The shred is over… where to from here?!
Well, the end is here! As we finish up the challenge (congratulations on making it through) it's crucial to shift our focus toward the art of maintaining and nurturing the progress you've made. The real work is only just beginning!
In this blog post, we will explore some key strategies for transitioning beyond this challenge and either continuing the deficit, or entering into a maintenance or surplus phase. Whether your current aim is more fat loss or building muscle/strength, both outcomes would benefit from having an understanding of the importance of avoiding extremes, cultivating patience, staying consistent, and detaching from the numbers on the scale. Let’s get stuck in!
The Balanced Path to Long-Term Wellness: Moving Beyond the Diet Phase
Sustainable fat loss is a slow process. I say sustainable in particular, because short-term results (while they come easily) can often go just as quickly and result in putting the weight back on and then some! This occurs because the actual process and habits to make the changes long-lasting are not taught or practised enough to stick. Anyone can go to extremes for short periods of time, but powering through at that high of an intensity when it comes to fat loss is not sustainable! The same goes for your training - if you were trying to hit a PB every single session, your body would crash and burn. Not to mention you would be mentally exhausted, in a lot of pain and probably begin to hate training (or even worse, yourself).
The main aim of this challenge was to instil some mindset shifts, knowledge bombs and practical tools to help you understand the slow nature of dieting, how to make it fit into your lifestyle, and establish a balance between seeing results and enjoying the process. Remember that a diet should only be a temporary phase, a tool to jumpstart your health and fitness journey. The true essence of health lies in a balanced, holistic lifestyle that includes nourishing your body, engaging in physical activities you love, and savouring life's simple pleasures.
Continuing on a diet phase:
If you would like to continue facilitating fat loss, here are some helpful tips and questions I suggest you consider:
How long are you readily able to commit to dieting?
As mentioned above, we are not meant to sit or even aim for a deficit constantly. By setting a deadline for ourselves, we are much more likely to commit to the process, give it our all and ideally reap the rewards that come from that!
What have you got coming up in that time frame that might make things easier/harder?
Consider your goals and values in the context of your whole life, and pre-empt anything that might throw a spanner in the works (or conversely, make things easier!). Things like social events, the time of year, competitions, holidays, etc. all fall under this umbrella.
Set an end goal and work backwards from there.
Let’s go big and say you want to lose 10kg. Realistically, a sustainable rate of loss is about 0.5-1% of your body weight each week. With that in mind, how long will it take you to lose that amount? That is your end goal.
If you are working off a specific date, does the amount and the time match up, or are you setting yourself up for failure by aiming too high?
Break that end goal down into smaller chunks. Let’s say you give yourself 6 months. After some calculations, you conclude that 1-2kg per month is doable by these measures.
Plan it all out and include some strategies to help make the process easier! Dieting is a mental and physical effort - there is no doubt about that. After you’ve put the context of your diet into the rest of your life, decided on a suitable time frame and broken it down into smaller chunks, consider using the following strategies to make the process easier for you.
Diet Breaks: Introducing planned diet breaks involves taking short periods of time—usually 1-2 weeks—where you transition to maintenance-level calorie intake. Diet breaks help alleviate the physical and psychological stress associated with prolonged dieting, prevent metabolic adaptation, and boost long-term adherence to your nutrition plan.
Re-feeds: Re-feeds are short-term, planned increases in calorie intake, typically involving higher carbohydrate consumption. They aim to replenish glycogen stores, regulate hunger hormones, and provide a psychological break from the rigours of dieting, all while supporting your performance during workouts.
A good strategy is to plan your diet breaks and re-feeds around days/weeks/events that you are more likely to want or need the higher caloric intake! Sure, it might extend your goal a little by doing this, but it will also ensure you stay more consistent because you’ve blended in the dieting process with the rest of your life and come up with an awesome plan for success to still get you to where you want to go!
An example of this (and one that I find works well for me) is dieting for four weeks, followed by a one week diet break at maintenance calories.
Another common one (but one that I suggest proceeding with caution on) is weekdays at a deficit and weekends at maintenance. I’ve found this is a little more challenging for people to adhere to. Usually because having such a polarity between weekends/weekdays can lead to habits being thrown out the window on the weekend completely (instead of maintaining the weekday habits but just with a little higher caloric intake).
Heading into a maintenance/build phase:
Whether you are content with your fat loss progress, want to focus on building muscle or strength, or just simply are not in a place to continue dieting, then heading into a maintenance or surplus phase is an option! A lot of people only continue tracking their calories when they are dieting. I highly recommend experiencing what tracking is like at maintenance or in a surplus so that you learn how to eat to maintain your weight (and not just lose it).
As discussed in the previous metabolism topics, a maintenance phase involves consuming the number of calories that maintain your current weight. It's a crucial period for stabilising your progress, ensuring your body has sufficient energy for daily activities, and supporting muscle retention. A surplus phase entails consuming a slight calorie surplus to promote muscle growth and strength gains. This phase is ideal for individuals aiming to build muscle and improve their overall athletic performance (and aren’t afraid to see the scale numbers go up).
Similar to dieting, it can be beneficial to consider these phases in the content of your whole year. The same tools and principles of good nutrition (such as protein at every meal, lots of plant-based fibre, adequate hydration, and proper fueling with a variety of carbs and fats) will apply all year round. One of the benefits of being at maintenance or surplus are the extra calories and food freedom that you have from the nature of how they work. These are ideal for anyone who either has specific body composition/performance goals revolving around strength and muscle mass, has lots of events or holidays coming up and would like the extra freedom around food and energy that comes from being at these energy balances, or someone who just wants to take a break from tracking altogether.
Here are some options for you if you are wanting to steer away from a dieting phase:
If you want to continue tracking maintenance or surplus, adjust your calories accordingly. If you’re not sure what they might be, I would be happy to run you through the calculations to set for your targets! Use the same framework as the dieting; plan out a timeline, an end goal and work backwards from there.
If you want to take a break from being so food-focused, instil the same principles you’ve learnt throughout this process and prioritise the quality of the food you are eating. Things such as mindful and intuitive eating are super valuable during periods like this as well, to familiarise yourself with your own hunger cues and trust your gut when it comes to nutrition.
Set yourself some goals that don’t revolve around nutrition or body composition! Perhaps you want to see how strong you can get in your squat, learn a new skill like the splits or a handstand, or improve your relationship with your body, food and yourself.
No matter what your goal or results have been, as you transition beyond the structured diet phase, embrace the principles of balance, patience, and consistency. Focus on how nourishing your body and moving with joy contribute to your overall well-being, rather than fixating on the numbers. Keep in mind that being on a diet is just a small part of your holistic wellness journey, which spans the entire year and beyond. Here's to your continued success and a lifetime of vibrant health and happiness!
