Reverse diet?

Spliner1969

daz2270 wrote: »

Hi all. I've been cutting on and off for the best part of 18 months (losing 68lbs). I'm 5' 10" and am 3lb away from my goal (160 lb). I'd then like to start a slow bulk. Based on my average cals consumed I estimate my TDEE to be around 2500 and I am eating c 1600 cals per day. My question is: once I get to my goal should I creep up calories slowly at around 200 per week, building up to a small surplus in 5-6 weeks or am I better off bumping up to a modest surplus (say 250) straight away? Thanks for the advice.

I increased my calories by 200-300 a week until I hit maintenance. But I also wanted to go 5 lbs below my goal weight because I knew my body would take time to adjust to the calories and I would gain a bit. I was right, by the time I hit my maintenance calories, which took about a month, I had gained back up to my goal weight. Once in maintenance, I set out for recomp since I had not lost all the belly fat (more loose skin than anything) I wanted, so I've been at maintenance, slightly below, or slightly above at times ever since (for about six months). I've managed to loose about 2-3% more body fat, and reduced the belly quite a bit (not where I want it just yet, but it's close). I figure another six months at maintenance, then I'll decide if I want to bulk, but it's looking like I won't have to as long as I keep on the way I am for another six months. I've actually lost about 10 lbs more in the last six months along with the body fat without even trying. I allow longer harder workouts to be a slight deficit rather than restricting calories constantly. Muscle gain is slow in recomp, but since I'm eating up to maintenance levels and sometimes above it isn't hard to maintain without feeling terribly restricted.

trigden1991

Spliner1969 wrote: »

daz2270 wrote: »

Hi all. I've been cutting on and off for the best part of 18 months (losing 68lbs). I'm 5' 10" and am 3lb away from my goal (160 lb). I'd then like to start a slow bulk. Based on my average cals consumed I estimate my TDEE to be around 2500 and I am eating c 1600 cals per day. My question is: once I get to my goal should I creep up calories slowly at around 200 per week, building up to a small surplus in 5-6 weeks or am I better off bumping up to a modest surplus (say 250) straight away? Thanks for the advice.

I've actually lost about 10 lbs more in the last six months along with the body fat without even trying. I allow longer harder workouts to be a slight deficit rather than restricting calories constantly. Muscle gain is slow in recomp, but since I'm eating up to maintenance levels and sometimes above it isn't hard to maintain without feeling terribly restricted.

You think that you lost 10lbs whilst eating at maintenance and sometimes above it?? In reality you have been in a a caloric deficit of about 250cals per day. You won't have gained any muscle but you will have gotten leaner.

Spliner1969

trigden1991 wrote: »

You think that you lost 10lbs whilst eating at maintenance and sometimes above it?? In reality you have been in a a caloric deficit of about 250cals per day. You won't have gained any muscle but you will have gotten leaner.

Possibly. I won't argue with that. The increased exercise puts me in deficit a lot, it was poorly worded. I'm not scheduling a deficit like in the past when dieting, I'm allowing it to happen depending on effort put forth through exercise. Some days I simply can't eat more, and it still leaves me in a deficit. One reason for that is that I calculate a set amount of exercise into my TDEE, set that on MFP, then delete exercise as I do it to keep the calorie levels steady. I don't pay for MFP any longer (just didn't see the point) so it really just depends on the accuracy of my apps, and how much exercise for my deficit. It just isn't apparent in my diary most days. I wouldn't say I'm gaining a lot of muscle size, but you're right I'm becoming leaner, and I've noticed muscle where I had none before (abs mostly, some in the legs) so there's some recomp going on as expected.

trigden1991

Spliner1969 wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

You think that you lost 10lbs whilst eating at maintenance and sometimes above it?? In reality you have been in a a caloric deficit of about 250cals per day. You won't have gained any muscle but you will have gotten leaner.

Possibly. I won't argue with that. The increased exercise puts me in deficit a lot, it was poorly worded. I'm not scheduling a deficit like in the past when dieting, I'm allowing it to happen depending on effort put forth through exercise. Some days I simply can't eat more, and it still leaves me in a deficit. One reason for that is that I calculate a set amount of exercise into my TDEE, set that on MFP, then delete exercise as I do it to keep the calorie levels steady. I don't pay for MFP any longer (just didn't see the point) so it really just depends on the accuracy of my apps, and how much exercise for my deficit. It just isn't apparent in my diary most days. I wouldn't say I'm gaining a lot of muscle size, but you're right I'm becoming leaner, and I've noticed muscle where I had none before (abs mostly, some in the legs) so there's some recomp going on as expected.

An unintentional deficit is great, for fat loss and mentally not feeling like you're dieting but not great if you are trying to build some muscle. If you were to bump your average calories up by 250 cals I would hazard a guess that your weight would maintain.

Spliner1969

trigden1991 wrote: »

An unintentional deficit is great, for fat loss and mentally not feeling like you're dieting but not great if you are trying to build some muscle. If you were to bump your average calories up by 250 cals I would hazard a guess that your weight would maintain.

It's a possibility. I am going to toy with that at the first of the year (250 additional is what I also figured). Right now I try to bump calories on days that I do more strength training, and on days right afterward. So overall for a month, or overall for a week, I tend to be in a slight deficit, but in surplus (a slight one) on 1-3 days a week. One of the things I had had trouble with was that I've taught myself over the last 1.5 years to eat healthier versions of things (as in lower calorie versions) and I'm finding that continuing that sometimes makes it difficult to eat in surplus (I will get too full to eat more lol).

For instance, last night I set out to eat in surplus for the night, fixed me a double cheeseburger (2 1/3 lb patties), loaded, roasted cauliflower, and potato wedges with a side salad for dinner. I made it through everything but the salad lol, could simply not eat more. I managed to eat maybe 1/3rd of it, so I picked out the meat (in this case ham). I ended the day a few calories under my maintenance goal even after having ice cream as a late snack which I also barely ate lol. The ice cream is the 'no sugar added' variety. So had I changed up sides on the dinner to something higher calorie, and maybe eaten fully loaded sugar ice cream I might have been in surplus.

I bought a huge jar of peanut butter yesterday, will be using that for extra calories from time to time, maybe I can be more consistent without falling back into crap food habits again. Again, don't get me wrong, food is food, I'm not one of those 'eating clean' people, but I've taught myself to eat more vegetables, and lower fat/lower sugar versions of things which is now sort of working against me. It's still tough to get out of the 'i'll get fat' mentality after working so hard to lose all this weight (126 lbs to date).