Help me clarify something? Might have been going about Maintaining all wrong.

Entaro

So I need some help clarifying something, I think.

After I'd lost weight, I'd hit 6% body fat. I figured I was done, at that point, and it was time to start Maintaining rather than Losing. I wanted to reduce cardio, increase my caloric intake, and kinda.. become a normal person. While losing, I was at 4 hours of cardio, an hour of weight lifting, and something like 1,000 calories a day. It was a bit extreme, but trying to lose 250 pounds was a rather extreme goal.

In my mind, "maintaining" meant that I was going to Maintain at 6%, and it was normal to just get to a certain point and stay there.

I reduced cardio to 2 hours a day, increased calories to 2,000 a day, and rode out the strange panic and fear I felt in the process. (Honestly, it's almost freaky to think about how I feel bad about /not/ working out, when years ago you'd have to assault me to get me on a treadmill)

I just wanted to maintain and be normal, but I didn't want this extreme cardio session every single day.

I increased, on that routine, to 10% body fat, and had a bit of a mini freak-out. I felt like I was failing to maintain, since I wasn't staying at 6% body fat. In my mind it clearly wasn't working out, because I was gaining in a bad way. So I upped my cardio again, reduced calories, and went back down to 5% body fat (more than I'd planned, to be honest, but the percentage isn't something I can measure every single day).

Recent conversations, though, have given me the impression that I've been looking at this the wrong way, and I was wondering if you folks could maybe clarify this for me or tell me if I've been wrong, here.

"Maintaining" at 6% probably wasn't possible in the first place without keeping that major workout routine, was it?

I was looking at it like.. "Okay, I got to 6%. Time to stay there."

Is it more like "Okay, I'm done losing weight. Time to stabilize and maintain 10-?% body fat?"

If that is the case.. how long do I have to deal with this kind of mental pain of weight increase before I fine that "stable" point where I'm not gaining every week and feeling like I'm failing after all the work I put into weight loss?

seska422

Honestly, I doubt that you will ever reach a "stable" point where you can just relax. You'll need to remain somewhat vigilant for the rest of your life if you don't want to gain it all back plus some.

6% is not sustainable without massive exercise.

Rather than doubling your calorie intake and halving your exercise all in one fell swoop, adjust gradually. Increase your calorie goal by 100 and follow that new goal for a week and then add another 100 for the following week, etc. Cut 30 minutes off your exercise time every week. You'll need to keep working with your eating and exercise until you find a balance that works for you.

jediguitarist

Genetics are a major factor in your body fat percentage. I know people about 12% bf who work out 3x a week, don't do any cardio, eat 2000+ cal of healthy foods and have pronounced abs. I also know a few people who barely eat 1500 cal, 5x gym w/cardio who are about 17%-22% bf.

6% is elite athlete levels... Or eating disorder. 6% is difficult for top level athletes with near perfect nutrition. Not impossible, but unlikely to achieve for more than a few months and still be physiologically healthy.

How did you measure your body fat? Unless you used hydrostatic, DEXA or air displacement, your measurements could be off as much as 6-10%

Sarauk2sf

Where are you getting the 6% from? How was it determined? That is really low - as in stage ready competitive bb'er low (unless its that low due to an eating disorder).

nxd10

6% is body builder territory for guys. It is lower than body builder territory for women.

How about simplifying? Take your current measurements and weight. Find a routine you're comfortable with - exercising 5 days a week for some reasonable amount for example. Figure out the calories that should help you maintain that weight (the MFP calculator for example). See if that keeps your measurement and weight stable. If you've lost that much (congratulations) your metabolism is not going to match other people's. But it will give you a start. Then you can adjust your calories up or down from there. Nothing awful will happen in a month.

cwolfman13

Sarauk2sf wrote: »

Where are you getting the 6% from? How was it determined? That is really low - as in stage ready competitive bb'er low (unless its that low due to an eating disorder).

AsISmile

nxd10 wrote: »

6% is body builder territory for guys. It is lower than body builder territory for women.

How about simplifying? Take your current measurements and weight. Find a routine you're comfortable with - exercising 5 days a week for some reasonable amount for example. Figure out the calories that should help you maintain that weight (the MFP calculator for example). See if that keeps your measurement and weight stable. If you've lost that much (congratulations) your metabolism is not going to match other people's. But it will give you a start. Then you can adjust your calories up or down from there. Nothing awful will happen in a month.

This

seska422 wrote: »

Rather than doubling your calorie intake and halving your exercise all in one fell swoop, adjust gradually. Increase your calorie goal by 100 and follow that new goal for a week and then add another 100 for the following week, etc. Cut 30 minutes off your exercise time every week. You'll need to keep working with your eating and exercise until you find a balance that works for you.

And this

Entaro

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Sarauk2sf wrote: »

Where are you getting the 6% from? How was it determined? That is really low - as in stage ready competitive bb'er low (unless its that low due to an eating disorder).

It was Hydrostatic weighing to determine the body fat percentage.

About the "finding a balance thing." That's all well and good, and I understand that it's possible to take a gradual approach, but mostly I was trying to find whether or not I was thinking about maintaining wrong at a fundamental level.

Looking at it now, I just kind of want to confirm that stabilizing at 6% was never a possibility unless I kept up the massive amounts of exercise and/or cut my caloric intake down to nothing.

sushan88

There are people who maintain low body fat percentages, most of them put a great deal of work into it but not all....FWIW, the major variable I'm not seeing in this thread yet is the protein/fat/carb ratio of your diet. At a point it becomes not so much about calories.

Sued0nim

You want to stick at 6% not in terms of stage-ready but for life

wow .. just wow

I'd consider a more realistic body fat % for general living tbh

zoeysasha37

rabbitjb wrote: »

You want to stick at 6% not in terms of stage-ready but for life

wow .. just wow

I'd consider a more realistic body fat % for general living tbh

This! Body builders don't even stay that low all the time. Thats just unreAlistic!

Snow3y

Firstly, you would be aweful sickly to maintain at 6%, for the rest of your life.
Secondly, you need to read more on reverse dieting to maintain. Your metabolism adjusts through time, so you sort of have to condition yourself to eating more again, even if it is just to maintain.

Snow3y

Also, you may want to post pictures if you can.. Just something about all your stats given seem a bit dodgy

terar21

I'm confused...you're eating 1000 calories a day when you're trying to drop your body fat percentage??????? And doing 4 hours of cardio a day??????

Ocrgrrrl

Snow3y wrote: »

Also, you may want to post pictures if you can.. Just something about all your stats given seem a bit dodgy

^^^This....so much this....