it shouldn't have been low when you were cutting! If it is low then increase it, if you are getting enough then stay the same - I look at protein as a minimum and not a percentage.
(I work on the common 1g / pound of LBM whether losing, gaining or maintaining.)

ahoy_m8

Really helpful, sijomial. Thanks.

PwrLftr82

In addition to what @sijomial said, how are you measuring your maintenance calories? I'm a 5'6" 130 lb female who does no cardio other than walking at lunch or bb complexes and my TDEE is around 2300 cals/day. If you're cycling and that tall, I'm sure your TDEE is much higher than that.

cwolfman13

I'm also finding your stats and TDEE a bit confusing. I'm 5'10" and oldish...I cycle about 80 miles per week and lift a few days per week and my TDEE is around 2800ish. I lose about 1 Lb per week on 2200 - 2300 calories gross.

To answer you question though, yes...you should do well just eating maintenance on a good, progressive lifting program.

amenenema

Thanks for all the comments, I'll go down the list:

sijomial - I've used BF calculators via tape measurements that put me at 20% and calipers that are 16-17%. I err toward the calipers because really the ONLY place I hold fat is around my midsection, and that's a big part of the tape measurement calculations (waist to hip, etc). On the protein topic, since all of my weight loss has come while marathon training, I was running a 65/20/15 carb/fat/protein ratio to make sure I had glycogen for my long runs. That put me around 60-70g protein per day, which is certainly sufficient for health, but not for adding muscle mass. I'm going to more like a 55/20/25 ratio now which gets me over 100g/day. Going to 1g/lb isn't realistic unless I'm spending all my beer money on vegan protein powder... ;D

PwrLftr82 - Sorry for the confusion, when I said "maintenance" I meant BMR. Thanks to logging every calorie (diet and exercise) for 310 days straight and comparing that to my weight loss I can confidently say that 2075 kcal is my BMR @ 160 lbs (I'd be happy to share the spreadsheet with formulas if you'd like!) Now of course my TDEE is higher factoring in that exercise, and I use a HRM, Strava, Garmin, and a few peer reviewed studies to make sure my calorie burn during running/cycling is as accurate as possible (another spreadsheet available if you want, sensing a trend?) Without running the numbers I'd guess my TDEE is around 2700 on average, but there's a great deal of variability when you factor in 20 mile long runs, which is why I don't work in TDEE, but rather sedentary BMR plus exercise. I will say that I naturally just carry very low amounts of muscle mass, which is likely why my BMR seems low for my height.

cwolfman13 - See comments above - sorry for the terminology confusion. That said, on a Saturday (long run) I'd have a TDEE of 5000 kcal. On Monday sitting at my desk all day in compression socks? 2075. Now that I'm switching to an exercise schedule with less volatility, I might start working in TDEE, but for now, I'm much more confident in separating BMR and exercise.

All that said, I'll eat my maintenance, lift heavy, and see what happens over the next month or two!

sijomial

I'm going to more like a 55/20/25 ratio now which gets me over 100g/day. Going to 1g/lb isn't realistic unless I'm spending all my beer money on vegan protein powder... ;D

Remember it's 1g per lb of lean mass not total mass so that would give you a target of 132g per day.
When I cycle long distances I also prioritise carbs on those days for energy but on "normal" days protein and then fat goals are my priority.

Have fun with your training!