I have a query about working out at maintenance calories. It’s pretty basic that if you eat a calorific surplus you gain mass, and if you eat a calorific deficit, you lose mass. But if you were to train whilst eating maintenance calories, what would the results be?
Would the body just remain the same, same levels of fat and muscle, a bit like ‘treading water’, or would it kind of re-composition itself, so you’re maintaining the same weight but the composition is changing as you burn fat and build muscle?
FWIW, my weekly routine involves 3 days of lifting (push/pull/legs) and 3 days of HIIT (row,cycle,hill sprints).
it would really be dependent on your macro breakdown. To oversimplify things… your body requires more effort (cals expended) to digest and breakdown ingested protein. So in essence, eating 20 cals of carbs may be 20 cals, 20 cals of protein may only have the effect of 18 (I’M GROSSLY OVERSIMPLIFYING HERE! look up Berardi’s notes about Met coefficients)
Thanks for the reply Stu. If it helps, I currently eat around 300g of protein each day (weigh 190lbs or 82 kg) and keep my carbs clean. Is the aforementioned article somewhere on this site? So would you say that working out at maintenance has it’s benefits?
[quote]ShutUpAndSquat wrote:
Thanks for the reply Stu. If it helps, I currently eat around 300g of protein each day (weigh 190lbs or 82 kg) and keep my carbs clean. Is the aforementioned article somewhere on this site? So would you say that working out at maintenance has it’s benefits?[/quote]
190lbs is 86 kilos. So you want to improve body comp while maintaining bodyweight?
If you were to hold your calories and macros constant, and keep your workouts the same, then there theoretically would be not change. If you kept the calories the same though, and progressed in the gym, you would likely lose weight gradually, and it should come from fat, but it depends on many factors.
Basically if your goal is to stay the same weight, but cut fat, then check your weight 1-2x a week, and adjust to stay in a certain range. You might wanna make the range like 5lbs or so. If you do this, and progress in the gym, you’ll likely lose fat.
I mean I didn’t picture your average anaerobic athlete going through cutting and bulking cycles- maybe they just eat around maintenance and let their exercise levels and g-flux re-composition their bodies? Staying around the same weight but trimming off fat in place of muscle would be about ideal.
Im not sure but I think for the most part they eat in surplus for most of the year, unless they need to cut to make a weight class. They are not usually concerned with body comp, as it isn’t usually a problem.
But I do know that Dan John has mentioned that athletes should cut once a year or so to keep BF levels from taking off too much.
What I think the plan of action will be is to continue with my (what I think is) deficit diet for the next week, see if I’ve lost weight with the new routine/diet. Then I’ll adjust to try and keep the weight constant, hoping to visibly notice/feel changes. None of this bulking and cutting.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
it would really be dependent on your macro breakdown. To oversimplify things… your body requires more effort (cals expended) to digest and breakdown ingested protein. So in essence, eating 20 cals of carbs may be 20 cals, 20 cals of protein may only have the effect of 18 (I’M GROSSLY OVERSIMPLIFYING HERE! look up Berardi’s notes about Met coefficients)
S
[/quote]
It would primarily depend on GENETICS. It doesn’t matter the macro breakdown if someone just doesn’t have the genetics to put on muscle while not taking in more calories. Someone who is some true genetic mesomorph would probably get leaner while maintaining the same weight. Chances are, if you have to ask, you aren’t one of those.
In general, no beginner…and in reality this includes even most intermediates…should expect some drastic change in body comp by keeping calories at maintenance no matter how much protein they are taking in.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
The Mighty Stu wrote:
it would really be dependent on your macro breakdown. To oversimplify things… your body requires more effort (cals expended) to digest and breakdown ingested protein. So in essence, eating 20 cals of carbs may be 20 cals, 20 cals of protein may only have the effect of 18 (I’M GROSSLY OVERSIMPLIFYING HERE! look up Berardi’s notes about Met coefficients)
S
It would primarily depend on GENETICS. It doesn’t matter the macro breakdown if someone just doesn’t have the genetics to put on muscle while not taking in more calories. Someone who is some true genetic mesomorph would probably get leaner while maintaining the same weight. Chances are, if you have to ask, you aren’t one of those.
In general, no beginner…and in reality this includes even most intermediates…should expect some drastic change in body comp by keeping calories at maintenance no matter how much protein they are taking in.[/quote]
[quote]Protoculture wrote:
Professor X wrote:
The Mighty Stu wrote:
it would really be dependent on your macro breakdown. To oversimplify things… your body requires more effort (cals expended) to digest and breakdown ingested protein. So in essence, eating 20 cals of carbs may be 20 cals, 20 cals of protein may only have the effect of 18 (I’M GROSSLY OVERSIMPLIFYING HERE! look up Berardi’s notes about Met coefficients)
S
It would primarily depend on GENETICS. It doesn’t matter the macro breakdown if someone just doesn’t have the genetics to put on muscle while not taking in more calories. Someone who is some true genetic mesomorph would probably get leaner while maintaining the same weight. Chances are, if you have to ask, you aren’t one of those.
In general, no beginner…and in reality this includes even most intermediates…should expect some drastic change in body comp by keeping calories at maintenance no matter how much protein they are taking in.
Pfffffffffffff
Bringing up GENETICS is a cop out.
j/k[/quote]
LOL
On a serious note though, I have seen some loss in body fat while holding near the same weight the last few months. However, it is such a slow process that I would relate the use of that strategy to the times when the goal is to get the body adjusted to a greater weight set point…and NOT as a way for some of these newbies to make zero progress for years in some false belief that they will somehow magically trade fat for muscle without ever gaining or losing a pound.
I think most of us should know that this is who is usually asking these types of questions and not well developed long term weight lifters.
I think one of the problems in this post is just that- I’m not looking to become a ‘long term weight lifter’… my training aim is more in line with that of an anaerobic athlete, i.e. a sprinter.
You’ll still need to lift heavy weights if you want to be a good sprinter. You’ll almost def need to be in some kinda calorie surplus for a reasonable length of time. For sprinters body comp is not an absolute indication of performance.