Much like weight loss, figuring out how much you should eat to maintain your new weight involves some trial and error. And it seems that I have erred. Since switching to maintenance, I’ve gained a little and by a little I mean almost 5 pounds. Eek!

I’d like to think it’s from all the strength training I’ve been doing, but by body fat percentage has also increased. It works out to about 2 pounds of muscle and 3 pounds of fat gained. While I’m happy with the muscle gain, I’m not so thrilled about the fat gain but I think I’ve figured out why it happened. Are you ready?

You get the idea… the problem is, during my weight loss, a weekly cheat meal (or two) was part of my weekly plan. I’d create a caloric deficit from Sunday to Thursday, then enjoy one decadent meal or treat on Friday and/or Saturday. In the end, it all balanced out so that weight loss was still achieved.

Switch to maintenance. Now, I’m eating more throughout the week and still have the mentality that I can let loose on the weekends. Clearly, that’s no longer the case; if I eat at maintenance during the week and eat way above maintenance on weekends, the overall result is a caloric surplus in excess of what I need to gain muscle (about 10-20% above maintenance). So I have two options:

1) Diet during the week, go nuts on the weekends
2) Cut back on weekend indulgences

I’ve decided to go with the second option. I’ve noticed I’ve felt a lot stronger during my workouts since switching to maintenance and it’s obviously because of the extra calories. I don’t want that to change. So it looks like I need to clean up my weekend eating habits. Does this mean I’m swearing off dessert and alcohol entirely? Never! But having both, plus a heavy meal and bread and an appetizer all in one night needs to be reserved for special occasions.

And that concludes my Thursday morning truth bomb.