Maintenance phases - What, why, when and how long?
Takeaway points of maintenance phases:
It’s a good idea to plan maintenance phases at regular 4-16 week intervals throughout a longer fat loss diet.
Maintenance phases are a chance to reset and re-prepare for another phase of dieting.
You shouldn't gain a notable amount of body fat during a maintenance phase provided it’s well executed. Weight may increase but that doesn’t mean body fat.
Maintenance phases involve an immediate increase of Calorie intake to estimated weight maintenance through the addition of more carbohydrates.
A slower transition away from dieting methods, food variety, mindset and reliance on tracking should occur to achieve long term maintenance eating.
Signs that a maintenance phase should start include: progress plateaus, declines in exercise performance, motivation and heightened cravings, hunger and obsession with food.
Maintenance phases should last for 2+ weeks.
What is a maintenance phase?
Maintenance phases are short periods of elevated Calories, throughout a longer-term weight loss goal. Another term often used is ‘diet break’. However, this term ‘diet break’ can create the idea of a “nutrition holiday” or being completely “off” nutrition, so for this reason ‘maintenance phase’ is the preferred term. You might have also heard the term ‘refeed’ which is basically just a mini-maintenance phase.
Why are maintenance phases important?
Maintenance phases act as a pit stop during a longer term, fat loss goal. They’re a chance to reset, re-motivate and re-prepare for another phase of effective fat loss.
Think about a ‘road trip’ analogy. Imagine you’re driving from Melbourne to Brisbane (for our international readers, that’s about a 2000km drive). Ask yourself “what would happen, if I didn’t stop at all”. The answer could be any of the following; micro sleep, fuel runs out, severe hunger, mechanical issues, etc. All of these answers ultimately mean the road trip won’t be completed. Stopping for fuel, food, a service and sleep is clearly a requirement of a road trip. The same idea can be applied to a long term fat loss goal. You need to ‘stop, revive, survive’ if you actually wish to reach the end goal.
Can maintenance phases increase fat loss?
Maintenance phases are a chance for any down-regulated factors of metabolism to return to normal. This helps you create a gap between the Calories you eat and the Calories you burn (Calorie deficit) when you start dieting again.
Maintenance phases act as a mental break from dieting to recover any reductions in motivation.
Maintenance phases can help mitigate any increases in food obsession and general hunger that may impact fat loss adherence.
Maintenance phases may allow some productive, high performance training to take place which can help reduce the risk of muscle loss.
All of the above essentially re-prepare you for another phase of efficient fat loss, increasing your chances of long-term success. You’ll be physically and mentally ready to continue towards your long-term goal.
Are maintenance phases important for athletes?
Maintenance phases are especially useful for dieting athletes who have important competition and training coming up on the schedule. A break from fat loss can provide fuel for recovery, performance and prevention of injury and illness. For example if your fat loss phase was set to last 16 weeks, but you had a CrossFit comp at week 10, it would be a good idea to commence a maintenance phase at week 8 or 9 to promote best possible performance*.
*This also highlights that competition season might not be the best time to plan a fat-loss phase.
Will a maintenance phase cause fat gain?
No, provided you’re able to stay at maintenance and not enter a Calorie surplus range, you should not gain any notable amount of body fat.
Be aware that your weight maintenance Calorie target after a dieting phase will be lower than your maintenance Calorie target you had before your dieting phase. This is due to you now being smaller after your successful diet. Think - “smaller human, lower maintenance target”. So when we increase Calories back to maintenance we recalculate ‘new maintenance’ based on our new size.
Some weight may be gained back but not in the form of fat. During a maintenance phase, body weight may rise a little due to:
Increased carbohydrates in the liver and muscles
Increased fluid retention stored along with those carbohydrates and from additional sodium
Increased intestinal weight sitting in your stomach from more food volume & fibre
These increases may be a couple of kilos at most and are weight gain but not body fat gain.
Please note that if you’re very, very lean, then going back to maintenance will likely cause some weight gain. If you’re that lean to begin with, gaining some fat back is required for health.
How do you plan a maintenance phase?
Increase Calories immediately, however add variety slowly.
Increase Calories to your new estimated weight maintenance Calories as soon as you start a maintenance phase. There is no need for a slow transition or ‘reverse diet’ up to maintenance, in fact this may be harmful and delay the benefits of the maintenance phase.
The increase in Calories should be mostly via the addition of more carbohydrates. Initially this should be achieved by increasing portion sizes of the foods used in the dieting phase. It’s a good idea to avoid adding too much variety with taste and texture to prevent uncontrolled eating. After a diet phase, you may feel heightened hunger, craving and obsession with food due to that time spent restricting Calories.
When should you start a maintenance phase?
Depending on how lean you are, you may want to plan maintenance phases as often as every 4 weeks. If you’ve been dieting for 16 weeks continuously, it’s a good idea to plan a maintenance phase regardless of whether you feel it’s needed or not.
There are also signs and symptoms that may prompt you to start a maintenance phase sooner than planned:
A plateau in progress lasting for 3 or more weeks despite diet adherence (double check for any signs of progress across scale weight, measurements and photos).
The feeling of increased struggle to achieve continued fat loss.
A dip in motivation and willingness to diet.
Poor sleep.
Increased general hunger and obsession with food.
A sharp, notable decline in exercise capacity and performance.
How long should a maintenance phase last?
At least 2 weeks.
It’s not well known how long it takes for any physiological effects of dieting to return to baseline.
Maintenance phases should probably last for several weeks to several months. The longer you spend at weight maintenance, the more likely you are to achieve a complete return to baseline. 2 weeks is likely the shorter end to achieve any notable ‘reset’.
Transitioning from a maintenance phase to maintenance eating
If you have decided not to start another dieting phase, you will transition from the maintenance phase into long term maintenance eating. Eg, maintaining your leaner body, long term.
While this is individual, typically from week 2 of the maintenance phase it’s time to slowly step away from diet-like practices. Slowly reduce your reliance on tracking or journaling, increase food variety, allow for more freedom and maybe some more indulgences. The aim by the end of the maintenance phase is to be in a state of “non-dieting”. You should aim to eat and approach nutrition in a healthy, Calorie-conscious way, maintaining the results from your diet without the diet mentality.
What is the difference between a maintenance phase and a refeed?
A shorter period of maintenance Calories is often referred to as a ‘refeed’. Refeeds typically last from one to several days. Shorter periods of maintenance Calories likely only offer mental, psychological and adherence benefits. A refeed period of 3 or less days at weight maintenance Calories is unlikely to have any physiologically benefit. It might just give people that mental break and help to maintain motivation and willingness to diet.
Are maintenance phases important for health?
Maintenance phases may be required to prevent declines in health that can result from chronic energy restriction. We are talking about someone who has been dieting for a very long time and/or exercising a lot whilst dieting and starting to feel fatigue. Often it’s good to start a fat loss phase with a maintenance phase if chronic restriction has been taking place. This is not only to ensure fat loss won’t be a massive ‘uphill battle’, but also seek to protect health.
If this sounds familiar to you, you can read a bit more about low energy and energy deficiency in our blog on “Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport”.
If you are looking for some help with your fat loss goal, trust our coaches to guide you through the process. Have someone there to look out for signs that it might be time for a maintenance phases. It can really help to have an experienced, objective coach to support you each step of the way. If you are ready to start, hit the link below and let’s get you progressing towards your goal!
Reference:
Intermittent Dieting: Theoretical Considerations for the Athlete - Peos et al. (2019)