How to Stay Lean After a Cut

Step 1: Pick a weight you can actually hold

Stage-lean or "photoshoot lean" is not a place to live. In a 2013 case study by Rossow and colleagues, a natural bodybuilder dieted from 14.8% to 4.5% body fat for a show. His testosterone fell by about three quarters during the diet, and in the months afterwards his body fat settled back at 14.6%, almost exactly where he started.

So ask yourself honestly:

• Can I hold this with food I enjoy, a social life and training that is going well?
• Am I hungry most of the day at this weight, months after the diet ended?
• Are my sleep, mood and energy normal here?

For most people, the weight to maintain is a little above the lowest weight they reached on the cut. Choosing that on purpose is not giving up. It is what stops a slow drift turning into a full regain.

Step 2: Move up to maintenance on purpose

The end of the diet needs a plan. Bring your calories back up to your new maintenance, which is lower than before the cut because you weigh less. You can do it in one step or in a few smaller ones; reverse dieting compares both and explains what the evidence does and does not support.

Expect your weight to rise a little in the first week or two as your muscles refill with stored carbohydrate and the water that comes with it. That is not fat. Judge what is happening from your weekly average weight after that.

Step 3: Set a range and act early

A single target weight is fragile. A range is easier to live with.

The STOP Regain trial (Wing and colleagues, 2006, New England Journal of Medicine) is a useful model. It followed 314 people who had lost an average of nearly 20% of their body weight in the previous two years, for 18 months. People in the two active programs (one online, one face-to-face) were urged to weigh themselves every day and used colour zones:

• Green: up less than about 1.4 kg (3 lb) from their starting weight. Carry on.
• Yellow: up 1.4 to 1.8 kg (3 to 4 lb). Make small changes to eating or activity.
• Red: up 2.3 kg (5 lb) or more. Go back to active weight loss.

After 18 months, 72% of the group who only received newsletters had regained 2.3 kg (5 lb) or more, compared with 55% of the online group and 46% of the face-to-face group. In the two active groups, weighing daily was linked to a lower chance of regaining.

Those were people who had lost weight from being overweight, not lifters coming off a cut, but the principle travels well. Pick a range of a kilogram or two around your new weekly average, and decide in advance what you will do if it drifts above the top: a week of tighter tracking, a few more steps a day, fewer meals out.

Step 4: Keep the habits that got you lean

The best evidence on keeping weight off comes from the US National Weight Control Registry, a group of people who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off. In a 2005 review (Wing and Phelan, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition), members had lost about 33 kg (73 lb) on average and kept it off for more than five years. They reported:

• about an hour of physical activity a day,
• weighing themselves regularly,
• eating breakfast,
• and eating in a similar way on weekdays and at weekends.

The registry is a self-selected group, and its members started out overweight, so it shows what successful people do, not proof of cause. But it fits other evidence. The American College of Sports Medicine's 2009 position stand on physical activity and weight concluded that studies following people after weight loss show better maintenance with more than 250 minutes of activity a week, while noting that well-designed trials are lacking.

For a lifter, that translates into:

• Keep your daily step target. Movement drops quietly when a diet ends and attention moves on.
• Keep weighing yourself a few mornings a week at least, and keep an eye on the weekly average.
• Keep weekends close to weekdays. Two loose days a week can cancel out five good ones.

Step 5: Keep lifting, and keep protein high

The muscle you kept during the cut is what makes you look lean at a sensible body-fat level. Keep training hard and keep trying to add reps or weight over time. Keep protein at about 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg of body weight a day, the same range as for building muscle. Protein also helps with the hunger that often lingers after a diet.

Step 6: Loosen tracking slowly

There is no research on the best way to stop tracking, so this is common coaching practice. Do not go from weighing every gram to nothing overnight.

1. Keep tracking fully for the first few weeks at maintenance, while you find your real maintenance calories.
2. Then track protein and calories only, and estimate the rest.
3. Then track a few days a week, or only when your weekly average moves towards the top of your range.

If your weight holds, carry on. If it creeps up for two or three weeks, go back a step.

What comes next

Maintenance is not a holding pen. After a few months at a steady weight, many lifters move into a slow gaining phase to build more muscle; see lean bulk: how fast to gain weight. Others are happy to stay where they are. Either way, choosing the next phase on purpose beats drifting into one.

If your periods became irregular or stopped during the cut, if they have not come back, or if you find yourself bingeing or unable to stop thinking about food after a diet, speak to your doctor or GP.

How coaching helps

The end of a diet is where many people lose their results, because the plan stopped when the cut did. With one-to-one coaching from CoachAk, your coach keeps adjusting your plan after the cut ends. You log your weight every day and your coach can set daily habits, such as a step target or a protein goal, for you to tick off. Your weekly check-in takes about three minutes and covers your weight, training and nutrition adherence, steps, sleep, energy, hunger and stress, with optional body measurements and photos. Your coach replies with written feedback and adjusts your calories as you find your new maintenance, and you can message your coach directly to decide what comes next.

If you want to keep the results you worked for, apply for coaching.