Changes when you hit maintainance

MACnificence

Hey guys and girls

Just wondering what changes did you notice (if any) when you started eating at maintainance calories in terms of body composition

I've heard some say they continued to drop inches despite not losing weight , and people say their skin tightened up once they started eating maintainance calories
Just wondering did anyone else experience this ?

I'm looking to body recomp and I'm unsure whether to keep a small deficit going or eat at maintainance
I've heard both being suggested

I lift 3 days a week , but strength gains have been minimal , possibly down to calorie deficit ?
I know you can gain strength on a deficit but are you limited to how much ?
Did your strength really improve once you started getting your calories up

Just want to hear your thoughts on this , thanks guys !!

MzYoga

I'm glad I found this group! Have been doing my own version of maintenance for a little over a month. I weigh daily but don't really track calories. If my weight goes up more than 2 pounds, I cut back my eating. I also keep a running weekly average of weight so that I can monitor trends. I believe this is a more accurate weight reflection. My experience with weight loss was that the pounds came off followed by inches.

melsinct

No difference in body composition when switching to maintenance. I just went from losing weight to not losing weight.

nxd10

I'm probably one of those people who you read saying they dropped inches when they stopped losing weight on maintenance and I've definitely had skin tighten up.

I have been more conscientious about walking, but I still haven't hit the gym, and it's been since June. I do highly recommend a fitbit or other pedometer type monitor.

sijomial

The biggest difference I noticed was increased energy for training, better recovery and able to break through a few strength/lifting barriers.

As regards recomp I was seeing steady progress at a small deficit and still seeing steady progress at maintenance.
Changes are more subtle though, better definition, slight reduction in waist measurement, leg and arm measurements slightly up and now my chest measurement includes more lats and less "moobs"!

Really I would say the decision should come down to body fat percentage and how happy you are with where you are now. Taking a diet break at maintenance and then deciding if you think you are done with weight loss is another option. I ended up hitting goal, then after a while revising downwards a couple of times until I ended up 7lbs under what I originally thought was the right weight for me.

emjaycazz

MAC, based on your previous posts I think you and I are similar in weight/height profile (5'1-5'2-ish and around 100-105 lbs). JUST upping your calories to maintenance isn’t just by itself going to automatically result in a recomp. Up until last week, I too was actually eating at a slight deficit and lifting heavy and noticing very gradual to little strength gains. I took a very hard look at my calorie level and had to prioritize what I wanted going forward fitness-wise, and the answer was strength gains. So…I just changed up to TDEE, am throwing out one of my cardio sessions per week to allow for better recovery and frankly to not get burnt out.

Here is the kicker, though---I’m upping my calories to a surplus (i.e., ABOVE maintenance). I am increasing them VERY slowly at first and if I find that I am not progressing with strength gains, I am going to increase them some more. It’s going to require effort to be okay with the scale creeping up AND possibly changes in my measurements of the upward kind, but I have to trust that if I need to cut down the line, I am capable of doing so safely and sustainably.

MACnificence

I think my deficit might still be a bit high for strength gains , I'm working on reversing calories but hit a period over Christmas where I stupidly cut down because of paranoia of a Christmas gain
So I'm back at roughly 1500 calories a day that's what I was aiming for this week , I'm working on getting up to 1645 as suggested by sidesteel and Sara in eat train and progress group

I still don't know where my calories will actually end up for maintaince
My weight is seemingly stalled at the moment despite consistently losing at the same intake previously