However, a more accurate method is to look at your weight loss journal (or app) and take an average for your last 2-3 weeks.įor example, let’s say you’re eating 1,700 calories per day and you finished at a weight of 168 lbs on week 15 of the cut: You can also use the following formula to have a rough idea of what your new maintenance calories are: The first step is to estimate your new TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).Ī simple way to do this is to use an online calculator. that your metabolism becomes “damaged” after dieting and that you need to slowly refeed calories to rev up your metabolic rate. Mostly because it’s based on a flawed premise, i.e. However, I’m not a big believer in “reverse dieting” (you can read my thoughts on it in this article). This is why it’s important to have some sort of plan during the ‘transition phase’ from a cut to a bulk. Not to mention that your body is primed to store body fat after being in a calorie deficit for a prolonged period (so you’ll gain a disproportionate amount of fat compared to muscle). You need to realise that your metabolism is ‘slower’ (for lack of a better word) than what it originally was.Īnd if you try to eat the SAME amount of calories that you did 20 LBS heavier then you’re going to gain weight too quickly (1+ lb per week). This is how MOST people who lose a significant amount of weight end up gaining it back in a short period - not because they have a “damaged” metabolism (more on that later). Now, if you were to go from eating 2,000 calories at week 12 of your cut straight to eating 3,000 calories on week 13 then this is a bad idea. The BIGGEST mistake that I see guys making is jumping straight from a cut to a bulk.įor example, let’s say your maintenance calories BEFORE cutting were 2,700 calories and you ate 3,000 calories during your last bulk. Ultimately, this means that by the end of your cut you are A LOT more vulnerable to “binge eating” and piling on a bunch of fat. You crave food more often and the satiety signals from eating are weaker than normal.You burn fewer calories during and after exercise.You burn fewer calories from digesting food.This makes weight loss more difficult in several ways: One way it accomplishes this is to alter the balance of Ghrelin (the ‘hunger’ hormone) and Leptin to diminish your energy deficit. If you try to lower the temperature then your body “fights back” with metabolic adaptation. This is determined by factors outside your control such as your environment, age, gender and (most importantly) genetics.Ī simple way to think of your body fat set point is like the default temperature setting on a thermostat. You see, your body likes to remain in a specific bodyweight range that it is comfortable at (i.e. The longer you’re in a calorie deficit, the more your body will ‘adapt’ to conserve energy (this is known as “adaptive thermogenesis”).īelieve it or not, this is a natural survival mechanism that is intended to prevent starvation and motivate you to start eating more food and move less.