Chapter 5: Staying Lean

This is where most people mess up.

They'll nail the cut, get lean, feel amazing... then lose it all in three weeks.

The truth is cutting isn't the hard part. Maintaining is.

This chapter is about how to stay lean permanently without counting calories forever or living like a monk. We'll go over the exit process, how to stabilize metabolism, and how to turn leanness into your default setting.

The Post-Cut Trap

You finish your cut, your discipline cracks, and your body rebounds. This isn't a willpower problem. It's biology.

After a cut, your body is low on glycogen which is energy stores, dehydrated, hungry from leptin drops, and running on stress hormones. If you suddenly eat freely again, your body stores fat fast because it's trying to protect itself.

That's called post-diet fat overshoot. The solution? Reverse dieting.

Reverse Dieting: How to Exit Properly

Reverse dieting is how you stabilize metabolism after a deficit. It's the bridge between cutting and maintaining, where you gradually raise calories instead of jumping straight to normal eating.

Protocol: start by increasing calories by 100–150 per day, mostly from carbs. Hold that for one week. If weight stays stable, add another 100–150 the next week. Repeat until you reach maintenance.

This process takes four to six weeks.

Example: if you cut on 1900 calories, go to 2050 in week one, 2200 in week two, 2350 in week three, and 2500 maintenance by week four.

You'll look better after this. Fuller, tighter, more energized. Your muscles refill glycogen and water, but your body fat stays low.

Rebuilding Your Routine for Maintenance

When you're staying lean, you're not in cut mode or bulk mode. You're in normal mode. You eat to fuel performance, not to lose or gain weight.

Key shifts: stop chasing the scale, start tracking look and performance. Keep protein high at 1g per pound, it's your insurance. Keep a stable eating schedule with same mealtimes daily. Weigh yourself two to three times per week max for trend, not emotion.

If your weight drifts up slowly but your waist stays tight, that's muscle, not fat.

The Maintenance Formula

Here's the base formula you'll use for life. Maintenance calories equal lean bodyweight in pounds times 15–16. Then adjust plus or minus 10% depending on how your body responds.

Example: 170 pounds times 15 equals 2550 calories per day. If you're walking 10k steps and training four times per week, that's your stable zone.

You can fluctuate within plus or minus 200 calories daily without changing body fat. That's your flex zone.

How to Eat Without Tracking

You shouldn't live with a food scale forever. The point of tracking was to build instinct. Now you transition to pattern recognition.

Use the visual plate method. Your protein should be palm-sized, think chicken, beef, fish, or eggs. Your carbs should be fist-sized like rice, potato, oats, or fruit. Your fats should be thumb-sized from olive oil, nuts, or avocado. Your veggies are unlimited, greens, cucumber, tomato.

Eat three to four meals like this daily, and you'll naturally maintain.

Weekly Calibration Routine

Maintenance isn't autopilot. You still check in, just less often.

Every week: step on the scale two to three times in the morning after the bathroom. Take one waist measurement. Check lighting and mirror photos once every two weeks.

Adjust if weight is up more than 2 pounds for two-plus weeks, drop 150 calories per day or add steps. If weight is down, add 100–150 calories per day. If waist grows noticeably, tighten carbs or late-night snacking.

That's how you stay within a lean, photo-ready range all year.

Psychological Reframe: Living Lean

If you think of staying lean as dieting forever, you'll burn out. But if you think of it as your baseline identity, it becomes automatic.

When you see yourself as a lean person, your habits match it naturally. You order differently when eating out. You walk instead of drive. You automatically stop eating when satisfied. You crave feeling light and clean more than being stuffed.

This isn't discipline. It's alignment.

The 90/10 Rule

You don't need to be perfect. You just need to be mostly consistent.

90% of meals should be clean, structured, high protein, whole foods. 10% of meals can be flexible, restaurants, social events, dessert.

That's the sweet spot where you stay lean and sane. If you nail the 90%, the 10% doesn't matter.

Cardio & Training in Maintenance

For cardio, keep two to three light sessions per week like walks, incline treadmill, or cycling. Don't drop it completely. It keeps you insulin sensitive and conditioned.

For training, you can slightly reduce volume, but keep intensity. Example: four times per week training instead of five. Keep compound lifts heavy. Add some pump work for blood flow and maintenance.

The goal is to maintain strength and density, not chase fatigue.

Staying Photo-Ready Year-Round

When you do everything right, you don't ever need another cut. You just tighten up slightly when needed, two to three weeks of small deficit max.

Checklist for being camera-ready anytime: body fat at 10–13%, steps at 10k per day, one gallon of water per day, sleep at seven to eight hours, protein at 1g per pound, haircut fresh, skin on tretinoin plus sunscreen routine running on autopilot.

That's it. You'll always look sharp, lean, and healthy without trying to get ready for something.