Why Maintenance Calories Are The Missing Key to Fat Loss After 35

0:00 Welcome. Back to the body. Recomposition Revolution. This is Robin. Today we are talking about maintenance calories and how. You should be. Living the majority of your life in a maintenance phase. But the mistake. That I see across the. Board from 80% of the people who write in for macro formulations. My clients. They. Are living in a deficit phase and I. Very. Guilty of this unknowingly, but very guilty of this and you might be very unknowingly participating in this deficit minded way of living.

0:37 If your goal is body. Recomposition, which if you're listening to this podcast, I'm sure you might already know what body recomposition is, but in a nutshell, In a nutshell, it is dropping fat while simultaneously building or maintaining muscle. We are literally changing the composition of your body. What is your body made of? Is it primarily? Fat with a little. Bit of muscle. Or is it? A lot of muscle and a lot of fat. Or is it weak overall? Body composition or body recomposition is intentionally changing the composition of your body and when women have.

1:15 That as a goal. Essentially what they're saying is I want to look more toned. I want to look toned, which means I want to drop a little. Bit of the body. Fat that's covering my muscles and in essence build the muscle up from underneath. That fat so. When I say the word toned in this episode and a lot of my other episodes, what I'm saying is changing your body composition. So if your goal. Is to look toned if you've been lifting if you're just starting to. Lift if. You know what body recomposition is.

1:44 Or if you don't, but your goal is again to look toned, you need to understand the concept of maintenance. Calories you. Also need to understand the concept of surplus and deficit and those. 3 words depict the three phases that your year is split. Into when you are focusing on dropping fat and gaining muscle. There are three phases. Of your fitness. Today we're focusing on maintenance calories. What are maintenance? Calories How do you. Find your maintenance calories why do we need to be in maintenance calories for such an extended period of time and what happens when you.

2:23 Have artificially. Low maintenance calories because I battled. With that, the last. Year of my life So to concisely breakdown your year, you have about 20 to 30% of your year being spent in a deficit. Your fat loss phase or phases? 50 to 60% of your year is spent maintenance, maintaining your body, having a body that you really like and you're maintaining it with a certain amount of calories. And then 10 to 20% of the year, maybe a little less than 20 if you're a woman. Is a surplus phase. We're going into a.

2:56 Build I like to. Align that with the cold month so I can wear a lot of sweaters and sweatshirts and just bulk look up inside and out. But the problem I'm seeing with women myself, all the women, I true, not all of them, but most of them, and many of the women who contact me about their custom macro formulations is that they spend the. Majority of their life. In a deficit, whether they want to admit it or not, Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I was living in a deficit and expecting to see the outcome of being in a maintenance.

3:26 Slash surplus. And it was, as I would say, it's delusional on my part, it's delusional on your part. And today we're just going to come to terms with. Reality with with. Science and research and and heal your metabolism from the brain out. Let's start with. Defining maintenance calories What does it mean when I say your maintenance calories? Well, by definition, maintenance calories are the amount of calories your body needs to maintain a semi semi. Stable body weight over. Time now those. Maintenance calories that includes your body's basic.

3:59 Bodily functions that includes your digestion, your movement, it includes your workouts, it includes your recovery days, it includes every single thing that your. Body does. Throughout any given day. So maintenance is not one exact calorie number, it's not 1872 calories, it's not exact, and it's not the same every single day. And it definitely does not stay the same, especially if you've been living in an artificially low maintenance calorie amount like I have and most women who struggle with low energy availability.

4:34 All of those type. Of things we have been been living at an. Artificially low. Maintenance level of calories. Now how do you find your maintenance calories? So the first thing you're going to do is just estimate your starting point which go online type in. TD, EE. Calculator and you'll find an array of usable calculators and again it's an estimate, so you're going to have to do some fine tuning with the following steps. I'm going to mention SO step #1. Calculate your TD EE which is your total. Daily energy expenditure.

5:07 And remember, this is an estimate. Your true maintenance depends on your muscle mass, your activity. Level your daily steps, your workouts, your. Hormones, your stress if you're sleeping well, your dieting history and active women active women. Now remember I quoted in another. Couple episodes about low. Energy availability and. The research states that. 50% of women who identify as active, whatever that means. They. Clinically struggle with low energy. Availability Lea Reds highly. Active women, they are always underestimating their true maintenance.

5:46 I am one of them. And the women who reach out to the women who reach out to me, they are them too. And a lot of my clients we highly underestimate. What our total daily. Energy expenditure is because we tend to do that in all facets of our. Life like we. Are tenacious. We are. Overachievers A lot. Of times like we just go, go, go and it to us. Maybe it's never enough. I don't know, at least. That's how I feel. I've these women tend to be really driven. There's a lot of personality traits that coincide with women who battle low energy availability.

6:19 So step one, go online, find your total daily energy expenditure with one of those freebie calculators. And if I were you, I would do multiple calculators from different websites just to kind of compare. I like to compare and see what what is this. Why is this one different than this one? And and so on and so forth. And then maybe just use a number that feels like it's a mixture of all of them. Step 2 you are going to track. Your food for 14 days but not change anything. That's a hard thing to do.

6:49 You're going to. Eat the way you normally. Eat, but you have. To track everything this is this is a non negotiable. It's not like you felt like doing it or you didn't one day. You have to. If you want to find your true maintenance calories and body recomposition is important to you if you want to get. Over your L EA. Slump. You have to track. Everything you're eating, then I can't express this enough. It's not just me wanting to make your life inconvenient, it's me telling you this is a non negotiable.

7:20 For you to see. The change that you want, so we're not going to. Bypass this part. You need to track your food. Don't change your food. Track your food. You go out to eat. Track. It you have a couple martinis, put them in there. Exactly. The same as you. Usually do. And when I say track, I mean use an app, whatever app you want. I use macros first. I have my own app that some of my clients use. You can use Fitness, My Fitness Pal, what have you. But you're going to track all of your. Food and you're going to do it for.

7:46 Two weeks. Consistently now during that two weeks where you're tracking your food. You can do three weeks, two to three weeks I. Also want you tracking your body weight. So that. Sucks, right? Like that sucks, but you're going to do it. Because you need to it's. We're gathering data, we're separating data from our feelings. We're using these facts and information to guide our decisions, Right. So you're going to hop on that scale every day if you want. Every other day if you have. To maybe three times a week, but since we're tracking and we want to have a.

8:18 Lot of data. As we make the most informed decision going forward, get on that scale every day. Put it in your app. Who? Cares this is a. Starting point and we're going to take this information to guide us going forward. Step #3 You have been tracking your food. For two to three. Weeks consistently you have been tracking your weight for. Two to three weeks. Consistently. Now you're going to average it out, so you're going to take. All of those calories. And you are going to so. Take your weekly calories, divide it by.

8:45 7 and see. What your average was Do that for all the weeks that you tracked your calories. And then see what your weight did. If it maintained, you've pretty much found a good baseline for what your maintenance. Calories are if the scale. Didn't go much, like didn't deviate much, maybe a pound or two and you ate an average amount of calories of 2300. Calories for over the course of two to three weeks, so. Hey, you found your maintenance 2300 calories. Now that's maybe not your maintenance, but. Somebody else's.

9:16 You need to track your own food. You need to track your own body weight for. Two to three weeks. And then find. The average? Now step number. 4 is the step. That I apparently skipped. For the last couple. Years of my life. Assess biofeedback. I just ignore my biofeedback because I'm stubborn and and quite delusional. But maintenance your maintenance calories. It's not just about your weight staying the same. This is this is my mishap. Your maintenance calories is about having good energy. It's about being able to sleep.

9:47 It's about having manageable hungry. You're not feeling hungry because you're at maintenance. You. Feel pretty satisfied you have stable. Workouts. You're lifting heavy. You feel energized. If you can be an overachiever, go get your hormones tested and see what those are doing. If you can somehow kind of get an A la carte system like a sex panel, sex hormone panel, great. If you can get the whole gamut, wonderful. Get your hormones tested after that maintenance phase and see. Where where they are?

10:15 It's really important to understand that your maintenance is not. About what you. Think your maintenance is right because. That's artificially low. Maintenance. What overachievers tend to think we're going to We're just going to go. Back to that artificially. Low maintenance, snap it because it's very important. So Step 5 and the final step in finding your maintenance. Calories is adjust based. On. Results if throughout the course of that two to three weeks where you tracked what you ate without.

10:44 Thinking too much about it, if your weight trended downward, you're in a deficit. I mean, most women know or you really wouldn't be listening to this episode if your weight is trending upward. So then you're in a surplus and. That's. Where we're starting, so we'll need to. Cut it back. A couple 100. Calories a day. Up to 300. Calories a day. Let's start there. So. You need to know what. Did your weight do while you ate? An average of. Whatever your average was. Did it go downward? You're in a deficit.

11:14 Did it go upward? You're in a surplus. If it stayed the same, you found your maintenance, you found you found a nice good ballpark maintenance calorie amount to work with and we'll start with that. OK, Going back, I want to address something that I have been really, really learning about a lot first hand and through pretty much all the women who contacted me it's. Called artificially low. Maintenance calories and. There's a few episodes. I've done over this last month and a half about low energy availability and I'm really diving into it because I've had an outpouring of women, young women, older women, middle-aged women who are all battling Lea and their question is how do I turn it around?

12:01 What do I do so first of? All I want to address what I said. Artificially low. Maintenance calories for me. What did that? Look like well. In my brain if I ate around 1900. 2. 1000 calories. I maintained my weight if I ate above that my scale. Would start to creep. Up. So you would think that 2000 calories is my maintenance amount. That never really added up to me because I'm 5 foot seven. I have a substantial amount of muscle on me. I'm at about 15,000 steps a day. I lift pretty much every day.

12:36 I do cardio most days, probably four or five days out of the. Week so putting my. Calories at 2:00. Thousand I. Would like briefly address. It in my own brain like that doesn't anyway and move. Forward because if I really if I really. Came to terms with the. Reality that. I knew I was in essence starving myself, but I didn't want to gain any weight. To be honest. I really didn't want to do what I needed to do which. Was address the fact? That I'm not eating enough and I know that. And why am I gaining weight?

13:11 If I do eat a little bit higher. That's a problem, isn't it? And I finally did start addressing that over the last few months and I. Ate at a surplus. I ended up eating 2800 calories a day and I really just wanted to start fueling my body. With. What it needed and what I knew it needed and and I had been struggling with all the symptoms that coincide with low energy availability. I just want to briefly go over the symptoms and if you can identify with this you might be eating. At an artificially low.

13:44 Maintenance level of calories OK, so just listen in I'll. I'll be brief. OK, so textbook common signs of low energy availability I pretty much struggled with. All of these. Chronic fatigue. I fall asleep on the floor most days. Just middle of the day I'll fall asleep on the floor. Ask anybody who knows me. Floor naps. Poor recovery from workouts. I was always sore. I was always sore. Swollen plateaued fat loss. Yup, loss of. Strength or performance? I'm not lifting any. Heavier. I was stuck. Constant soreness.

14:13 Increased hunger or food obsession, Irritability or mood swings, Poor sleep. Brain fog. Oh my gosh, the brain fog. Feeling cold often low libido, hair thin, hair thinning for me, brittle nails. Digestive issues, Frequent injuries, Elevated resting heart rate? Yup. Hormonal disruption. Yes. I got my hormones tested and I was like am I peri menopause? No, I'm just starving myself. Duh. Not to me, but reality. Hits hard. Water retention? Needing more caffeine to function? What's a real problem? Difficulty.

14:49 Building or maintaining muscle. Feeling burnt? Out. OK. That's Lea. And it happens when your energy intake. Stays too low for how? Much energy your body is expending. So if I am chronically eating 18119 hundred 2000 calories a day, thinking this is my maintenance when I'm exercising as much as I do, which is I'm 15-5 sometimes six days a week, I'm cardio all the things I mentioned my body. Had. Started to conserve energy by protecting its survival, which my metabolism was downshifted. That's why when I did start eating a little bit more, my body was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm going to hold on to this.

15:29 Really tight. And all these other functions like my hormones, those got out of. Whack my recovery. Non existent. My performance, my body composition was different. I. Kept attributing all these things to maybe being in some sort of early menopause. But the reality, the reality was that I was a just. Perfect textbook condition of low energy availability and since I've started fueling my body more. Yes, the beginning I put on I think it was 7 lbs in the first couple weeks. Oh my gosh, not all fat glycogen, just the more food in your body in general that's reflected my.

16:10 Body weight petered out. After, you know, maybe 4 weeks and then it, it kind of stayed the same, which is great, but my lean muscle mass also went up and my body fat went down. When I started eating more consistently for six weeks, my lean muscle mass went up, my body fat body fat went down. Textbook. Body recomposition. I finally started breaking through my. Plateaus of fat loss. Of muscle gain of strength, I was able to deadlift I think 200 something pounds. That was not happening when I was consistently eating 800 or 18 hundred 1900 calories you have.

16:51 To fuel your body. And if you haven't been, you are most likely sitting at a an artificially low maintenance amount for calories. Truly. Now, why do women fear maintenance calories? I had to be really introspective on this. Why do I fear? Maintenance calories or I should? Say, why do I? Why do I fear the? Reality of what my maintenance calories are and these fears. I would say or. These apprehensions, whatever they are. They. Are deeply ingrained in me. They're ingrained in you. And you know, it's because as a culture, we are always telling women to eat.

17:29 Less. To shrink, to be smaller, to stay in a deficit. Thinner is better, smaller is better. Do more, eat less. And I just said that so maintenance feels physically and mentally uncomfortable to me. And I know. That if you battle. All the things. I described you. Feel the same way? The fear is. Like I'll gain weight, I'll lose. Progress. I have to stay. Dieting, I have to get smaller. If I stop tracking, I'll spiral out of control. Maintenance is true freedom to me. That's what it is. I have come to terms.

18:04 With the fact that. At my true maintenance I'm not going to have. Visible ABS OK. I know, right? Nauseating. But I liked having ABS. I liked having ABS, but there's a season for everything. There is a season to be in a deficit. There is a season to be in a surplus. And there is a. Season an extended season for maintenance and you have to be in an extended season of maintenance to make sure that your hormones stay in alignment, to make sure that your overall Wellness is in check and for you ladies who are trying to conceive, who are thinking about having babies and what that might look like if you.

18:42 Struggle with L EA. Eating more is going to be the. The Catalyst. In creating life, because I remember when I had my first kid, it didn't make sense to me why I wasn't getting pregnant. I think it was maybe a year and then I realized, because I don't know if I realized so much as I just started eating more. I knew my body knew that I needed to eat more in order to create life because the environment that I had within myself was not conducive to creating another human. I was teaching full time. I think I was still teach doing.

19:16 Butts and Guts classes. At any time fitness I never ate, and not because I didn't want to. It's really. Because I was. So busy and when I did. Eat They were three tupperwares with my perfectly. Portioned protein and carbs. With some veggies. And an energy drink and blah blah blah. I didn't really track my. Food because I knew. What I was eating and in my brain, I was probably eating thirteen, 1400 calories and that's what it no, Oh my gosh, no. I was wasting away. And when I started eating enough, I didn't have all those issues anymore.

19:47 I I had my baby. It was like my body just knew, OK, now it's good. Now we're now, we're healthy. Now this is going to work the way. That it should, because you're. Giving me what I need to do, what you want me to do. That fear of weight. Gain. That does not have to happen during your maintenance phase. It doesn't. It might if you have been chronically under eating like I was and now I know my maintenance weight is no longer 135, it's one 39140, sometimes 141 and I just. Have to be. OK with that and I am.

20:23 OK with that because? If it means choosing longevity, my health, building muscle, always being the strongest version of myself. If that's 5. 6 lbs heavier than I was. I choose. Five, 6 lbs heavier. Because there's, like I said. There's a season for everything. Every single thing in life is cyclical, including your calorie intake, deficit, surplus, maintenance. The majority of your life needs to be done in maintenance and again you find your maintenance. Go over the beginning of the episode by tracking your food for 2-3 weeks, tracking your weight, seeing what it does and adjust accordingly.

21:03 Because if you're in maintenance you shouldn't be gaining weight. You'll be in a surplus at that point. Unless you were under eating chronically, then your maintenance. Level is artificially low. Now that the mental side of maintenance, some women, most women, a lot of women I talk to, they only feel successful while dieting, while depriving, while depleting and maintenance requires. You to step outside of that, it really does. You have to just put all of those. Reservations in a tiny little box and you can take it out in the summer for 10 to 20% of your year or whatever that percentage was.

21:40 A much smaller percentage of your time will be spent in a deficit, and to be in a deficit that. Does require that type? Of mindset. Which is just. Feeling a little hungry, feeling a little depleted, feeling a little weaker? That's not that's not okay to feel year round. Then you're just going to be weaker and less healthy in general being in a maintenance. Being in a maintenance requires true confidence. It does. It requires. Just being confidence that you are strong that you are. That you are beautiful.

22:08 To sound so. Cliche, but that you are truly uniquely beautiful. And wonderful. Despite what you look. Like on the outside, it requires patience, trust, emotional regulation. You know you cannot have your identity tied up. In how you look. You can't. And that reality check happens frequently for myself, for many of the clients I work with. Because what is something that changes all the time? You how you look. And it's meant to again, everything is. Cyclical, you're going to have phases where you're bigger, you're.

22:43 Going to have phases where you're smaller, you're going to have phases when you're stronger, you're going to have phases when you're. Faster or slower or what have you, there is a phase. For everything and you can't live in the same. Depleted deficit phase. Forever. You can't. Anybody can lose weight, right It you can't. It's just being in a deficit. But very few. Women, and I'm going to be one of them, learn how to sustain those results, and the women who sustain those results are the ones who will have.

23:14 This as a true. Lifestyle Someone who has total peace knowing that they know. Exactly what to do? To transition from whatever phase they're in to the phase they want to go to. They just know what. Levers to pull what switches to flick? And they're at. Peace with the fact. That they have that knowledge, they have that strength, they know that the goal is to build a body and lifestyle that you can realistically maintain long term. That's what I love about body recomposition. I have never. Viewed it as.

23:44 A beginning and end like oh I just finished a body recomp. What does that mean? Isn't it just how you live your life? I don't get it. Everybody talks about body. Recomp as just a short period of time. No, no, it is it. Is how you live. You have your 3 phases. Of fitness, you have the maintenance. You have the surplus, you have the deficit. And where you put those in your calendar year? That's up to you. But knowledge is power, my friend, and I am. Here to educate you. And myself, let's be honest.

24:14 So when you get that maintenance phase, you find your magic number. Of calories, what I do is the. Macro formulation because let's say your maintenance. Is 2. 1000 calories? What percentage of that two? 1000 calories should be delegated for. Protein. What percentage should be carbs and what percentage should be? Fat. When people e-mail me for their custom macro formulations. That's what I do. I find your. TD EE I. Look through all the quizzes that show me your. Lifestyle your. Current level of fitness.

24:45 It's a very extensive quiz and then from that we go into a. Couple other quizzes. That help me identify if I. If you. Are a protein forward. Low. Carb Woman or. If you are. A high carb woman and your whatever your phenotype is. That is how we. Determine what percentage should be towards protein. Carbs or fat for? Example, I think I have 37.5% of my daily caloric intake going towards protein. So on and so forth. If you need help finding your custom macro formulation or your maintenance calories, you can e-mail me at RAC Recomposition SO.

25:21 RAC. [email protected] You can also find me on Instagram. That's RAC Fitness under score. I just post little things about what I'm eating, what I'm doing, body recomp. Tips, lifestyle stuff, whatever. I can hear my children up from their nap right now. So thank you for listening, ladies and TuneIn, for next week, we're going to talk a little bit more about fitness phases, what that means and when you should put your maintenance, your deficit and your surplus phase. Talk soon.