improving body composition at maintanence

GalaxyDuck

Bump for reference

TK421NotAtPost

Cycle your kcals and macros throughout the week. In other words, if you're training 3x per week, eat 600 kcals over maintenance on those days, and 450 under maintenance on rest days. Weekly kcals will be at maintenance but you will be supporting hypertrophy on training days by eating a surplus, and you will be supporting fat loss on rest days by eating a deficit.

Furthermore, protein should be high every day. Aim for 1.5g per lb of LBM. Carbs should be high on training days to support leptin levels and muscle protein synthesis, and fat should be kept low to maximize the intake of carbs and protein. On rest days, carbs should be low and only consumed in the form of fibrous veggies and a very modest amount of fruit/berries. By eating this way on rest days you keep insulin to a minimum and let the leptin do it's job by burning away the fat. Fat is kept high to regulate other hormones, testosterone etc...

Following a plan like this with consistency and lifting hard, heavy, and low volume 3 x per week will allow you to build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but only if you follow it very consistently.

Good Luck

+1. Exactly what he said!

I would "culk", increase protein to 1.5 per lbm, cycle carbs according to your training.

In addition, I would alternate days of steady state and HIIT instead of doing exclusively HIIT.

liftingbro

Cycle your kcals and macros throughout the week. In other words, if you're training 3x per week, eat 600 kcals over maintenance on those days, and 450 under maintenance on rest days. Weekly kcals will be at maintenance but you will be supporting hypertrophy on training days by eating a surplus, and you will be supporting fat loss on rest days by eating a deficit.

Furthermore, protein should be high every day. Aim for 1.5g per lb of LBM. Carbs should be high on training days to support leptin levels and muscle protein synthesis, and fat should be kept low to maximize the intake of carbs and protein. On rest days, carbs should be low and only consumed in the form of fibrous veggies and a very modest amount of fruit/berries. By eating this way on rest days you keep insulin to a minimum and let the leptin do it's job by burning away the fat. Fat is kept high to regulate other hormones, testosterone etc...

Following a plan like this with consistency and lifting hard, heavy, and low volume 3 x per week will allow you to build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but only if you follow it very consistently.

Good Luck

+1. Exactly what he said!

I would "culk", increase protein to 1.5 per lbm, cycle carbs according to your training.

In addition, I would alternate days of steady state and HIIT instead of doing exclusively HIIT.

I agree with these two.

However, gaining lean mass at maintenance will be slower than a bulk no matter how you do it. This may be the best way to do a true recomp, but recomping is a very slow process and could take months or years to see big changes. However, if you are patient and keep at it, it will work. Most people do the bulk-cut cycles over and over because the results are more noticable and quicker.

However, you can recomp (lower BF% increase LM) this way.

taso42_DELETED

Wow this old thread got resurrected for some reason. I stuck to maintenance for about a month, but have since then bumped it up to a 250 cal surplus. Kept macros about the same (30/40/40 p/c/f IIRC). Gaining about .5 lb/ month as predicted. Seems to be some fat creeping on as well. Not too concerned about it; I can always burn that off later.

cobaltis

This seed was planted in me when I recently watched the documentary "I Want To Look Like That Guy". For the first several weeks of his transformation, he was essentially eating maintenance and working out hard. His scale weight stayed about the same but body composition improved. Was this "the beginner effect", or just plain normal?

Yes it is possible, its just slower. Protein at 1.5g per pound of lean mass I agree with. BUT lower your cardio to low intensity or cut it out as it is only making it harder on your body to build muscle.

Muscle is inefficient according to your body. It takes a lot of calories to maintain and even more to build. If it needs to replenish glycogen stores to muscles from cardio and it doesnt have enough calories to do it, it is more likely to break down muscle to do so.

Some sites to look into...

www.leangains.com
www.bodyrecomposition.com

shelbygeorge29

My thought is that I can stay at approximately this same weight, but build new muscle and burn fat, thereby still reaching that 9% body fat goal. .

How feasible does this sound?

Sorry, but it is not feasible at all. There are some beginner gians, where someone is losing a bunch of weight while weight training when they can lose fat and gain muscle. But where you are at, it isn't going to happen.

It is impossible to simultaneously build muscle and lose fat. (With the exceotion of beginner gains, which only happen for those fat and way out of shape, which you are not.) Your body needs calories to build muscle, and your body needs to be at a deficit to lose fat. Have you ever been to bodybuilding.com and the forums there? The folks on those message boards should be able to better direct you on your current goal.

wanderlust3

bump to read later