What's going on, guys?
Sean Nalewanyj on www.SeanNal.com - www.RealScienceAthletics.com.
And in this video today I want to go over one critical aspect when it comes to proper
fat loss nutrition that a lot of people overlook, and it's one of the main reasons why so many
people, who do end up dropping a significant amount of fat, ultimately end up regaining
it in the long run.
And sometimes even gaining more fat than they initially started out with.
And that mistake is not having a proper post diet plan in place.
It's really important to keep in mind that just because you've reached your objective
fat loss goal on paper doesn't mean that the work is done.
And there's a key period between the day when your calorie deficit ends and the weeks and
months that follow that really can make the difference between maintaining your leanness
moving forward or gradually erasing some, or even all, of the progress you've made.
What so many people do is they lose the fat they were aiming for they feel that sense
of accomplishment and then through a combination of wanting to reward themselves, which is
understandable, and also just not really knowing how to handle that post cutting period properly,
they end up getting too loose and too complacent with their diet, they start eating mainly
based on hunger and cravings thinking, it's no big deal because they've already reached
their goals, and in the end they wind up going way overboard on total calories to the point
that it really does damage their results.
What you have to remember is that when it all comes down to it, your body is a survival
machine, it's still wired up for a time when calories were scarce.
And when you're in a calorie deficit over a prolonged period that survival mechanism
kicks in as an automatic response and certain hormonal adjustments are made in order to
conserve energy and to motivate you to find food and eat.
So leptin levels decrease, which is a hormone that inhibits hunger; ghrelin, which is a
hormone that makes you feel hungry; increases hormones that regulate fat loss and fat storage
like T3, T4, cortisol, those shift in favor of fat storage; and on top of all of this
you'll also have a drop in non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which basically refers to all
the little actions that you take during the day that you don't really think about.
So things like standing versus sitting, walking, fidgeting, these all naturally decrease in
order to conserve energy further.
And these things might not seem like a big deal but they really can add up quite a bit
to several hundred or even a thousand calories or more per day.
So the bottom line on all of this is that once your fat loss diet has ended your body
will be physically primed for fat storage, your appetite and cravings will be at their
highest, and it's also a time where it's really easy to mentally justify eating large amounts
of food because of all the hard work you've put in and because you're no longer trying
to drop more fat.
And so if you don't have a set plan in place and you start just eating purely based on
instinct you're likely gonna end up setting yourself up for disappointment in the long
run.
So what should you do to stay on track moving forward?
One method you'll commonly hear about is the strategy of reverse dieting where you gradually
increase your calories in small increments of about five to ten percent per week until
you get back to your maintenance level.
And while this can work fine for some people, one thing that gets overlooked is the fact
that reverse dieting will actually keep you in a net calorie deficit for several weeks
even after you've reached your fat loss goal.
So if you were eating in, let's say, a 500 calorie deficit and you finished your cut
at 1,800 calories, a ten percent increase would only add 180 calories back to your intake,
and so you'd still be in a 320 calorie deficit overall.
So if you've already reached the level of leanness you were after, then a slow drawn-out
approach like this is only gonna delay the amount of time it takes to get your metabolism
re-elevated and your hormones and your appetite back in check.
So instead of slow reverse dieting, a much better approach in most cases is to just go
right back to eating at your calorie maintenance level once your cut is over, because that
way your body can get back to functioning at its peak as quickly as possible.
And by definition your calorie maintenance level is whatever amount you require to maintain
your current weight, so as long as you calculate it properly you don't go overboard you're
not going to be in danger of suddenly gaining a bunch of unwanted body fat.
Now, that sounds simple enough on the surface and ultimately it is, but one key thing to
remember is that your maintenance level at the end of a cut is not going to be the same
as it was at the beginning of your cut.
For example, a lot of people will start off with a maintenance level of, let's say 2,800
calories, they start cutting at 2,300 calories, they end the cut at 1,900 and then they just
jump right back to 2,800 or even up to 3,000 or more if they're trying to bulk.
The reality is that your maintenance level is a moving target, it's not a static number
that never changes.
And as your calorie intake goes up or down and as your body weight increases or decreases
your maintenance level is also gonna change along with it.
So once your cut has ended, because you've been eating less and you now weigh less, your
maintenance level is gonna be lower as well.
Now, there's no perfect way to calculate this, no calorie calculator is a hundred percent
accurate, it's always just an estimate, so keep that in mind, but one way you can go
about this is to base your new maintenance level off of your previous rate of weekly
weight-loss.
For example, if you were losing roughly one pound per week in the last week or two of
your diet that would represent roughly a 500 calorie deficit, since one kind of fat contains
about 3,500 calories.
So in that case you could just add 500 calories back to your daily intake which should put
you right around your new maintenance level.
Now, if you're not able to figure it out that way the other option is to just use a preset
calorie calculator.
So either a basic multiplier of your body weight in pounds multiplied by between 14
to 16, going with the lower or higher end depending on your weekly activity level.
Or you can also use the Harris-Benedict formula, or the Katch-McArdle formula if you know your
body fat percentage.
And I'll outline all three of those in the description box below that you can check out
for reference.
Whichever method you do use, keep in mind that you'll probably see a small amount of
immediate weight gain once your calories do go back up.
And this is mainly just from increases in water retention, muscle glycogen, and from
just having more food in your system in general, so don't be alarmed by that because it's completely
normal once you start eating a bit more after a period of dieting.
So, go ahead and give that initial increase a few days to settle in and then just monitor
the scale to find the intake that causes your body weight to stabilize, and at that point
you'll know that you're eating right around your new maintenance level.
And then from there what you should do next just depends on your personal goals.
If you're happy to maintain then you can just leave things as they are, or if your next
goal is to bulk up and gain more muscle you'll want to add a small calorie surplus on top
of your new maintenance intake, which would be around 200 to 300 calories for somebody
who's still in the to intermediate stages of lifting, 300 for a beginner, and about
200 or so for an intermediate, that would be about right.
Also remember that once you do increase your calories after a cutting phase, your metabolic
rate is gradually going to climb higher and higher as your fat burning hormone levels
come back into balance.
So even though your initial maintenance intake might seem a bit low at the start you should
be able to gradually push it higher and steadily consume more food as the week's go by while
maintaining the same level of leanness.
So, I hope this was helpful, guys.
Just remember that the end of your calorie deficit is not the end of your fat loss program
because losing the initial fat is only one part of the equation and what you do afterwards
to maintain your results is equally as important.
So, thanks for watching.
If you do want to get a complete step-by-step roadmap that covers all aspects of proper
nutrition for losing fat and building muscle, not just the post diet period but the entire
process in general, along with fully structured training, meal plans, and supplementation
plans as well, to fully maximize your progress over the long term, you can grab my complete
Body Transformation Blueprint program by clicking up at the top of the screen or by visiting
www.BTBlueprint.com.
For those who are new to the channel, my brand new science-based pre-workout fish oil and
multivitamin are also now available over at www.RealScienceAtlethic.com, the link is in
the description.
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Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.