What happens when you are at maintenance cals and lifting

[Lost Dog]

I understand that a deficit is required to lose fat and a surplus is required to put on muscle. But, what happens when you do neither? Does nothing really happen or is just a painfully slow process?

I'm just curious. This is not part of any plan of mine or anything. I've just been wondering...

[Johnka]

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Without supplying extra calories for fuel, then I suppose you could reach a stasis where you neither add muscle nor burn fat, even while you consistently lift.

If you mean maintenance before adding the weight training, then you could conceivably maintain muscle mass while losing body fat, or lose both, or just lose muscle if your training/diet really stinks.

[LeafofDeath]

If you think about it, actually achieving your maintenance caloric intake is impossible. You would have to consume the EXACT number of calories you burn in a day (example: 2,806.55 calories) at exactly the same pace at which you burn them.

So basically, at any given time, you are either getting bigger or getting smaller. And "maintenance" is where you grow and shrink roughly the same amounts in a day [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Lost Dog]

LeafofDeath: I suppose you're right about the maintenance calories never being truly "spot on." It's more of an up/down process keeping you in maintenance.

Johnka: I meant maintenance levels having figured in exercise. Since your body has no surpless to work with, but you're lifting, do your muscles just stay the same, despite the lifting?

Thanks for the responses!

[bryanc]

On maintenance calories, figuring the lifting in, means there's no extra energy. Thus, everything that goes into your mouth is converted into energy, and NOT tissue. Theoretically, your muscles would stay the same size as there has to be stuff that goes into your mouth that isn't used for energy, but for creating tissue matter, for your muscles to get bigger. However, that doesn't necessarily mean you won't get stronger, since there are neuromuscular adaptations that may still occur as a result of strength training.