Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness X Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I'm not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you're enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let's jump right in. Let's talk about maintaining those results because most of us don't want to just achieve a goal to lose it one day later. We actually want to keep all of our results and the hard work that we put in to achieve them. So I'm super excited to be joined by Allison today, one of my fabulous coaches to talk about all things maintenance because I think we have a lot of misconceptions about what it is, and it's not just going back to what we were doing before we reach our goals, and it's not as simple as just sort of setting things on autopilot.

(00:57):
So thank you so much, Alison for joining me. Excited to dive into all things maintenance today.

Allison (01:03):
Hi, I'm super excited to be here and talk about something that I'm so passionate about.

Cori (01:09):
So first off, let's go over a little bit about what maintenance really is because as I mentioned already, it's not about going back to old habits, but you can't keep doing what you did to reach your goals in that exact form. You can't just stay in a deficit forever if you were in weight loss. You can't stay in a surplus forever if you're gaining muscle. So what really is maintenance?

Allison (01:28):
Yeah, I like the way you preface that because I think a lot of us have this idea that it's like the finish line and once we get there it's just this is it. But it really doesn't mean standing still or even staying at your lowest body weight. It's kind of just another leg in the journey. So we can look at these maintenance phases in several different ways. They can be, you've reached your goal, awesome. Now we're working on maintaining those new results. We can also use it as sort of like that diet break. If you've been living at a deficit for 1216, however many months or years, it is really, really important to be able to get out of that deficit. We're not meant to live there forever. These breaks are really great for our mental health and physically it's nice to give ourself a break too. And honestly, the goal for most of us should be to get to maintenance and chill here for a long time, potentially months, maybe even years depending on where you're at in your fitness journey. And you can use these as a place to just relax strategically, plan them around vacations or life events and things like that. Or until you're mentally ready to jump in and tackle another round of fat loss.

Cori (02:47):
I love that you mentioned it's a phase and it can last a longer time. It can be used shorter and strategically, but it's almost thinking about life as instead of this big yo-yoing up and as we lose the weight to then regain it, right? We get really good at dieting. We're almost trying to stay in this little realm of little evolutions, little focuses, and it's not just sort of putting ourselves on cruise control and completely forgetting about anything. There have to be other focuses within that, whether it's using it strategically to find that motivation again, to go back towards a specific goal or it's even saying, Hey, how can I get more life out of life? I've been in this deficit. I've lost the weight. Now how can I do less and feel even better off of that, can we talk a little bit more about some of the importance behind these maintenance phases in the different ways that we can implement them? Because you mentioned we're not meant to live in a deficit.

Allison (03:42):
So after we've been in a period of long-term weight loss and living below what our calories are ideal for, it really can, our metabolism slows down, down, it regulates and adapts to what we give it. So the same way that it can kind of down-regulate as we give it less food, it's able to upregulate as we slowly add in more calories. So it kind of helps to stabilize that metabolic rate, keeping it from staying kind of stagnant if you will, and then making it easier for you to lose that fat long-term. And it also is going to make your metabolism even more efficient. So when we're consuming the balanced calories where we're really eating what our body likes, we're eating in a macro balanced way, it allows our body that time to really build muscle. It allows it to process all those things. It's more efficient so that we're able to have some of those more fun foods frequently or be able to enjoy a couple of margaritas.

(04:54):
I know those are your favorite mine too. They're so good. So by having a little bit more of a regulated and efficient metabolism, we're able to build in some of those fun foods. It also is going to be really beneficial for our muscle health. We need energy to build muscle. We need energy to maintain muscle. And the more muscle mass we have, the more metabolically active we are because it takes more energy to maintain that muscle. So again, this is why you're able put on some muscle, be able to eat a little bit more food than you thought you could and still kind of maintain where you're at. Another benefit of these maintenance phases is our hormones, and we already have enough struggles, especially I just turned 41, be like all my hormones are like, Hey, cool, let's just play this new game. And so we already have enough challenges there with perimenopause and menopause to regulate those hormones a little bit better, especially the ones related to hunger, stress, giving ourselves more.

(06:09):
We don't have that cortisol spikes and our insulin is not going crazy either. So really being able to kind of feel good metabolically, but also just mentally and having a lot less stress in our life because dieting is a stress on our body and a lot of us don't realize that necessarily because we're so good at it, but it's challenging for our body. And so taking a little bit of a break is really good and it's going to also, if you're in a phase where you're looking for potentially wanting to think about having kiddos, it's going to help create a better hormonal environment for that. So it also can really help some of those hormones that are changing through menopause. So it's really just kind a win-win overall.

Cori (06:57):
It's that break our body and even our mind needs that we don't often recognize. And I think we have this idea that maintenance means, oh, I'm just maintaining the status quo right now. And yes you are, but just like everything in life we're constantly changing and with maintenance there are going to be little focus shifts depending on exactly what stage of maintenance you're even at. Like as you're first retraining it, you're going to see, as you mentioned, the scale potential increase. You're going to be seeing those metabolic changes, but you might see with gaining more muscle, you actually lose fat while not necessarily in a fat loss phase. And then during maintenance, you might see your body recomp even improve even if you've been there for a little bit longer. Just because everything has settled in, you've adapted, you might see your energy improve where you can work out and train even a little bit harder.

(07:42):
So maintenance doesn't mean standing still. It does mean a lot of times you can see those results and even if you see the scale creep up or you do gain a little bit of weight, sometimes that's even needed with gaining the muscle to then find that motivation to give your body and mind that break reregulate hormone levels so that you can then come back into the deficit and move forward. So there's a lot of benefits to it and it's not standing still, although there are some things we're going to talk about in a little bit warning people that you might see changes because with every journey, progress is never linear. But first I do want to talk a little bit about the workout changes that you might make with maintenance because I think this is really fun to get to see the different evolutions in our training and in our diet. So Alison, can you touch a little bit on what you might do in terms of adjusting your training?

Allison (08:28):
Yeah. When you're in maintenance, this is the most fun time, at least in my opinion, because you really start to feel that energy. You can go into the gym, you actually feel like working out most of the time. You're able to really focus on lifting heavier. If building strength is a goal of yours, you're going to actually have a lot more energy to be able to push heavier through those big. If you're looking to just build muscle, you want to see that muscle hypertrophy again, you're going to have the energy there and you'll be able to, instead of doing maybe three rounds of something, you can do four or five rounds. So you can start to see some of those changes that we all are wanting, that tone, lean, look, and you might end up finding yourself with more energy for activities outside of the formal workouts.

(09:21):
When I was in maintenance, I just started deficit, not happy about it, but when I'm in maintenance, I love being able to go for bike rides. We can really spend time focusing in these phases when we're looking at our workouts, really tracking where are we changing? Are we able to lift heavier? Can we do another couple of reps? Maybe we can add in another set. Also important to pay attention to is how we're recovering, how's our sleep feeling? How's our body feeling? Can we rest less between rounds? Things like that. And really trying to focus on potentially if you've got a specific lift that you want to improve on, maintenance is a great time to really hone in on that. You want to improve those pushups. Now you might be able to increase that length of time in your workouts just a little bit where you're able to add in some of that skill work so you really can kind of make maintenance your own in terms of workouts, but really giving your body that opportunity to really work towards those goals of, I want to do a pull up, I want to be able to have bigger arms or whatever.

Cori (10:29):
Those performance goals are so key during this time, and I think it's important to note that you'll have more energy for outside activities. That's such a key component of it because when you're in a deficit, you don't recognize that your body does try and become as efficient as possible to make sure that it's running off of the calories you're giving it and protecting all those survival mechanisms because you need to be able to run certain bodily functions during the day. And so if you're training harder in an attempt to create a bigger deficit, a lot of times the reason that backfires is because then you move less, you figi less, you do all these other things. Again, your body tries to maintain that balance so you won't feel as energized to go on those extra activities with family or extra bike rides, especially during the summer.

(11:11):
It can be really nice. So you do want to see maintenance as this opportunity to include those other activities and to push hard on your training because we have to recognize that while we might be giving a hundred percent while in a deficit it's a hundred percent of a deficit versus maintenance, you're going to have more energy. You're going to be able to push those muscle gains a little bit more because you will be able to push harder. So if you've even been thinking like, Hey, I've seen some weight loss, but I feel like I'm suffering from these metabolic adaptations and I'm struggling to build that lean muscle might be time for a maintenance phase. So you can really push in those workouts. Now off of this, going back to some of the positives and some of the negatives, what changes might you see if you're coming out of a fat loss phase? Because I think the mental awareness of what might happen is important so that we don't sabotage our own results in making a change.

Allison (12:02):
Yes, agreed. A hundred percent. I think the biggest misconception out there is that maintenance means staying at the exact same weight and that exact same weight. That number we have in our head is oftentimes the very lowest weight we got to within our deficit phase. But that's really just not realistic and there's lots of reasons for it. Number one, we're generally having our glycogen stores depleted. We have less food volume. We're probably not training as hard, so our muscles maybe aren't as inflamed. So a lot of those factors play into seeing that lowest number on the scale. So when we start to add in more food, we will see a little bit of weight gain, but that doesn't mean it's fat gain. And I think it's really important to differentiate there's the word but to mean those two things because simply seeing that number on the scale go up doesn't mean you've gained two or three pounds of fat.

(13:03):
We're holding onto a little bit more water when we increase our carbohydrates and it's just not, we've got more food in our system. So those are some things that will cause that scale weight to go up a little bit more. If you're focusing on progressive overload and you're pushing super hard in your workouts, you're probably going to also see that increase a little bit. And so many of us want to build muscle because it's so important for so many things in our lives, and it's really challenging to build muscle when we're chronically undereating, our bodies need food and muscle weighs something, right? So if we're putting on muscle, we can expect to see a little bit of changes on the scale. Initially, you might even start to feel like those hunger demons just really come out because as you start to give the body more food, it's like, oh, hey, awesome, we're getting more food.

(14:02):
I'm going to turn on these hunger signals to let you know I've been really hungry for a long time. Please give me more food. So we really want to make sure that we are aware that that's going to happen and be super intentional about these initial phases, especially as we are from the bottom of our deficit moving towards maintenance, we really want to focus on slowly adding calories in so that we don't see a lot of fat gain. If we go from eating 1500 calories to 2000 calories overnight and those calories are coming from those foods that maybe we didn't eat as much in a deficit, we may see some changes physically that we're not so happy with. So just kind of understanding that that initial hunger is going to be there, but it will fade as the body adjusts and adapts. And I think one of the biggest things, and this is kind of leading into some of that mindset stuff, but really thinking about shifting your focus from what is that number on the scale doing when we're on a fat loss phase, I'm on that scale every morning, like, come on, you open.

(15:10):
It went down just a little bit. And we really want to shift that focus from what that scale looks like to maintaining that weight within a little bit of a range and thinking about all those non-scale victories. Are we sleeping better? Are we happier? Are we feeling good? Can we now be able to participate in a few more social activities? Those kinds of things. So thinking about shifting that focus as you move through towards maintenance is really important.

Cori (15:38):
Celebrating all those wins in the different ways. And I think one that is not recognized as a win enough is our ability to have a different lifestyle. Because I think so often we think, oh, there's this magic time where I'll include these foods. And if you don't actually ever include them, that's where you sabotage yourself. You feel guilty then for eating them, and you throw yourself out of that or back into that U dining cycle, but out of that deficit, and then you think you have to restrict 'em again. So embracing that, you can have these, and even that, yes, the scale is going to fluctuate a little bit, but you're going to find that balance is so key. And as you mentioned, continuing to track when we slowly increase the calories, when we still focus on those macros, instead of just saying, oh, well I'm done.

(16:16):
I don't have to track. That's where we can make sure that we're doing the habits we need, celebrating those habits and consistency and that the changes we're seeing are good changes that we are building that lean muscle that it is that we're not depleted anymore because especially the more muscle we add, the more room for fluctuation we actually have, because your muscles are where you're storing glycogen. The more muscle you have, the more storage capacity you have. And so you have to recognize that even with coming out of deficit, coming out of low carb, you're going to store more glycogen, you're going to store more water weight, and that's going to ultimately help you gain more muscle. But also in gaining more muscle, you have more storage, so there's going to be some more fluctuation, which is why, as you also mentioned, those other forms of tracking is so key.

(16:56):
I love when someone gets down to that goal weight for them to take measurements for them to try on items of clothing that make them know that at this weight or at this size, that's where they want to be. Because then when they see those fluctuations on the scale, when they're transitioning to maintenance, they have these other markers that they know it's not fat being gained. It's just all those other reasons why we can see the scale fluctuate. So off of that handling scale fluctuations, handling the mindset shifts that we need to see with transitioning to maintenance, throwing it back to you, Allison.

Allison (17:28):
Yeah, no, I love that about having your clothing is kind of that bellwether because I do think that that's so important. It really helps to take away that emotion around that specific number. We're not walking around with that number on our shirt or anything. Who cares what we weigh, right? But it is important, I get it, but at the end of the day, it's not the only measure of progress. But one thing that I really like to do, especially in the initial phases of maintenance, when it is easy to get a little sloppy, is to weigh myself every day. And I do that because it's data. And I have found that weighing myself daily actually took away a lot of that emotion and stress around what that number on the scale was going to do to me. If it was up one day like, okay, I'm not eating and if it's down, yes, I'm going to celebrate.

(18:22):
So doing it daily really took away that fluctuation for me. And again, we can take a look at those weekly averages throughout the week. Is our weight going up? Is it trending down? Is it kind of staying the same? That can really help make sure that we're staying on track because it is easy to get a little looser when we are in maintenance. Maybe we'd go out for chips and salsa. We're not necessarily measuring all of those chips that we eat, whatever. So I like to really make sure that I'm weighing myself daily and give myself kind of that wiggle room for me. I'm comfortable with anywhere from a three to eight pound range. Other people may be a little bit less, but you do need to give yourself that wiggle room because like you mentioned, when we are adding muscle, we're storing more glycogen.

(19:12):
If we're working hard or we ate more food one day or whatever it is, we really want to make sure that we understand that those fluctuations are going to happen. But then also having that as your stopping point. If you do see that scale continuing to trend up, take a look at yourself. Am I really tracking everything? How many of those bites and licks and tastes am I having? Or having the coffee that I didn't track or all of those little things that don't feel like much. And you do have a little more wiggle room and maintenance, but it is not a free for all. And that is where we often see that creep. So I like to be able to weigh myself daily, look at the weekly averages, and then if I need to tweak or kind of dial things in, I will. But I think it's really important to have that number in your head because our initial reaction when we see that scale going up day after day, even if it's a quarter of a pound, is immediately to say, I have to go back into a deficit.

(20:19):
I've gained two pounds. And so really giving yourself a little bit of that fluctuation space. And like you said too, looking at those pictures, looking at the measurements, continue to do those things that you did consistently in a deficit measurements each week. If you've got that specific outfit that you feel really good in, try that on. Look and see what those composition changes are doing. Again, some of those non-scale victories that we can look at, but really being able to see like, okay, yeah, the scale might be going up, but all these other things are kind of staying the same or improving. And I think that can really help with some of that mental stuff.

Cori (21:01):
And even just having the data of the habits, because you might not even realize how much that helped you embrace the process while losing weight knowing, okay, well I'm tracking. So even if one day does trend up, you're like, okay, well I'm doing all the habits, I'll just keep watching it. If a shift is needed and a shift is needed, same thing goes for maintenance. A lot of times we do get a little bit more lax because we do feel like we have the flexibility and we don't understand or see those 1% deviations. But I love the plain analogy where if you're 1% off, you can end up in the middle of the ocean versus I think it's hitting Japan. If you leave from New York, of course I always butcher this and think I butcher it, but it's the difference in where you really land ocean safe landing.

(21:42):
And if you're not paying attention to those deviations, that's where you think that maintenance doesn't work, where you see the creep come on and then you think nothing works. You have to go back to dieting. So keeping track of those habits and the daily implementation of things, and even celebrating that alone as you say, okay, I know this is going to go up. I'm going to allow X amount of creep before I reassess my habits. Can even be a way to sort of dial yourself in because we are not good at maintaining. Simple fact, I know for a long time I was and I did the yo-yo diet cycle and maintaining is still a little cycles, but we are not good at maintaining. We are really good at dieting. It's the way we've always trained ourselves that we always look at a lot of the habits even as restricting. But tracking is the best way to make sure that you are fueling your body and helping yourself learn to eat more in an efficient manner, to see better body recon. Just remember those macros still really matter, and those slow calorie increases are really key. Any tips for people on that, Allison, in terms of adjusting their macros as they're maybe moving to maintenance and even a little bit afraid of eating more?

Allison (22:45):
Yeah, I have struggled with this myself. Same thing. Yo-yo dieting. And to be honest, this is the first maintenance phase that I have crushed. Spent six months of really mindful eating and having some moments of feeling a little bit fluffy, if you will, and just like, oh gosh, I can't wait to get back to this deficit. But knowing that all the things I'm doing are helping to allow me to grow that muscle that I want and to really make sure that my metabolism's feeling good and healthy has been really, really crucial. So when we are thinking about increasing calories and adjusting macros, it's really important to make sure that we're continuing to look at how are we feeling? What's that hunger looking like? Adding in calories slowly. I like to do anywhere from 150 to 200 calories. That seems to feel pretty reasonable because to be honest, it is challenging when you are at that bottom of a deficit and you're used to eating 13, 1400 calories is not very much food and your goal is to get up to 18, 19, even 2000 calories.

(23:59):
For some of us, that feels like a lot of food. And so doing it slowly really helps to allow your body to adjust. And again, we really still want to focus on that protein. We want our protein to be pretty high, especially if we're looking at building muscle. I like to look at my protein at 40, 45%, sometimes even 50 depending on where I want to go. And carbs are going to be really essential here too. They're going to help with that energy. So cycling through those 40 to 45% on protein and even on carbs and keeping the fat a little bit lower just so that we're making sure that what we're gaining is really more muscle and not so much body fat. And then really thinking through too, we want to make sure that we're, again, tracking, giving ourselves that opportunity to enjoy some of those trigger foods, if you will.

(24:59):
And like you said, those habits pre-plan your day still, it is really, really important. Even in maintenance, yes, you've got more food to play with, but that still means we need to pay attention to where calories are coming from and pre tracking, I need to have it tattooed. All my unicorns know it's my thing I say to them all the time, but it is truly so essential, especially when you're looking at trying to hit 45% protein, that's a lot of grams of protein. So if you are not pre that ahead of time, it's a lot to eat at the end of the day, knowing on a chicken breast at 10:00 PM no one wants to do that.

Cori (25:40):
Definitely no one wants to do that. And I think it is so key that you do this process slowly. And I love that you mentioned keeping protein higher because especially coming out of a fat loss phase where you might've used those ratios, it keeps you feeling more comfortable and confident. And high protein diets are the one diet. They've shown that even in a calorie surplus, you'll avoid gaining unwanted fat by keeping that protein higher. So especially if you're trying to trust in the process of maintenance, doing a macro breakdown that you've used during a cut used during a deficit used to lose weight, especially as you're increasing calories, can be a great way to be changing one thing at a time so that you're not only having an easier time embracing the process, but also not giving your body too much to handle all at once.

(26:20):
And yes, pre-plan, pre-plan, pre track. I sometimes can't believe when Ryan's tracking as he goes through the day and I'm like, I've done this for a decade and I'm still pre logging everything because I just don't want to have to guess at the end of the night. And I definitely don't want to have to be eating chicken at the end of the night dessert for me. That's it. But you painted working more of those fun foods as you mentioned too. Any closing thoughts for looking to move into maintenance because they've hit their goal weight or even who's like, well, I'm not at my goal, but I'm feeling a little burned out, or I'm starting to see my progress stall. How can I use maintenance for me? Any tips for them?

Allison (26:57):
Yeah, I think the biggest tip honestly is really is to have a coach or have somebody that you trust, a community like this group or a one-on-one coach because they have an objective view of what is your consistency really looking like. They can look at those before and after in progress photos and see those physique changes that we can't see because we're our own worst critic and we see ourselves every day. We don't notice those changes. And a coach can really help with those mental aspects of navigating those ups and downs and seeing that scale kind of changing in your body, changing a little bit too and good ways. And maybe you went out for a night and you had a lot of alcohol and you're feeling kind of bloated or whatever. They can be there to sort of tuck you off the ledge and really help you to understand physiologically what's happening inside of your body too.

(27:57):
And I think if you are finding yourself in a situation where you're constantly thinking about food or you're feeling really frustrated or you're just kind of finding it hard to stick with your deficit, maybe your great Monday through Thursday and then Friday night rolls around and you tell yourself you're not going to, and then something comes up and you just feel like you're out of control a little bit, those are all signs that your brain is telling you like, Hey, we're ready for a little bit of a break here, and you'll find that you'll have a lot less food noise in your head. So I think just kind of tuning in to some of those feelings, but really do find somebody that you can trust and lean on. I think that's the biggest hack for being successful in maintenance,

Cori (28:47):
What you're saying, we can't be objective, that emotions get in the way sometimes. What just

Allison (28:52):
A little bit.

Cori (28:53):
They definitely do. And I think that's a key thing for us to remind ourselves of that we lose perspective too. When you're first losing weight, you see these changes over time where you're losing weight and you have that comparison to where you were. So you have this feeling that you looked better than, but the longer you maintain, the less you sort of have that perspective because you sort of look within the same realm. So we lose that real feeling of comparison, of looking better then, and so we can start to think that we look worse, even though we are still looking the same fabulous that we once really appreciated. So having those other ways of reminding yourself of how hard you've worked, where you still are from trying on the clothing to having those progress pictures, to having outside perspective in community or coach can be really key, especially if this is your first time transitioning to maintenance.

(29:39):
If you're starting to feel like, am I doing the right things in maintenance? Or as you mentioned, using maintenance even to sometimes give ourselves that mental break because I think so often we try and out willpower everything in our life, and you can't, you're going to get depleted at some point, and the more you can say, Hey, I'm running out of willpower, or I have my stress bucket really filled and it's about to overflow, what can I take out of it? This is one of those things that you can take out of it sometimes to help yourself still achieve amazing results and then even come back more motivated to move forward. Alison, thank you so much for joining me today. So many amazing tips and tricks to help everybody really use that maintenance phase to their advantage. Again, thank you for joining me and guys have a fabulous Wednesday and a great rest of your week. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I'm never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you're enjoying the podcast to leave a rainy review or share it with somebody you think it might help, this will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life of someone.

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.