improving body composition at maintanence

You have done great getting to where you are at. I am still working on losing. I went a saw a sports nutriiionist and it was awesome. You should consider doing the same. You will be able to get better results with a personalized plan. I joined a gym that caters to athletes with a total plan. Working out, nutrition, health and building up your core.

The main uncertainty I have is this - based on most of what I've read, the only way to build new muscle is to eat at a surplus. It won't happen at maintenance or at a deficit, except for "beginners" or for genetic oddities. I'm neither a beginner nor genetic oddity.

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Taso42, sorry I don't have an answer, but I just realized that I picked a somewhat 'arbitrarily' goal weight based on a BF% goal.
I used a reverse calculator that takes your current weight and BF% and just 'does the math'.
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ibw/

But I am realizing that I need to research more about building muscle by eating a surplus!!

ETA: I am unfamiliar w/ the character that is your new pic, but dammmmn that ninja star looks painful!

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Definitely think you're on the right track. How are you measuring body fat?

I've kinda been in the same pickle. And I think we have similar beliefs about it. A while back I reached my target weight but then realized I wanted to look more shredded. At that point I took resistance training more serious, and because I didn't want to keep getting lighter I switched to maintenance cals. I'm becoming more & more convinced that for those of us who are already in our target 'range' it's more about getting a better muscle base, then focus on losing fat. So I'm pretty much agreeing with what you're suggesting. Go on maintenance cals & keep heavy lifting, focus less on regular cardio (don't know how much you are doing), continue HIIT. Then when the muscle base is there, it may be easier to get those last few pounds of fat off.

I've been doing this same modification for about a month & I'm starting to see a little more definition, but I do think I need to give it more time. My problem is I'm not confident in my BF readings. I have one of those impedance scales and the calipers, but it's so easy to do the calipers incorrectly (heck I can go online & find differing ways to perform the test) that I don't trust my own testing. Basically I just rely on what I see in the mirror.

Good luck.

So, 2 things to keep in mind with this line of thought.

First, how to reduce your body fat, and second, how to build lean muscle mass.

Unlike trying to lose WEIGHT, it's not impossible to lose fat and build muscle at the same time.
BUT
It is very hard to do both at the same time quickly.

In other words, it's not that tough to do one OR the other, then switch, but to do both you have to be pretty meticulous
with your diet, and keep very good track of not only the calories, but the types of exercise, their durations, what your limits are, and how your progressions are going.
Not saying you shouldn't be doing this anyway, you just have a much smaller margin for error if you do both at once.
my personal feeling (after trying both methods) is that it's far less difficult to try to add some lean mass, then cut some body fat, doing each phase for about 60 to 90 days.

As to the plan, I would usually tell someone at this stage to try to have a very minimal deficit, if any at all, during mass building phase you should be about 100 to 200 calories OVER your maintenance, doing this should give you about 1 to 2 lbs/ month, and about 80% of that should be lean tissue if you're doing 3 days of resistance training a week. Cutting fat phase should be about 100 to 250 below maintenance and 2 days of full body resistance training.
For both of these phases, the remaining days should be either anaerobic cardio (HIIT, boot camps, circuits...etc.) or hard cardio with 1 day of either light cardio or complete rest. You should be able to shave off between 2 and 3 percent in about 90 days doing that.
Of course it goes without saying, that if you do this, this is outside the bounds of what is considered just simple weight loss, and you can no longer do the old "cheat meals" and/or "days off". You need to be pretty dillegent. Once you get to where you want to be, you can be a little more lenient, but while you're in these phases, your body will be very sensitive to fluctuations, and monitoring and recording your routines and nutrition are super important.

I won't go into exact macro nutrient percentages, as that depends a lot on your specific body type, how much lean tissue you have, your genetics, age, weight, sex, and about five bazillion other factors. The first time you try this it may take a month or two to figure out exactly what works for you. But if you write everything down, monitor results closely, and do the occasional body fat test (should only do body fat testing once a month to once every 6 weeks, doing it more than that will only drive you crazy) to make sure you're on track.

So yeah, it's not easy, nor is it quick, but I guess you guys probably figured that out already.

hope this helps,

best luck, let me know how it goes.

--Banks

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

First, who cares what the scale says. We all tend to underestimate how much weight we need to lose to hit a certain bodyfat, me being one of them. I am ok with whatever the scale says when I get where I am going.

To answer your question, I think Leangains intermittent fasting would be the way to go to accomplish your goals. http://www.leangains.com/

Leangains intermittent fasting would be the way to go to accomplish your goals. http://www.leangains.com/

^^ This

Have you ever heard of the books "The Ultimate Lean Routine" by Greg Isaacs. It's out of print, but a great resource for cross training and eating right to reduce your body fat. You could try your local library or I grabbed a copy on Amazon fairly cheaply.

Bump for reference

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.

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

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