I find my personal key is understanding my weight gain, maintenance, and cutting macros and calorie count. I’ve read several articles over the years on this topic and adapted several techniques. I cannot stress this enough you need to eat to keep your metabolism boosted so when I list my cutting calorie intake that is intended for 5 days max because I don’t want to lose muscle or negatively impact my metabolism.
Food journal:
It is vital to keep track of your macros and calories. I use an app on my phone called MyFitnessPal ( https://www.myfitnesspal.com/ ). I highly recommend this app but use whatever you think is best for you.
My macros: It doesn’t matter if I’m building, cutting or maintaining my macros don’t change.
50-60% protein
30% fat
10-20% carbs
My numbers:
Consuming under 1,800k calories for an extended period of time slows my metabolism and impacts my muscle building process.
Maintenance calories = 2,000-2,200
When trying to lose weight i eat 200-250 calories below maintenance.
My plateau trick: I eat 500 calories over maintenance for a handful of days and monitor my weight to ensure I don’t gain too much weight but this forces a boost in metabolism. Then for 3-5 days I cut my calorie intake to 500 less than my maintenance.
Diet tips:
I eat veggies with every meal during this week. I make sure During this week I keep my protein intake high. Finally, a few days leading up to my busting week I increase my calorie intake so when I cut my calories intake it normally busts my plateau.
Foods I use to boost calories but keep my fats healthy:
Avocados
Pistachios
Almonds
—–Use a weight scale and measure out and you’ll be surprised how fast you consume those extra 500 calories
Other techniques I employ:
Intermittent fasting – I will intermittent fast a couple days during my plateau busting week if cutting my calories and increasing cardio isn’t getting me the desired results. I go all morning and day till around 1400 before I consume my first meal. Once again, keeping my calorie intake short of my maintenance by 500.
Finally, during this week while cutting calories I double my cardio. It sounds like a no brainer but this part can be the most difficult because of a lack of energy while cutting calories. I also like to perform my cardio in the evening so I burn my calories from the day.
Summary:
The main trick I have employed over the years is change it up. Notice earlier when I was talking about increasing calories to trick my metabolism, I didn’t say eat pizza/burgers for fatty foods but eat healthy fatty foods like Pistachios. I change up when and how I do cardio while ensuring I hit my calorie burn count I desire. It sounds simple of change your routine so your body breaks out of it’s routine but it takes a lot of energy and logging everything you do.