No its not what you think

All kidding aside this practice isn't utilized enough and it's not your fault for not doing it.

Maintenance Calories

If you don't know what maintenance calories are, they are exactly what they sound like. It’s the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight and physique. Before you go freaking out and thinking anything insane hear me out on the rest of this.

You have always been told that to get lean or to lose weight you need to go into a cut ( or calorie deficit). While this is true, you have been told to do it this cut for too long and too often. A good cut should last no longer than 12 weeks, maybe up to 16 if you're doing a prep for a bodybuilding show.

I can hear your thoughts already “ But Mike I want to get lean. Mike I want to look the way (insert any influencer) looks”

Any you can get there but you should take a different approach! This is where maintenance calories come back into play. I like to have clients do no more than 2 cuts throughout a 12-month calendar year for this exact reason. Any more than this and it starts to fuck with hormones, body image, and mental health.

A well-executed maintenance phase of 3-6 months can transform your body and performance in the gym. You will be fueling yourself to perform well, recover well, and build muscle. And we all want to build more muscle, don't we?

The sad part is you’re going to read this email and say “This sounds awesome let me go find my maintenance calories!”

You'll eat at these numbers for 3 weeks before you trick yourself into thinking it's not working. Then you will try to go into another cut.

I dare you to tell me I am wrong here.

Dont forget to call your mom

-Mike