Ready to start maintaining?

inherentst0rm

I feel like 180 pounds would be a good weight for me to be at, if I had muscle and not such a big gut.

I hit 180 at my last weigh in but I am still around 25% body fat, should I switch my calories to maintain mu current weight and just work harder to build more muscle, or continue to eat at a deficit?

CarvedTones

How tall are you?

inherentst0rm

Oh sorry for not including that, I am 5'9.

12Sarah2015

I would eat at a deficit but continue to exercise

CarvedTones

inherentst0rm wrote: »

Oh sorry for not including that, I am 5'9.

That's a BMI of 26.6. I would go lower slowly with exercise to keep from losing much if any muscle. Probably to around 165 and the a small surplus and more intense exercise to build back to 170. But that's me; I am hung up on being below 25 because I am average build so it's accurate and it's inflexible (not like my own goal I can rationalize).

steveko89

CarvedTones wrote: »

inherentst0rm wrote: »

Oh sorry for not including that, I am 5'9.

That's a BMI of 26.6. I would go lower slowly with exercise to keep from losing much if any muscle. Probably to around 165 and the a small surplus and more intense exercise to build back to 170. But that's me; I am hung up on being below 25 because I am average build so it's accurate and it's inflexible (not like my own goal I can rationalize).

I agree with Carvedtones' advice here. You're certainly not alone in reaching a scale goal and still not being happy with the results in the mirror. Scale weight at different body compositions will look very different. There are some studies that show building muscle is done most optimally (higher muscle:fat gain ratio) when starting from a leaner body fat percentage; hence the typical bodybuilding-style advice of cut to ~10-12% body fat and bulk to ~15%. Personally, I think you'd be best served to detach your goals from scale weight and focus on what you want to see in the mirror. By all means, tracking weight can be a good metric to follow, but not the most important one.

Here's a link to a piece written by Lyle McDonald that digs into the science a little more. https://bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/initial-body-fat-and-body-composition-changes.html/

sijomial

"Ready to start maintaining?"
As someone the same hegiht I would say no you aren't.
To have good composition and be in the BMI overweight category then you would need an unusual amount of muscle.
Ready to start losing slowly - probably.

My best weight in my 20's was 175lbs when I was quite muscular. I set that as my goal when I lost weight in my 50's but wasn't happy when I got there. Dropped the next five pounds at very slow rate (1lb/month) and saw reasonable gains in muscle and good improvements in definition at the same time.

Later dropped another 2lbs when I admitted I really wasn't a true BMI outlier any more.
(168lb is top of BMI healthy range).

A year later took off another 4lbs to help my cycling and very briefly yet another 3lbs but that was a step too far and I was hungry and low on energy - maintenance shouldn't feel like a diet. Maybe psychosomatic as I wasn't extremely lean.

A few years on and having added muscle I've brought my weight back up to 168lbs. My current happy weight and composition.

TL:DR

• Deficit can be very small and near goal probably should be.
• Maintenance weight isn't set in stone.
• Lift heavy things.
• Periodically reevaluate your goals and yourself.
• Enjoy life.

inherentst0rm

Thanks guys, I decided to stick to losing a bit longer, so we will see how it goes