Getting lean...then what?

[queenofswords]

Hi all, im new to the forum and in the early stages of fat loss.

I want to get rid of about 8lbs and i've set myself 12 weeks as a benchmark to get as close to my goal as possible but I'm happy to do it gradually.

But what happens once you've pretty much achieved ur goal? I personally do not want to bulk up, I do want definition but on a lean/slender frame.

How long can u stay in a cutting phase? or do u change up ur training and diet to maintain ur new weight?

I'm interested to know people's thought on this and what u personally do.

[freebirdmac]

Goals can change all the time. Once you're close to your desired fat loss you can raise cals to stop fat loss, but continue to lift heavy to keep and increase your lean muscle mass. You may decide that this area looks fine while another area needs work. Adjusting your workouts accordingly. You may find that you need to lose a bit more body fat but decide to do it even slower to let muscle mass catch up. Down the road you may decide you want more mass and do a bulk next winter. It's an ongoing evaluation. Goals can change overnight or can remain fixed for years. It's your body. It's like play dough, you can shape and reshape all you want

Training probably won't change much. You'll need to continue lifting as before to maintain your muscle. Some go to a higher rep/lower weight routine, with an occasional return to lower rep/higher weight, others just keep doing what they've been doing. It'll depend on how your body responds and what kind of routine interests you (personally I hate high reps....I get bored). The longer you do this the harder it is to put on mass without bulking. Plus you're constantly combating natural muscle loss through aging.

You can stay on a fat loss protocol for a long time. If it's more than a couple of months you may need to periodically up the cals back to maintenance levels to de-stress the body, stimulate fat loss, and check to see if your maintenance cals have increased. Many have added mass and were really surprised to find out that they started losing weight after they raised their cals.

I wonder if I will *ever* be in maintenance mode