5 days deficit + 2 days surplus = maintenance

rymincks

I am happy with where I am body composition wise. According to my handheld device, I am around 11% bf at 173 pounds. I went from 200-173 in about 5 months. I only had to make slight adjustments to my macros/cardio along the way but ended up at 180p, 200c and 50f (1970 calories each day) with 2,000 calories worth of cardio per week.

Instead of upping my calories slightly each day and reversing into maintenance, I feel that it would be easier and more enjoyable for me to maintain these lower macros on my week days and allow myself more calories on the weekends. When I ended my cut, I was still losing about 1.3 pounds/week with these final macros. That being said, on paper, my total deficit would be 4500 calories from my maintenance. (3500 x 1.3 = 4550)

If I continued eating these deficit macros 5 days per week, could I then eat an additional 4,550 calories on the other 2 days without putting on fat?

Example: M-F 1970 x 5 = 9,850 calories.
+
S-S 4,245 x 2 = 8,490 calories.

-2,000 calories from cardio

---

16,340 calories/week or 2,334 calories/day

I've been doing this for the past month and so far, I have been maintaining my weight. It takes about 4 days for the bloat to come back down but my weight trickles back to around 173 by Thursday.

Has anyone else had any experience with this?

Roosh513

It should work in theory. I'm no scientist or biologist, so I can't say for sure. What I can say for sure is that there is no harm in doing your own science experiment and trying it out for a few weeks. Measure the results and see what happens! Luckily, if you do gain a pound or 2, you know how to get rid of it

buffywhitney

This sounds like a great plan to me. I'm not quite at maintenance yet but have a similar plan in mind to try. I've been unsuccessful with maintenance before and need a new approach his time.

seska422

I've been maintaining by eating at a comfortable deficit most days and then having a high-calorie meal when my weight drifts toward the low end of my range.

sijomial

Good idea to make your calorie allowance fit your lifestyle and preferences rather than do the opposite which would seem like a permanent restrictive diet (verb).

middlehaitch

Nothing wrong with working from a weekly calorie goal as opposed to a daily one.
Looks like you have thought it through, so go ahead with your plan.

Be willing to modify if you find you are feeling hungry during the week, or you are gradually losing or gaining.

Cheers, h.

CarvedTones

I ended up doing this the last few days, though it is obscured in my diary except for yesterday. I usually roll forward calories into the next day if I go over. I had three days in the last week that were several hundred over. The first two days I logged a lot of things as if they were eaten on future days and on those future days I ate as if the items were eaten on that day and got under goal. Yesterday I went ahead and logged all the excess, I may still go back and change it, spreading the excess around. My goal has been lower than true maintenance anyway. So I don't bounce up and down with a plan like you, but I am not nearly as consistent as I make my diary read. I don't cook the books - I log everything - but I do rearrange entries. It works out to be averaging across days with easier math.

seska422

sijomial wrote: »

Good idea to make your calorie allowance fit your lifestyle and preferences rather than do the opposite which would seem like a permanent restrictive diet (verb).

I don't know how it is for others, but, for me, maintaining this weight will mean a permanent restrictive diet because the calorie level required for this weight is far lower than my preferred intake amount. My non-restrictive diet had creeping weight gain, even when I weighed twice what I weigh now. Kind-of watching what I ate had slow gain and just eating without restriction had somewhat faster weight gain.

I can make do with this intake amount but I have to stay on top of things. The OP's plan sounds like a good one. The key is to make adjustments if you try a plan and it doesn't work. Don't just ignore weight creep.

CarvedTones

The weight creep is one reason I set my 5 pound range with the top 4 pounds below my original goal weight. Getting into the no man's land between the range and the goal means going back into weight loss mode - no excuses. It also keeps spikes from going above the original goal so that it is an absolute scream weight. To steal a baseball quote - 50% of weight control is 90% mental. It seems silly to have to play head games with myself, but it seems necessary for me to succeed.

SuzySunshine99

I have been doing this since I began maintaining a few years ago. I have a calorie deficit on the days that I work (5-6 days a week) and then make up for it on my day(s) off. I work long and very busy hours so there's not much time to snack or think about being hungry. It has worked great for me and my weight has been very consistent.

mom23mangos

I used to do this all the time. Even when I was losing.

sgt1372

A lot of people believe in and practice calorie "banking" (or, "averaging," if you will) and claim success doing it. I have no reason to doubt them but I do not practice it myself.

I try to eat a consistent net amount of cals each day and, if I go under (which is usually the case), I do not take that into account except to track the correlation between my daily cal intake and weight. I adjust my daily cal intake (up or down) based on the wt trend over time.

This works best for me and has helped me lose 44# over the past 26 months; 36# in the 1st 6 months while in rapid wt loss mode and 8# in the following 20 while in maintenance.

sijomial

seska422 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

Good idea to make your calorie allowance fit your lifestyle and preferences rather than do the opposite which would seem like a permanent restrictive diet (verb).

I don't know how it is for others, but, for me, maintaining this weight will mean a permanent restrictive diet because the calorie level required for this weight is far lower than my preferred intake amount. My non-restrictive diet had creeping weight gain, even when I weighed twice what I weigh now. Kind-of watching what I ate had slow gain and just eating without restriction had somewhat faster weight gain.

I can make do with this intake amount but I have to stay on top of things. The OP's plan sounds like a good one. The key is to make adjustments if you try a plan and it doesn't work. Don't just ignore weight creep.

Agreed, it is very personal and a balance that each person needs to find.
My preferred amount of food is more than I need (a brief flirtation with intuitive eating was pretty disastrous!)
but I'm fortunate that I'm able to maintain by "kind-of watching what I eat" and being vigilant about monitoring my weight trend.
Having a very active lifestyle and lots of exercise helps me as I find it easier and more enjoyable to maintain on a higher volume of food.

psychod787

I will calorie cycle if I have an event coming up. I just aim to hit protein goals. After that... fair game.

apullum

Lots of folks look at a weekly calorie goal rather than a daily one. If your weekly total intake adds up to your weekly maintenance calorie goal (or if your average daily intake for the week matches your daily goal, however you want to think about it), then you should maintain just fine.

As you said, expect some scale fluctuations after those days of eating more, but you're already aware that this is water/undigested food rather than fat gain.

I am another person who has trouble "saving up" a lot of calories for the weekend. I do it sometimes if I know I have a big food-related event coming up and I'll want to eat a lot, but I don't do it routinely. After about three days in a deficit, I'm HUNGRY and it's hard to not overeat. So if I want to "bank" some calories for the weekend, it works best for me if I only start my deficit about two or three days before, and plan for a hike or other activity on the weekend to help offset the larger meal. (I have not followed this advice so far this week. It is Thursday. I am HUNGRY.)

I think most of us in maintenance would probably prefer to eat more than it takes to maintain our weight. I maintain on 1400 plus exercise. I run long distances and then I get rungry. I would also prefer to eat massive quantities of chocolate, instead of the more moderate quantities I now eat. So I still track calories closely after a year in maintenance, and I don't anticipate stopping.

ladyhusker39

Sounds like a great plan. It seems realistic and sustainable long term. That's what maintenance is all about. Besides, if you need to change it down the road you're not committed. I sense you'll do well.

Keladelphia

This is pretty much the strategy I use whether i'm cutting (larger deficit during the week and maintenance on weekend), maintaining (slight deficit during the week and equal surplus over maintenance on weekends) or bulking (maintenance calories M-Th, larger surplus F-S). I haven't put on body fat other than the usual expected body-fat during a bulk using this strategy.

Edit to add: the only difference is I see much greater daily fluctuations in my weight eating this way (which might freak some people out). It always evens out and ends up lining up with my expected rate of loss or gain overall though.

nowine4me

Adding: don’t freak out when you get on the scale on Monday. I follow this plan and it’s usually takes until Weds or Thurs to get back to where I was on Friday.