People stay on diets TOO LONG. People start and stop diets TOO OFTEN.
Here’s a bird’s eye view of the 4 phases of dieting or aka nutritional periodization.
Why is this important?
Losing weight is always a balancing act. And your body isn’t meant to operate in a deficit forever!
FOUNDATION
Here is where you START! You begin creating habits, working on your mindset, getting very consistent with your macros and strength training to create a method you enjoy and one that you can sustain for good.
FAT LOSS
Most people jump right to here and choose the quickest way to lose weight. In a fat loss phase, yes, you want to get in and get out quickly; but you want to do it smart and sustainable using all of the solid habits you created as your foundation.
MAINTENANCE
You should live most of your life in maintenance! This is where you sustain all of the awesome habits you created as you continue to improve your strength, your metabolism and your muscle mass! Most people never consider being in maintenance as a WIN; but, it’s the BIGGEST indicator of your success. Maintaining your weight in this phase is a testament to your process. Did you create a process that is maintainable? That’s the million dollar question!
MUSCLE BUILDING
In a muscle building phase, you will eat and train appropriately to increase muscle, increase your strength, and increase your performance. Many women want to achieve the tone, shape, and look of a certain physique, but what they fail to realize is that look requires muscle and muscle requires muscle building and muscle building requires weight gain. How many woman do you know who can honestly say they are 100% okay with weight gain because they want more muscle definition?
I know A LOT in my TWW community because we know better! But in reality, most women will never be able to jump over the mind F hurdle that is the scale especially when it comes to their weight increasing on the scale!
I ended my first cut at 144lbs / 5’2.5”
I went into a year plus of maintenance calories while on a strength build program. My current weight hovers around 150lb. Did I put on muscle? Yep. Did I gain fat too? Yep. But you bet 144 will look different!
