northernmusician's Journal, 11 March 2014

Have you discovered your Maintenance calories for your current lifestyle? Maybe. Only time will tell. 

If I have, my lean bulk with be 3100 calories. :| ......... :D 

I have that all the time. I think evil elves must sneak in at night and Super Glue my scale.  

So, now I know who to harass when I hit my goal and need to learn how to maintain.  

I know the reason. You didn't properly have the gala *I'm-staying-the-same* celebration. You know, the one with the raffle and prizes and a pinata and pony rides? That one. BTW, that is a kick-@$$ profile pic! Is that really you? You look fantastic, sir! Keep up the great work. Oh, and let me know when the gala event is. I'll be there.  

I'll definitely let you know, Rob. Yes, that is me. What do I fill the pinata with? Brocolli, Cauliflower, and protein powder? Maybe steak. The process would tenderize it. 

LOLOL!!! Too funny. Yeh, nothing like tenderizing a steak with a bat. Just have to scrape the little pinata bits and confetti off. :D  

Clearing throat... NM, notice Rob called you sir? It's that or ma'am or sweetie. When the younger set calls you by these "cutsie" names, you know you're getting old.  

Trouble-maker!  

Moi? hahahaha  

NM... looked at your food for the day considering you're in some scifi scenario where you're not gaining. 2882K. Wow.  

I think Rob is just recognizing my superior position in life. Actually, this may sound weird. I am a titled Lord. Yes. I am "Lord Bruce". I know. BS right? What warranted me getting that title? Nothing. I got it the traditional way. I bought it. :) Check this out. I don't think they don't sell them anymore. http://www.damninteresting.com/the-history-of-sealand/ I bought my wife 'Lady' for Christmas one year. 'Lady Maryann'. A friend became a Baron. :) CR! My food is freaking me out! I'm still trying to figure out how I wasn't losing at 2000 calories. Has to be that myth 'metabolic adaptation'. I met a young woman at a gym down south last summer. She's a natural bodybuilding competitor and she's about 5' 3" and maybe 120 pounds. 4000 calories a day on her bulk and she was struggling to gain weight. That's what she told me. She worked at the gym and she seemed to always have food in front of her. It's was astonishing. 

NM, my workout partner is 5'6 and was 175 lbs and 10% bodyfat at the end of his last cut. He eats up to 4500 calories during bulking in order to gain weight. Crazy. 

Guys... continue to document all of this. I have to wonder if it would apply to me considering I'm losing and then will maintain but not bulk up.  

CR, make sure you keep a spot-on record of your food intake and your weight from week to week (which I'm sure you already do). then you can plug the last 8 weeks or so leading up to you reaching your goal into a spreadsheet (or a pad of paper and a calculator, whichever). you can use the data to calculate what your daily caloric deficit was, and add that back on to your average daily intake and that should give you a good starting point for your maintenance calories. From there its a game of guess and check to get the number down to a point. You just have to remember that on days that you increase or decrease your activity level, you want to follow that change with your diet. Eat for how you train, and train for how you eat! 

I have done the P90X, Tony Horton and it's based on muscle confusion. It's supposed to prevent your body from reaching a plateau. Maybe we need to confuse our bodies with both exercise and diet? 

Just printed up that bit of info. Thanks. I do document everything. I don't use the exercise portion of FS. Doesn't meet what I think I need, so when I do exercise, I enter it in my journal outlining what I did, time, heart rate, speed and type of exercise along with calories burned. Absolutely anal about it. Again thanks. 

Yes, for figuring out maintenance the exercise calories are an unreliable variable, so you just don't use them. It's a simple formula 3500cals x pounds lost per week. Add each weeks calorie deficit together and then divide by the total number of weeks to get your average weekly deficit. Take that number and divide by 7 to get your daily average deficit. Add this number to your average daily intake and voila, calculated maintenance calories. Take note that this number ignores water weight and muscle mass changes, which is why you will have to experiment a little in order to find your "true" maintenance calories. Changing up your macro balance to the recommended numbers will affect results as well. You'll get there! 

That's how I got the 2300 cals for my original maintenance... where I kept losing weight. I think it's due to metabolic adaptations. The fact that I was at 2000 calories for a month in January and lost no weight, kicked it down to 1500 for a week and saw losses then went to 2300 - 300 cals above where my 2000 calorie plateau had been - and continued to lose weight, is still messing with my rational brain. Everything was tracked to the gram. I think human physiology is a moving target. As of today I saw a weight bump of .8 pounds. It's the right direction and after a 3 day weight plateau, I'm happy to see it. From the data, I could draw two completely different conclusions as to whether to increase or decrease calories. The data is, as yet, too short a period of time to make a decision. 

maybe take a second look at your macros during those time periods? I know the recommended amounts (by nutritionists) during maintenance are 45% carbs, 35% protein, and 20% fats. Anything other than that may affect things a bit. swapping carbs and protein in relation to the recommended balance may cause losses. You're right though, the body is amazing at adapting itself to changes you make.