Maintaining body composition can sometimes be harder than losing body fat in the first place. Well, not really, but it can feel like more of a struggle—especially if one is too focused on the scale. Weight will fluctuate. Prepare for it. What matters most is that one does not go back to the habits they caused them to have to lose weight (i.e., fat) in the first place.
In most cases, abrupt fluctuations are going to be water weight. Water follows carbohydrates. So, after a day of unusually high carbs (e.g., maybe you splurged and had pizza or dessert), it should not be alarming if the scale weight is up a few pounds. Don’t worry. Stay on track with the diet and the weight will return to your new normal quite quickly. What one wants to avoid is a gradual return of the lost body fat.
After a cut phase, plan to spend about two months at the end weight to establish this (fat) weight as the new setpoint. Over this time, think ‘reverse dieting’. Reverse dieting is where the caloric intake gradually increases without a change in body weight. This gradually adjusts the caloric balance over time such as elevate metabolism and remain eucaloric at a higher caloric intake. Too often, “dieters” end their cut and return immediately to a diet that proves to be hypercaloric, and, before they know it, they have gained back the weight they had lost (and often more).
It may be okay to see a small, gradual increase in body weight over the maintenance phase—if one is lifting weights for muscle hypertrophy. Understand, first that, for most, gains in muscle mass are extremely slow. Most can expect gains in the range of 1-2 lbs per month (usually less). So, other than water gains due to carbohydrates, gains of more than 2 lbs per month should be avoided. Don’t try to convince yourself that you are gaining muscle weight. Ideally, the mirror will set you straight. Ideally, one should be still losing some fat as any new muscle is being gained to offset changes on the scale. Just be honest with yourself and work to maintain this new body weight.
After a maintenance phase one is now in a better place to perform another cut phase to get closer to their more ideal (healthy) body composition or to do a massing phase to gain muscle. Massing phases will generally entail gaining some fat along with muscle, so be cautious of this unless you have already cut to a lean body composition. For most of us, a massing phase is unnecessary as only a very slight (or no) increase in caloric intake will be necessary to fuel muscle growth. Massing might require a slight increase in protein and carbohydrates, with a compensatory decrease in fat, to grow muscle, but, in general, we are still technically “hypercaloric” if our body fat is high. Increasing the volume of training will stimulate hypertrophy of muscle and a subsequent loss of body fat. This is often referred to as “recomposition” or “recomping”. It is less possible the leaner you become, but most of us over 40 or 50 know we can’t add muscle they way we could in our 20s. So, we can’t “mass” like we did in our 20s. Again, we want to be focused more on the changes we see in the mirror than on the scale.
For us older adults—over 50 years—our diet is more likely to follow alternating cycles of cutting and maintenance until we arrive at our desired body composition. Ideally, this will be a healthy lean (likely 14-20% for males, depending on the desired appearance and the degree to which we want to continue to enjoy food and beer). Remember, the priority goal is to be healthy.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!