Hey, you have options!
Eating enough to keep your hormones happy and your metabolism healthy is termed “maintenance”. Spending time eating to your body’s needs teaches you how it feels to be:
>> full and satisfied most days
>> powerful for and recovered from your physical activity
>> energized all day long
…which is important because you will always know how to return to the feeling after periods of intentional undereating for fat loss, not tracking, or generally not paying attention to your nutrition.
Here are some ways to play with your nutrition after you’ve mastered the basics:
>> reverse diet your calories up: contrary to popular belief, your metabolism is flexible and will increase as you eat more. Benefits to reverse dieting up over your current maintenance calories include: enjoying more food, setting yourself up for a future fat loss phase, more fuel to power strength and conditioning.
>> switch to fat loss: with a strong metabolism, you’re in a much better position to shed fat. Not to mention, you’re likely to get your head in the game a lot easier after a period of enjoying more calories than you will in a deficit. If you have body composition goals that include less fat on your frame, it will always be more predictable and successful after a long period of eating at maintenance.
>> switch to muscle gain: adding muscle to your frame is the quickest way to improve your metabolism, optimize hormone status and change your body shape and size. You’ll really speed up the muscle building by eating slightly over your maintenance macros for several months while engaging in challenging strength training activity.
>> maintain forever and ever: of course, you don’t have to do anything with your macros – maintenance is where your body thrives. Whether you choose to track macros or not, it might be helpful to tune into your body’s feedback like hunger, fullness, recovery and energy to give you clues if you’re eating enough.
Need help finding your estimated maintenance calories and macros? Download my DIY Macro Guide below!
