The ultimate guide to defining nutrition phases
Nutrition Phases?
So you’re starting to understand nutrition periodization and that there are “multiple phases to go through,” but how does that work?
How do the calories change between phases?
At EPN, we teach our clients to understand the calorie spectrum and ranges that apply to their specific maintenance range and how to push the boundaries to accomplish those particular goals.
We’re walking you through exactly how we coach our clients to understand the phases here 👉
the phases of nutrition exist on a spectrum
The maintenance Range
When we say maintenance, we don’t mean a specific number. We actually mean a range of calories. Your “maintenance” might be 2100 calories, but that really means you can eat between 2000-2200 calories to hit an average of 2100, allowing for some flexibility.
We’ve found that most people have a maintenance range of 100-150 calories, with a minimum range of 75 and a max of 300-350.
What happens in this phase:
Maintenance is our home base. This is your default and is best if we are working on improving gut health and hormones or just building a baseline.
Maintenance+
Something we chat about in our cohorts is the concept of maintenance plus. This is where your calorie minimum is at the top end of maintenance.
Typical range of calories: 0-100 cals above the top end of maintenance.
Expectations in this phase:
This is where we are looking for muscle gain, with the bare minimum fat mass accumulation.
Word of caution: the rate of gain here is so low that you may end up at maintenance calories with adaptations. If you have never done a build before, you must complete one first and truly find your top-end maintenance before attempting maintenance+.
*This is also where we like to hang out during a performance maintenance phase
muscle Building Phase
The optimal muscle build calorie range is where we’re maximizing muscle mass gains while minimizing additional body fat gains.
Typical range of calories: ~100-150 cals above the top end of maintenance for intermediate trainees.
Expectations in this phase:
When we’re eating in a calorie surplus above the high end of our maintenance range, we are looking for the majority of mass we’re gaining to be muscle mass. At the same time, we must be willing to accept the small bit of body fat accumulation that comes along with it.
Dreamer Build
The dreamer build is also often known as the full YOLO calorie surplus, or what some people may consider to be a dirty bulk :)
We’re not leaving a single gram of muscle on the table but are accumulating significantly more body fat in the process.
Typical range of calories: 200+ cals above, and often FAR beyond the top end of maintenance.
Expectations in this phase:
The typical expectation of “beefcake” in a build phase. THICC.
Recomp & Adapted Maintenance
We do have the ability to do some recomp (simultaneously build muscle and lose body fat), in a very slight deficit (~<0.4lbs lost per week).
However, if you spend enough time here, this will become your new adapted maintenance. Aka, you don’t want to just live at this level or your metabolism takes a hit.
Typical range of calories: 0-200 calories below the bottom end of maintenance
Expectations in this phase:
A very slow rate of loss with the potential for slight muscle mass increase.
Optimal Fat loss
This is the sweet spot here at EPN, where we are balancing sustainability while also losing fat at an efficient rate.
The deficit is steep enough to stay motivated, but not too steep where you’re losing lean tissue or struggling with hunger.
Typical range of calories: 200-600 calories below the bottom end of maintenance (or 0.4-0.75% weekly rate of loss).
Expectations in this phase:
The majority of weight lost is body fat while losing a small amount of lean tissue
Crash diets & Aggressive Fat Loss
The aggressive fat loss approach is often where we’re trying to see the scale plummet at all costs without concern for retaining lean tissue.
Typical range of calories: 800+ calories below bottom end of maintenance or >2lbs/week rate of loss.
Expectations in this phase:
Rapid weight loss, not necessarily fat loss. In this approach, a much greater portion of weight lost is lean tissue, and spending prolonged periods in this steep of a deficit can promote binge behavior.
what’s the big takeaway?
If you’ve ever wondered why changing your calories didn’t elicit the changes you were hoping for, it’s likely because you didn’t push the boundary enough.
Did you increase your calories by 200 and still maintained your weight? You may have just increased from adapted maintenance to true maintenance.
Decreased your calories by 200 and still maintained? You might have just moved from the top end of maintenance to the bottom end of maintenance.
Being in a muscle build or calorie deficit requires you to push outside those boundaries of maintenance to enact change.
The key? You have to actually know what your maintenance is to begin with :)
Need some Help?
Our 7-Day Data Mini Course teaches you how to look at and evaluate your own data and find your top-end maintenance, which is exactly what you need to know before diving into any other phase.
