The Importance of Maintenance Phases
“I’ll do whatever it takes”
is probably the most common phrase I hear when someone is ready to make a BIG change and either get in shape or lose weight. The mindset is that the person will cut out all of their favorite foods, do cardio 5 times a week, and SUFFER through grueling workouts just to get to their goal.
But whenever I suggest to them to do LESS of what they are doing or to take a BREAK, suddenly the person WON’T do it.
The reality is, it’s not really:
“I’ll do whatever it takes”,
but more so:
“I’ll do MORE of the things I LIKE doing just so I don’t have to do the things I don’t want to do”.
the dimmer switch
An overlooked aspect of a successful diet is this concept of doing LESS and taking a BREAK. I like calling it the Dimmer switch. When it comes to a dieting with the intent of weight loss, dimming the switch down from bulking or up from cutting is called “Maintenance”.
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
what is it?
Loosely put, maintenance is a period of time where the intention is to maintain your weight and body composition.
This can be Before, During or After a diet.
Maintenance can range from a period of time lasting one single day, months at a time, or the rest of your life.
In terms of calories and macros (need a refresher on Macros? read THIS), maintenance calories are you starting point that comes out from the BMR calculations. By eating it for days on end, the trend of your scale weight, although NOT necessarily body composition, will remain static (within a couple lbs above or below the target weight).
As a coach, Maintenance Phases (from here on abbreviated as MP), are an extremely valuable tool to use with our clients.
In this article, I am going to talk about the importance of maintenance for an individual looking to improve their physique/body composition, as well as the coaches that work with these individuals. If you are trying to set up your diet by yourself, YOU are your own coach! So it would be best for you to look at both sides of the logic.
what is a successful diet?
Before diving into the benefits of maintenance, let’s look back at one element of what I believe should be the intent and execution of ANY successful diet.
sustainability vs efficiency
In THIS article, I talked about what is MY definition of a successful diet.
One point mentioned is the tradeoff of sustainability vs efficiency. Maintenance phases are a valuable dieting tool to make sure that you NAIL this tradeoff before and DURING your diet. How so?
The large, overarching principle here is that maintenance phases are more of a STRESS FREE phase of dieting than either cutting OR bulking. There is no pressure to see scale weight or visual body composition changes in this phase because that is NOT the GOAL of maintenance. Therefore, there are a lot of things that can be done in a maintenance period as a client AND as a coach because of the absence of pressure to press forward with weekly changes and assessments.
roadblocks
From that same article, ROADBLOCKS are what is going to make any diet less efficient and sustainable. Maintenance phases serve as an EXCELLENT time to either ELIMINATE or DAMPEN potential ROADBLOCKS that could arise on the diet.
Therefore, the rest of this article is going to go over some of the most common roadblocks I see with people wanting to diet and HOW MPs can be the TOOL to solve them.
OUTLINE:
SKILL/KNOWLEDGE Roadblocks
MENTALITY Roadblocks
PHYSIOLOGICAL Roadblocks
ENVIRONMENTAL Roadblocks
1. SKILL/KNOWLEDGE Roadblocks
In THIS article (section 2), I talked about how Lack of Knowledge and Preparation can be a roadblock to dieting.
MPs help bridge this gap. Some examples:
Adjusting to Life Style Changes:
Less Energy for other things:
A lot of things change when you start dieting. When dieting, you are in a caloric deficit. This means that overall, you will have less energy to devote to LIFE STRESSES than you would if eating at maintenance. Dieting is a stress in itself and along with work, relationships, training and other daily stressors, everything will compound when dieting.
New Habits:
To get better at a new skill or habit, the individual needs to devote more time and energy up front to incorporate this new skill into their routine. Once they get more used to it, they will be more efficient and it won’t take as much time or energy.
Driving a Car:
This is similar to learning how to drive a car. When you first are learning how to drive, it takes a lot of FOCUS and ENERGY initially to learn the process.
Now imagine if you were to learn how to drive a car in the pouring rain. On top of not being comfortable with the act of driving, you now have to worry about driving in MORE stressful conditions making it even harder.
This analogy is the same as learning how to incorporate these successful dieting habits when in maintenance vs when cutting. When cutting you will NOT have the resources to devote as much time to learning this skill and it will be harder.
The next two points are two of the most common Food related skill/knowledge related roadblocks that will need energy to be devoted to.
Lack of Meal Prep Knowledge:
Never Meal prepped before?
MP can serve as a period of time to learn how to cook, buy groceries, and make meals without the pressure of scale weight having to change. The client can learn to structure their day and get in the groove of making and preparing some foods they may have never eaten before.
Lack of Macro tracking experience:
Lack of macro tracking experience is another big roadblock. Similar to meal prepping, the client can practice how to structure their meals throughout the day to hit their potential macro targets. From personal experience, I can say that the first couple weeks of macro tracking are tough and it takes a decent amount of time and energy to really figure things out. Because of this, I created guides on:
HOW to track Macros
HOW to make MEALS out of your MACROS
[Check it out Below]
Misreporting/Lack of Data
Coaches need Data:
While Knowledge accumulation is valuable for the client, it is ALSO important for the coach working with the client. For a coach, having the client understand HOW to track Macros is a valuable tool. A coach benefits from more macro tracking experience of the client because of the DATA they can accumulate from a MP. (More on this in HERE, as well as other benefits of macro tracking).
Starting Point of a diet:
MP not only serve as a time for the client to work out their kinks and practice habits, but also for the coach to understand what is the best starting point for them to start their diet.
I like to incorporate MP in the beginning of a diet to accumulate 2-4 weeks of macros and scale weight data for a new client. Therefore, while they are getting acclimated to the process of working together, I also get to see the trends of scale weight and meal selection so I can fine tune their maintenance macros and meals to set them up for a successful diet.
Maintenance macros are just an estimate and as referenced in that article, the DATA is where you get a better sense of what is going on.
Proper maintenance=Smoother diet:
There could be scenarios where the maintenance macro calculation needs to be changed. Ideally you would rather find this out when NOT dieting instead of potentially wasting away a couple weeks of being in a diet until realizing that their macros have to be adjusted.
Not only is this inconvenient, but it is something that is even HARDER to do when the client is misreporting data in the first place. As a coach, one of the biggest selling points of the MP is that by making YOUR JOB easier, it's going to make the clients diet and success that much more realistic and timely.
2. MENTALITY Roadblocks
Lack of Buy-in to the Process:
What is the clients motivation?
Now, if a client is misreporting data OR unwilling to make some of these sacrifices in terms of knowledge accumulation and lifestyle changes, then perhaps there is something more to look into in terms of MOTIVATION to dieting.
I talk about having a good motivation to diet in HERE (Section 1). Another reason a MP to start a diet is to serve as a trial period. Going back to the “I’ll do whatever it takes” concept, if a client can’t give me 2 weeks of data at maintenance, what makes me think that they will be able to do it while in a cutting phase?
Trust between Client & Coach:
Nick is one of my clients who has put his TRUST into the process and has benefitted as a result.
Any time a client and coach work together, there has to be a level of trust on both sides. Both sides of the coin are making an “investment” in each other. The client is investing their time, energy and money into a coach to get them to their goal. At the same time, the coach is investing his time and energy to help the client.
Lack of adherence up front to this trial period is a reg flag for the coach and client to have the conversation about WHY they want to diet and whether or not they are READY to make the commitment.
REMEMBER, as a client, you can be better off using your time and resources to other things if you really don’t want to diet. Your coach could also be using their time on a client willing to make sacrifices. Furthermore, that lost time could also be used for them to make resources/content to better serve their current and future clients who WANT help.
Long Term Dieting Mentality has helped my mom lose and keep off unwanted body weight from working with me to fix up her diet.
Quick-Fix Mentality/Lack of Long Term Planning Skills:
Often times, clients may be very eager to start hammering away at their diet. While this tic up in motivation is great, it also can be a warning sign of past experiences.
MPs are the first step to getting the client to understand PACING and LONG TERM Mentality. An easy way to focus on results on the future with a diet is to get the client to understand that what they are doing NOW is going to set up for a smooth transition and Long term SUSTAINABILITY.
Check out our Testimonials for more examples:
3. PHYSIOLOGICAL Roadblocks
Not Knowing how to transition INTO a diet:
Smooth transitions from one dieting phase to the next are very important in long term physique/body composition progression. In this case, they are important for a client coming INTO and OUT of a diet.
We have an article on how to do this as well: HERE
MPs can serve as the first transition phase for when a client needs make changes to their meals. That first step can be done in a MP and then from there you can slowly adjust to get them into a calorie deficit. Coaches can help make the transition smooth. The last thing you want is a client to be fearful of the diet going into it.
The MP serves as an inbetween state of more stress free commitment to meal planning and structure to get them mentally prepared for the diet itself.
Not Knowing how to transition OUT of a diet:
Successful dieting also means to have the long term sustainability AFTER the diet (if you don’t get shredded for aesthetic purposes). Too often people finish a diet and go RIGHT back to their old habits and lack the skills to maintain their progress post diet.
MPs out of a diet help bridge this gap and smoothly transition from cutting->body weight maintenance. Flexible dieting is one tool that is easier to incorporate in a maintenance phase before it can be used in a dieting phase.
Coaches can potentially do their clients MORE justice by incorporating some Maintenance periods while in the MIDST of the diet to get them MORE practice of the familiarity of what MP eating entails.
Accumulation of Diet Fatigue Before and During a Diet:
Therefore, MPs also can be used DURING a diet to serve as a diet break.
Before and DURING a diet, you want to work with YOUR BODY as MUCH as possible (more on that HERE). MP can serve to help reverse a lot of the negative metabolic adaptations mentioned in that article to make sure that you aren’t pushing yourself LONGER and HARDER than NEEDED. As a coach, you can incorporate MP in numerous different ways:
As short as a couple days. (sometimes coined “refeeds” or “high calorie days”)
4-7 days (more often coined as a “diet break”)
Weeks or months at a time (potentially can be called a “longer diet break” or “maintenance dieting phase”)
You get the skill acquisition mentioned in the last roadblock while simultaneously helping the diet be more EFFICIENT. By reversing some of the metabolic adaptations the client responds better physiologically when IN a deficit.
MPs serve as a great diet break to help your body cooperate with you more AND serve as a psychological break, which ties into the next couple of roadblocks.
4.ENVIRONMENTAL Roadblocks
I talked at length HERE about how you need to work with your environment to set you up for dieting success. MP are valuable to help mitigate a plethora of roadblocks mentioned in that article including:
Lack of Practice/Experience handling Events:
Social gatherings, work events, and traveling often times can be another roadblock that can take people out of their routine when dieting.
MPs can serve as a period of time where the client can practice mindful eating at these social events. With hunger and cravings not as big of a deal, the coach can help the client understand that these events are not as bad as they seem.
There are countless strategies that people can use to stay on track for these events instead of going completely off the rails (Checkout the Video Below).
Perfection vs Flexibility
Often times when dieting, people have too much of a black and white mentality when it comes to social events vs routine. People will try to be 100% perfect during the week and then go completely off track on weekends and be closer towards 20% on track. This all or nothing paradigm can trigger a guilty association to going off track. Consistency is the biggest aspect of dieting.
As a coach, I always make it a big point to give my clients PRACTICE while eating out at social events. I want the transition for them going into a diet to be as easy as possible. If the client can practice going to social events and being mindful while at maintenance, then they will be better prepared if these situations arise while cutting.
They will be more confident having done it before and realizing there are strategies to balance the enjoyment of going out and having a good time WITH staying on track.
With less hiccups at social events while actually dieting, then the time dieting in itself will be less and therefore, more efficient.
Lack of Understanding of the diet from people you interact with:
With all the above changes and roadblocks that can impede on your diet, this one can hit the closest to home. You can have all of your strategies and knowledge set up to succeed on a diet, but the worst is the life change that may come with people you interact with the most.
Before I started my Contest Prep Diet, I was able to “pay it forward” with my friends and family with dinners and events.
Again, in the above article, I talked about how YOU are the one who is starting a Diet and therefore, those around you should be impeded by it as little as possible.
MPs can help alleviate some of the stress that others may face when you diet. A MP can serve as a time to:
Prepare or “sell” people on WHY you are dieting and getting them to understand. They won’t be in the midst of the diet yet, so it will be a time where they can help adjust expectations of what may happen to those around them.
“Pay it forward” to those who will catch some of the inconvenience that the diet may place.
If you have the luxury, go out of your way to do social events involving food or drinks that others around you enjoy. That way when you START dieting, it's easier to control or mold the social interactions to be something that is convenient to YOU since you adapted to THEM in the MP.
Timely Planning: Coincide WITH these social interactions.
Instead of having to diet through them, MPs can best be intuitively placed to fall on the days as them. If you have a wedding or vacation, manipulate your phases such that you aren’t stressed by your diet and you can enjoy the event.
Furthermore, if life will be inherently stressful for a period of time (ex. a stretch of many work trips), then a MP can serve as the purpose to maintain progress until life falls in place again.
One Disclaimer:
Of course, if MP are placed TOO OFTEN to coincide with life events, it will limit the amount of time actually SPENT in a deficit. Eventually, if these events are too frequent, you will have to come to the realization that you are going to be LESS EFFICIENT to your goals.
OR you can Re-evaluate your goals to see if it's worth delving into a strategy to push THROUGH these environmental barriers, understanding that you will not diet FOREVER and that in the MP post-diet, you can revisit some of the more casual ones.
conclusion
I hope this article is a useful resource for both Clients AND Coaches.
At Scarlet Mass, two of our most important principles are productivity and longevity with our clients.
As you can see, Maintenance Phases are one of our most valuable tools to promote those principles. We hope that our readers can get the same benefits that our clients get out of it!
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