Weightlifting with maintenance calories

__freckles__

So you build muscle while lifting weights and eating at a calorie surplus. You retain muscle while lifting weights and eating at a calorie deficit. What happens when you weight lift and eat at maintenance? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

sijomial

You gain muscle and lose fat slowly - it's called a recomp.

It works but you need patience.

__freckles__

You gain muscle and lose fat slowly - it's called a recomp.

It works but you need patience.

Music to my ears. Thanks!

astronomicals

yup... honestly, if you're tracking calories every day I think everyone should "clean bulk" rather than maintain unless they have no desire to gain any more size to their musculature...

clean bulking is having a pretty small surplus... guys who wanna stay ripped all year but still gain muscle... its not as fast as bigger surpluses with more fat gain, but your time is better spent than lifting on maintenance...


ETA: if a guy spent 5 months lifting and gained 10 pounds while lifting at a small surplus I'd be shocked if he didnt look better than if he had maintained his weight while doing the exact same regimen... 5 pounds in 5 months for a female.

vorgas

In the long run you will have much better results bulking then cutting. And you need to eat a boat load of protein at maintenance to gain any muscle, but your gains are going to be slow, slow, slow.

That being said, if you're new to lifting weights most of your strength gains are going to come from neural pathways as opposed to muscle build anyway, so it will be fine in the beginning.

pauljsaunders

A really interesting read... thanks...

sijomial

I'm aiming to go for a BodPod analysis next week to get accurate numbers to follow the one I had in March.

Rough estimate for past 7 months is a net weight loss of 4lbs (mix of slight deficit and then maintenance) with loss of 8lbs of fat, gain of 4lbs of muscle.

Factors that help a recomp:
Being male (young male even more so, sadly for me...)
A good weight training regime.
Adequate to high protein intake.
Intermittent fasting routine (debatable...)

Recomp doesn't suit everybody and if muscle gain is your priority cut/bulk cycles might well give quicker results.

FrnkLft

I'm aiming to go for a BodPod analysis next week to get accurate numbers to follow the one I had in March.

Rough estimate for past 7 months is a net weight loss of 4lbs (mix of slight deficit and then maintenance) with loss of 8lbs of fat, gain of 4lbs of muscle.

Factors that help a recomp:
Being male (young male even more so, sadly for me...)
A good weight training regime.
Adequate to high protein intake.
Intermittent fasting routine (debatable...)

Recomp doesn't suit everybody and if muscle gain is your priority cut/bulk cycles might well give quicker results.

Dude, post your results here. I want to see how it came along, and include details about what you did deficit/maintenance/surplus, routine, etc...

toomanydogs99

Bumping in case he comes back- really interested in this

tomcornhole

I like the recomp route but it is trickier and slower than a bulk / cut. In May, I weighed 185 lbs, 156 lbs LBM, 16% BF. This morning, I weighed 184 lbs, 159 lbs LBM, 13.6% BF. Added 3 lbs LBM in 5 months. A pure bulk should have added 10 lbs of LBM. But it was summer and I wanted to stay lean.

I do IF every day (last food at 8pm, first food at noon, so a 16/8 IF). I don't do IF because I think it helps, it is just my lifestyle and preference.

I eat low carb just below maint on rest days. I don't eat low carb because I think it helps, it just fits my lifestyle and preference.

I eat just above maint and add carbs right after lifting on lift days. I think this is called several different things: nutrient timing, carb back loading, silly. I like it because I feel like I am a pig after lifting. But the daily calories are just above maint. I think this does help.

Tom

summer8it

You gain muscle and lose fat slowly - it's called a recomp.

It works but you need patience.

I suspect that this translates to what many ladies call "toning."

It's working for me. My weight is staying steady, but I'm gaining strength and definition.

lporter229

You gain muscle and lose fat slowly - it's called a recomp.

It works but you need patience.

I suspect that this translates to what many ladies call "toning."

It's working for me. My weight is staying steady, but I'm gaining strength and definition.

This is my goal too. I am still struggling a bit with knowing if I am at the right maintenance calories. I have been maintaining pretty well, but, as a distance runner, my weekly calorie burn is pretty variable. I have been trying to incorporate more weight training into my workout routine and will continue to do so. I just hope I am on the right track.

FrnkLft

You gain muscle and lose fat slowly - it's called a recomp.

It works but you need patience.

I suspect that this translates to what many ladies call "toning."

It's working for me. My weight is staying steady, but I'm gaining strength and definition.

This is my goal too. I am still struggling a bit with knowing if I am at the right maintenance calories. I have been maintaining pretty well, but, as a distance runner, my weekly calorie burn is pretty variable. I have been trying to incorporate more weight training into my workout routine and will continue to do so. I just hope I am on the right track.

See, based on what I know about lifting, while:

Deficit = maintain muscle
Surplus = gain muscle

I would figure maintaining might lead to a little muscle mass. With regards to getting "definition" or "toning up"... I think it's more to do with keeping the muscle you have, and loosing the fat... just like when on a deficit.

I mean, TomCornhole is a man, and eating at maintenance only gained 3lbs LM in 5 months. Whatever he sees in the mirror isn't much to do with what he gained, it's more likely what he's lost.

karllundy

BUMP. I am nearing my goal weight and getting ready to start new goals. In for the info.

Jennical

This was really interesting....

madtownjeremy

This is interesting to me because I've been lifting since the beginning of June and have seen enormous gains in just plain being able to use my muscles as well as definition (plus tons of fat loss from cal deficit), but no size gains...which is fine.

My weight is still pretty high (285) which puts my 'exercise every day' rmr at 2300 and honestly I can barely eat that...not to mention going up to TDEE and beyond.

I just feel sometimes like I'm stuck in a cutting phase until my weight comes down because there's no way I can eat over 3K cals in one day to support bulking, regardless of the macros.

FrnkLft

You know, at least at the beginning, I think I would advocate bulking to a point where you feel the cutting period wouldn't be too much, then cutting, then bulking, cutting, etc...

If a newbie gains .5 LM per lb gained, then that would amount to like 2 months bulking, 1 month cutting, etc... that's not so bad.

And for most people you could create the deficit through exercise and spare the rationing.

wild_wild_life

Consider calorie cycling. Above maintenance on lift days, below maintenance on rest days. As long as the calories balance out for the week you will maintain, but may still get some benefits of bulking.

I just started leangains IF with +20% 3x/wk, -20% 4x/wk and am subjectively seeing better results that when I ate at maintenance daily.

No_Finish_Line

i don't know that it would work so well for me.

I say this because when i'm cutting, it seems like it takes a lot time of eating at a surplus before i start gaining, and even harder when i want to cut, seems like a long time before i start seeing results.

seems like this wouldn't get me anywhere. but i don't like the cycle of man boobs/no man boobs so maybe i'll try this next time.


you would definetly need patience

FrnkLft

Consider calorie cycling. Above maintenance on lift days, below maintenance on rest days. As long as the calories balance out for the week you will maintain, but may still get some benefits of bulking.

I just started leangains IF with +20% 3x/wk, -20% 4x/wk and am subjectively seeing better results that when I ate at maintenance daily.

I think calorie cycling is getting into the weeds. I mean, your body builds the muscle on rest days, but from where does it draw the nutrients? Game day or rest day? And would anyone really want to make things this complicated if by the end of the week like you said, average calorie intake is the same and weight wouldn't have changed?

wild_wild_life

Consider calorie cycling. Above maintenance on lift days, below maintenance on rest days. As long as the calories balance out for the week you will maintain, but may still get some benefits of bulking.

I just started leangains IF with +20% 3x/wk, -20% 4x/wk and am subjectively seeing better results that when I ate at maintenance daily.

I think calorie cycling is getting into the weeds. I mean, your body builds the muscle on rest days, but from where does it draw the nutrients? Game day or rest day? And would anyone really want to make things this complicated if by the end of the week like you said, average calorie intake is the same and weight wouldn't have changed?

Yeah, I know, I'm not sure about it. I think the idea is that your body is more likely to use the calories (high protein/carb) you provide it on lifting days to repair/build muscle than it is to store excess calories as fat because the need for muscle repair and hormonal conditions optimizing repair (eg high insulin sensitivity) is timed to correspond with the provision of those nutrients. Then on rest days, you won't be storing fat because you're at a deficit. I know the body continues to build muscle on rest days though.

Personally I do like being able to eat more sometimes so it works out psychologically for me anyway.