The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

193. Unf*ck the Middle: Why You’re Not “Stuck” - You’re in Maintenance

• Kristy Castillo

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Let’s talk about something that doesn’t get enough attention in the fitness world: MAINTENANCE. 


Nope…It’s not sexy, or flashy, and it’s definitely not talked about enough.


But… if you're serious about building a sustainable, strong, AND energized body? It’s a phase you need to understand and embrace!


Maintenance is not a “break”. You’re still training with intention, intensity, and you’re pushing for progress (just in a different way). You CAN still lose fat and build muscle while in maintenance - it will be slower progress, but you’re no longer chasing constant fat loss or being ruled by the scale (thanks to body recomp)!


I’ve experienced plenty of my own setbacks this year (it’s been a bit of a shitshow honestly), BUT, I’ve still been consistent with my simple + powerful habits that keep me moving forward!


Whether you’re in a season that feels tough, or you’re ready to stop the ridiculous yo-yo diets and start OWNING your strength, I promise - you can still navigate the “middle” with confidence!


In this episode, we cover:

  • Quick health + personal update
  • Why summer is the perfect season for maintenance
  • How body recomp works + why maintenance calories can still change your body composition
  • Viewing your workouts as a “power season” vs. an “off season”
  • The mental struggle of “the middle” + why maintenance can feel hard even when it’s right
  • How to reframe progress beyond the scale
  • The all-or-nothing trap many fitness pros fall into
  • How to know if you’re in a solid maintenance zone for YOUR body
  • Key reminders to keep you grounded during your maintenance phase


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take you from feeling stuck to feeling sexy. Let's go. Hey guys, what's up?

Speaker 2:

Welcome to today's episode. We are going to be talking today about a couple of things, mostly in the realm of maintenance calories, body recomp. I'm going to interweave a little bit of my own journey as far as, like this year, where I'm at kind of a little update there, and, yeah, dive into this topic a little bit. Maintenance calories and body recomp are two topics that I get a lot of questions about, I get a lot of feedback about. You guys love these episodes about these topics and, as we know already, in true Christy Castillo form, I love to unfuck this for you. So, yes, you can Google or you can ask ChatGPT what are maintenance calories, what are my maintenance calories? You can Google it, you can find out what body recomp is. You can ask the questions and you can get the answers, the basic answers, the general answers scenario, right, a guarantee you can't really get, a guarantee you can't really get. This is exactly what it's going to look like for you. You know even, yeah, I mean you can chat, obviously, with chat GPT and tell it where you're at in your journey and and you know kind of what you've come off of as far as calories and what you've done. You can have this whole conversation and get a pretty defined answer, a pretty specific answer for your circumstances. But there still is a lot of middle ground that a lot of people don't talk about. At least that I see A lot of coaches don't talk about. A lot of clients that have come to me have either, yeah, they've just gone through a deficit, or they've just come out of a cut, or they're in maintenance calories, but they're missing so many pieces of why am I feeling like this or what will I experience next? Or you know, just kind of like. What does it look like, what does it feel like? And that's kind of what this whole podcast is for me. That's kind of what this whole podcast is for me. I'm like I'm talking about subjects that, yes, you can go get the information anywhere, but I'm really breaking it down as far as like, this is the reality of the situation and this is what it really looks like and feels like. So that's what I want to do in this episode is talk as usual, real talk about maintenance calories, about body recomp and where I'm at in in kind of journey with that this year, which this year for me has been a bit of a mess. Well, I guess, if you don't know, I'm recording this in June oh my gosh, almost July and this will be July when it comes out. Actually, I'm recording a week ahead of time. Look at me go.

Speaker 2:

So the beginning of this year I was very, very sick and had a couple of different things going on. I believe I had COVID I never got tested I had influenza A, I had pneumonia and it was just. It was a lot. And then I have had some blood pressure issues. I've had some heart rate issues my heart rate is really, really fast these days and so I'm still maneuvering through that. I'm feeling better and I'm still, you know, working on different things to help and I still need to go to a cardiologist, in fact. But that, along with perimenopause, has kicked my freaking ass the last year, two and two years, one year this year, most definitely.

Speaker 2:

So it's been a learning curve and I think that is what I always want to talk about blatantly is. There are these direct facts this is what maintenance calories is, this is what body recomp is, and I'm going to get into that in a minute. But there's also this middle ground of when life happens, when life kicks you down, right, when life knocks you down and then kicks you while you're down. There's going to be things that happen. It's not just a cut and dry. This is body recomp and you do this, this and this and it should take X amount of time. There are so many different factors and that's why I want to talk about my journey, because I'm right here with you in the trenches what I'm trying to say, but I so I put myself into.

Speaker 2:

I basically have been in a bulk, I guess, build phase through like through the fall and into winter, and it was just a mess, like I felt, like I my typical build fall winter, cut in the spring and then maintain in the summer and then go back into a build in the fall. That's been my routine for the last couple of years. This year my body said let's try something else, let's try where you have no idea what's going on with your body. Let's try that. So that's been very hard, very, very, very fucking hard. I won't bullshit around it, it's been so difficult. But I put myself into a cut somewhat of a cut because my calories have kind of been all over the place, with tracking and everything. Put myself into a cut deficit. Just knowing like this is what I'm kind of currently eating. I need to cut out processed foods, I need to cut out some shit, I need to cut out, you know, the carbs and just kind of go into a deficit. And that's kind of how I did it, because I really hadn't been tracking or and I hadn't been consistent with my build or anything like that. So it was just I was all over the place. But what I did know that I could cut some carbs, I could cut some fats, I could cut some processed food and that would put me into a deficit along with getting more steps in.

Speaker 2:

My body did not respond to that quickly at all. Last year it didn't respond to that quickly at all either. That was the first year. Last year was the first year my body did not respond to a deficit quickly and I thought here we go, something's happening. This year was worse. I kicked up the steps, I started going for sprints, I was jogging. I had myself into a deficit, and not too much, because I know how to do this. Remember, I was doing it very controlled. I felt good, but I was also dealing with some blood pressure issues, some new medications, some new you know all the things not feeling great. My workouts were kind of shitty because I was lightheaded all the time, so just a mess. But my body did not respond quickly. But it has started responding. I would say about a month ago I started losing half pound every day, when I kind of wake up and I thought okay, here we go, my body is moving, we're responding, it's trusting me again. No kidding, it didn't trust me this entire year because my body's just been a mess, right. So I know why it didn't trust me Not my fault, really, but it didn't trust me. So it's starting to trust me.

Speaker 2:

We're into a cut and now I'm maintaining that cut. So I've cut just a couple of pounds, a little bit of fat, you know like to where I feel good in my skin. I feel good in my shorts and my tank tops and my bikinis. That's it. That's all I really care about, especially now. I'm not worried about a number on the scale. I don't want to lose any more muscle mass. It's really hard to come by right now for me, so I want to keep it all. But that's where I'm at. So I just kind of wanted to be honest about that.

Speaker 2:

So I am in a maintenance phase right now. I will maintain through the summer, and I know I've talked about this on a fairly recent episode I'm not exactly sure which one, but I talked about maintenance calories and I'm sure that I talked about that in there. You know, I lived years in a maintenance phase and it was absolutely perfect and I talked about in that episode the benefits of basically living in a maintenance phase for years and you, how you're able to do that, and it's just absolutely amazing because you are so used to your routine and your structure that it doesn't take much effort and your body trusts you and there's nothing better than that to have, like your body work as a well-oiled machine and trust you. So I am currently in a maintenance phase and a lot of my clients are currently in a maintenance phase and that's exactly where I kind of want my ladies to be in the summer. We're doing a summer programming inside of my Fit Club on my app. It's called Suns Out, guns Out. We're in month two and unless a client messages me and says, hey, I wanna build right now or hey, I wanna cut right now, everybody's pretty much set to maintenance calories this time of year because it is summer, because this is the time for most of my ladies anyway, most. Okay, this is not true for everybody, but most of us and most of my clients and you and me, we want to live a little more freely in the summer and I want that for you too, like I want you to be able to go and not have to worry about when you're eating out. You know how many calories are exactly in this. I want you to be able to go, have fun and, you know, go on vacations and do all the things and not stress all the time about it. So that's a really good thing.

Speaker 2:

About maintenance calories, also in maintenance. Now, this is where people will say you can't build muscle in a maintenance phase because you have to be in a caloric surplus to build muscle. That is somewhat true and somewhat not true. There's that middle ground of you can build muscle in your maintenance phase in maintenance calories. Should that be the goal? No, you should not be at maintenance calories thinking, wow, I want to grow so much muscle right now. No, you want to maintain your muscle.

Speaker 2:

But when you are body recomping, okay, the whole goal of body recomp, the whole definition, is changing your body composition, meaning you could weigh 175 pounds, but if most of it is fat. That's going to be a completely different body than someone that weighs 175 pounds and is mostly muscle. You can weigh the same amount on the scale, but your muscle to fat ratio is going to change how you look completely, and that's your body composition. Maintenance calories are just that the calories that it takes to maintain your weight on the scale. That doesn't mean let me be very clear and hear me when you are eating at maintenance calories, it doesn't mean you're going to maintain your muscle mass and maintain your fat. That literally nothing is going to change on the scale. That's not true and that's why I love maintenance calories.

Speaker 2:

You can build muscle and you can lose fat in maintenance calories. It will take longer. It'll take longer because you will lose fat faster, obviously, if you are in a deficit and you will gain muscle faster if you are in a caloric surplus. But you can change your body composition at maintenance calories. That's physically, that's scientifically, and I have done it. And so when you've done something yourself and someone tries to say, no, you can't build any muscle at maintenance calories and you've done it, you don't care what they say, because you fucking did it, so they're wrong, just like. No, I did it, so you can't tell me that that can't be done, but I hear that a lot. There's no way you can build muscle unless you're in a caloric surplus, not true? Now you will build a lot faster though, but there are a lot of people out there that are so happy living in maintenance calories and this taking a little bit longer than it would be to be a little more complicated and go into a huge cut and then stay at maintenance and then go into a huge deficit, cut and then stay at maintenance and then go into a huge deficit, or sorry, go, then go into a surplus and then go back to maintenance and then go into a cut, like sometimes that going up and down and up and down of the build maintenance, cut, maintenance, build maintenance, cut it's.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes I have clients that are like, yeah, that's not for me, and there have been seasons in my life where that's not for me either and you can change your body, because maintenance calories, like I said, it's the amount of food that your body needs to maintain your current weight. Maintenance calories are the amount of food your body needs to maintain your current weight, but if you want to be fueling enough to train hard and you want to be fueling your body enough to recover well and you want to be fueling your body in the right way to live without extremes, that's totally fine. You're not stuck. It's a very strategic choice. Weight loss once you've lost a certain amount of weight, the work's not over. You have to maintain that. That's maintenance. It's still work, because if you're not paying attention and being a little meticulous about it, you're going to be in a surplus or you're going to be at a deficit and you're going to throw the whole thing off right.

Speaker 2:

Maintenance is not a break. You're still training with intensity, you're still fueling your body with intention. You're still tracking or being mindful of your macros. You're building consistency, you're building your metabolic health and you're building muscle. It's just it's not like an off season. Think about it as and this is kind of what I do with my workouts too I think about it as the power season. So for right now, in Suns Out, guns Out, like I said in my app, what we're working on is we're doing some sprints, we're doing some core work, we are still lifting, we're still doing very foundational workouts and, yeah, then, we're adding on core, we're adding on some HIIT, we're adding in sprints.

Speaker 2:

Whatever the person's goal is in Fit Club, they can modify that to their needs. For me as well, I'm doing the same thing. So I have these heart issues. Right now. I'm trying to be very careful. It's hot as hell outside Quite, literally. It is so freaking hot. If I'm not up at a certain amount or a certain time in the morning, I'm not going for a run, I'm not going to do my sprints.

Speaker 2:

Today I worked out a little later than I wanted to and it was super hot. So I did some high knees and some butt kicks in my gym, in my garage, for my cardio. That was my sprinting session, because I was not gonna go out into the sunshine at 11 am like hottest time of day, so it just wasn't gonna happen. But I'm still being very intense and the goal is power. I'm still working on my split squats. I'm still working on my different things that like my lunges. I'm still working on my split squats. I'm still working on my different things that like my challenges, like I'm trying to be powerful. It's still very intentional. I'm not only lifting and I'm not only doing cardio, because I want to maintain the muscle that I have and I want to also pretty much maintain the amount of body fat that I have. So I need to still move my body very intentionally.

Speaker 2:

Okay, body recomp, like I said, is building muscle and losing fat at maintenance. So that can be done. It happens most efficiently when your strength training is consistent, when you're hitting your protein goal, first and foremost, when you're eating enough, not under eating that would be a deficit, not good, that's not maintenance and when you're sleeping and recovering well, because you have to have all those things. It's still like I said. It's still it's this middle ground, but it still has to be intentional. It still has to be intentional. So progress is slower, but it's more sustainable.

Speaker 2:

Because the other option is you go into this crazy cut and you're like I want to look so good for summer and you cut and cut, and cut, and cut and cut and you have no fun and you're like this isn't doable. And then you end up binge eating on a weekend and you're going crazy on the pizza and you're just scarfing it down, and then you're having some drinks and you're like, fuck it, I'll start again on Monday. That never works right. So the other alternative is to try to do these things on extremes and that's not going to work. So the mental struggle of the middle and I'm referring to the middle as maintenance, because a lot of people are going to be in maintenance and you're going to feel stuck, you're going to feel bored, you're going to feel like I'm not working hard enough or you're going to feel like this is too complicated.

Speaker 2:

I need to be cutting, I need to be building, I need to be doing more, I need to add a supplement. I need to, I need to, I need to, I need to right. That's the pressure that we get from all over the place in this journey and it's complete bullshit and we don't need it. So you have to let go of that diet culture that says you must always be chasing fat loss. You do not. In fact, so many of you, so many of us, need to be focusing on muscle mass, increasing muscle mass, building muscle, more than we even need to worry about fat loss A lot.

Speaker 2:

If you are, if you've not been doing any of this, you know I remember like a long time ago when I was like I want to lose weight. I really didn't even have that much weight to lose. I really just didn't like how my body looked post-pregnancy and I thought I need to lose weight, because I didn't know about body recomp, I didn't know about building muscle, so I thought I need to lose weight. What I needed was to build muscle. What I needed was to learn how to eat. I needed maintenance, I needed body recomp, but I didn't know that. So if you're in that place where you're like, oh, I just need to lose weight, I just need to lose weight, where's your muscle mass at? Where's your sleep at? How are you doing mentally? Are you sleeping well? Have you managed your time? Are you drinking enough water?

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of steps that you need to take before you start to lose fat, because otherwise you're just going to be in a crazy calorie deficit. You're going to lose a bunch of weight and then you're going to be like now, what do I do? I've done this before. This diet works right. I did keto. It worked so well. I lost all this weight, and then I put it all back on. Yeah, because you didn't know what you were doing right.

Speaker 2:

So, reframing your progress, think about performance progress, think about strength, think about progress with your energy, think about mental clarity, think about your mood and your confidence changing, and this is also what I want to talk about here, because a lot of us this other definition, I think, of middle ground right, I've seen a lot of influencers and I don't know if I've seen anyone in my actual, real life go through this, because I don't know a lot of fitness people, to be honest but I've seen a lot of influencers or personal trainers, someone in the fitness space, a lot of them, and this is no hate to them, it just happens. It happens and this is the same scenario it's similar anyway, as to what I just said where you crash diet, where you did the Atkins diet and you did keto and you cut carbs and you did this 30 day chat, whatever it was that you know, you did Weight Watchers and you lost a ton of weight. You're like I did that diet before. It works really well, I've done that diet. I've done that diet, it worked, it worked great for me. But then I put the weight back on. It's like you do something, you lose a ton of weight, you look good, feel good about yourself. You're feeling like, yeah, I kicked ass at that, did that so well, that diet worked amazing. Now it's over and I don't know what to do. So I put the weight back on. That happens a lot more in my real life with real human beings that I've come into contact with. So many women I know have done a diet, hit their goal weight, honestly looked a little too small and then went shit. I don't know what to do now. And then they gain all the weight back and maybe even plus some that they had to lose before.

Speaker 2:

In the influencer online world, what I've seen is fitness people going to extremes and getting really, really small and I mean muscular, small, really toned, really ripped, really leaned, maybe doing a bodybuilding show, selling and it's all in and it's game on and they look phenomenal. Okay, their body is incredible, and I'm talking mostly about women, because I don't really follow men on social media for fitness. I have them on there because I like to see what they're doing too, but this mostly happens with the women that I see. Again, I follow mostly women on social media, so I'm sure this happens in the men's world as well, but that's I'm not used to that, that's not what I watch. But for women that's what I see is these women just going all in, they're game on right, not deterring from their plan, and then they make the plan and they sell the plan and it's game on with this plan.

Speaker 2:

All of a sudden, either they don't know how to continue that or what usually happens is these women are in their 20s and as they get older and they go through some life things whether it's a bad breakup or they start experiencing anxiety, depression or life falls apart, a death in the family, whatever happens, or an illness, whatever it is. Life kicks them down a little bit and they struggle and they lose that body that they worked so hard for. And then they're in this middle ground I've seen it called this middle ground of now. I'm anxious, depressed, my hormones are out of whack, my nervous system is unregulated, I can't work out, I can't go to the gym, I'm putting on weight, my cortisol is high, stress is at an all-time high. I need a break from social media. Have you ever seen an influencer be like? I need a break from social media. I'm not going to post for a while. I need to go offline for a couple months or a year to basically get my life together and kind of regroup, and that's amazing that they do that. That's also a form of a middle ground, when life kicks your ass and you are like now what? Now I can't focus on a cut, now my workouts are really inconsistent. Now what? Enter maintenance calories, enter body recomp, where you can figure out.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm going through this situation, I'm so sick. Let's take my situation, for example. I was so sick at the beginning of the year I couldn't really do freaking anything. I was so sick Fevers just sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. You guys, if you listen to this podcast or the SoulFit podcast with Erin and I, I talk on there in the beginning of the year you should go listen to those episodes. But I talk on there just like I'm still sick. I'm still sick, I still feel like shit. And then, after I realized I wasn't well, actually my blood pressure was super high at one of my urgent care visits for pneumonia, so it was kind of all happening at the same time. But after I felt better and I didn't have pneumonia or influenza A, my blood pressure was so high I felt like shit all the time, all the time.

Speaker 2:

I mean, think about counting your calories right, macro tracking, getting perfect workouts in, while you feel like that, like there's no chance. So I had to figure out what's my bare minimum. What is my bare minimum. I can go out to the garage my four to five days a week and I can half-ass a workout, if that's what it takes. I can get on the walking pad and I can do some walks in the winter. What is my bare minimum? I can still do that to maintain my body right now, so that this doesn't get so out of control. I'm not letting my body go. I'm not giving up. I'm not just laying over and taking it. I'm not dying. I'm not like I'm. What can I do? Like what can I still do in this moment? That's what saved me during that time was just focusing on my habits. I can still drink water. I can still get on my walking pad. I can still go to the garage and work out. Those are my non-negotiables.

Speaker 2:

Even in the times when I was super depressed and I didn't want to get out of bed, I didn't want to do literally anything except cry. Literally lay face down on my bedroom floor and cry. I was so down in the depths. I still told myself you still have to get up and move if you can. You still have to go for a walk, you still have to go to the garage and if you can't work out, sit there and cry, cry in the garage, but your habit is still there of going to the garage. Get your workout clothes on, go to the garage, get your walking clothes on, go for a walk, get up and do something and you can lay back down in your bed and cry after. That was the place that I had to get to, was the bare minimum, that middle.

Speaker 2:

So you can purposely be in this middle stage of maintenance and you can also very much not be purposely in this middle ground, and I want to talk about that because we're unfucking your fitness and these things are going to happen. You're going to have life scenarios that just knock you on your ass and I want you to be in good enough practice Now at the beginning of my journey absolutely not. I wouldn't have done anything and I would have probably went six months with. It would have been terrible when I got to the end of that six months and had to pick things back up right and figure out now. Now I'm so far lost that I don't even know where to start over. I didn't have to start over and that's the place where I want you to get to. So that's another kind of definition of the middle ground that I want to talk about.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so, moving on from that little dose of reality I want to talk about, like, how to know if you're in a good maintenance zone is what I want to talk about next, because I would love for you to be in a good maintenance zone through this summer and then either continue that maintenance zone into fall and winter or you can put yourself into a build Either way. But if your progress only feels valid when the scale drops, that's not a fitness problem, that's a mindset problem. So, maintenance, calories, body recomp you're going to have to stop feeling validated by the scale dropping. That's a mindset problem and that is something that comes with time. So don't beat yourself up if you're not there, but it is something that you will have to say to yourself, and I had to do this with myself.

Speaker 2:

I was talking to on a client call this morning and I told her I remember if you're going to put on more muscle onto your body, the scale is going to go up. You can't put on muscle and have it not weigh anything right, like it's smaller than fat, but if I'm going to keep the body that I have right now and add muscle, the scale is going to go up, sinking in and thinking, okay, that's what I want for my body is more muscle because I want to look more. Quote unquote toned, which is that stinking word. It just means more muscle. I want to look strong, I want to look badass, I want to be able to lift heavier. I need more muscle on my body. But when the scale goes up, I think, is that what I really want? I'd get on the scale and be like I've never seen that number before. That used to mean I'm overweight or that used to mean bad, now we need to starve myself. That's a mindset problem. That is a 100% a mindset problem. So we have got to stop that to be able to get into a good maintenance zone and a good body recomp phase. Otherwise, if you don't drop that mentality, this is never going to work. Never going to work.

Speaker 2:

I've worked with a lot of one-on-one clients that just are like I can't handle the scale moving up right now and or not moving at all and it's just not time for them. And I know I was there before too. But how to know if you're in a good maintenance zone? You're not hungry or stuffed, you're just satisfied If you feel just satisfied most of the time. That's a great thing. Imagine just feeling satisfied. That's amazing, that's great, right? You don't have to feel hungry and you don't have to feel stuffed. You can just feel like good. That's a really good thing. Hard to come by, but a really good thing.

Speaker 2:

If your workouts feel strong and not draining, that means you're in a good maintenance zone. If your recovery is solid and you're not so sore after every sink and workout, that's a good maintenance phase. If your energy is consistent, if your clothes are fitting better, even if the weight hasn't changed that happens so many times my clients are like my clothes are fitting better, but the scale hasn't moved. Yep, this is maintenance. Welcome to body recomp. This is amazing, and if you start to feel good in your body, that's a good maintenance zone. That means you've made it Okay.

Speaker 2:

So those are really the points that I want to talk about. That's a good summary, because I really wanted to drill home that middle ground, because a lot of us are going to be there right now this summer. It's just a middle ground, whether you, like I said, are sick, whether you have planned to be in a maintenance, whether you plan to be in a cut sometime and then life kind of says, nope, not going to happen. That happened to me earlier this year when I went to put myself into a cut phase and then I think Easter was coming and I'm like I'm not going into a cut when it's Cadbury egg season who are we kidding? So I waited and then I think I got a little bit sick again. After that, I think I started another cut and then I got sick and I thought I can't do this either, so I'm going to have to just stay at maintenance longer than I want to.

Speaker 2:

So I kept thinking to myself and I kept actually saying to myself you're probably not going to look that good this summer. You're probably not going to like your body this summer as much as you've liked it in the past. You're not going to be as lean, you're going to look more strong. It's okay. But I had to kind of psych myself up Like you're not going to look as lean, you didn't start your cut in time, and that's okay, and that's again. Is that mindset problem? I could have went. Oh my God, it's going to be the worst summer ever. I'm going to have to go buy a different bathing suit and cover up and, geez, I'm going to look like crap and everybody's going to start my cut later and I might, yeah, look a little stronger this summer. I might look a little thicker, I might not look like I did last year in my bathing suit. It's fine, who cares? Who cares it's my body, it's my journey, it's my health right, and I was totally fine with that. But my body did eventually respond and we're doing pretty well and I'm very, very thankful for that too. But I was very, very ready for my body to not move and to not respond, and that would have been okay too.

Speaker 2:

So I need you to remember that when you are in a middle ground because you will be and you should be in a middle ground, whether it's you should purposely plan in some middle ground moments, some maintenance phases for yourself, because they're very, very helpful and very necessary. Your body is very, very happy there. It doesn't have to work very hard, and that's the whole point. That's the whole point. Going off of last week's episode about I almost forgot this was the whole point that's the whole point is for your body to be healthy, happy, working properly. Right, we want our body to function properly. That's the whole freaking point of a health journey. So maintenance in that way is really, really great, but there are some times that it's going to really be hard.

Speaker 2:

Some things that I want to remind you, too, about a maintenance phase is you do still need to fuel your body. You do still need to keep your movement up, because if you're going to keep your calories a little bit higher, then your movement does need to be higher as well, and that's great. So focus on power. Think about your food as fuel, of course, and keep it where it needs to be. Keep your maintenance calories where they are for you, where you're at a maintainable pace, right.

Speaker 2:

And if you have to cut back on your physical activity, if you have to cut down a workout. Right now, I'm doing four workouts a week and I'm having my clients in Fit Club do four workouts a week. There's an optional fifth and there's, like I said, cardio and sprints and all the things. But typically, fit Club is set up for five workouts a week. I set it up for four and I just said if you want to do an extra fifth workout, that's fine, but I encourage you to just do the four lifting workouts and then to do the additional sprints. I think that that is great and it's plenty, and it will change your body as well, and I think it's been.

Speaker 2:

It's gone over really, really well. I know a lot of clients messaged me and said I'm really nervous about doing four. I want to still do five what do you think? And I'm like there is a fifth. But I want to encourage you to show yourself that you can do four and you can add in some sprints. You can do things differently and that's where that power piece comes in.

Speaker 2:

Think about it as it's different. We're in maintenance now. What can I do to experiment? What can I try? Can I try jogging? Can I try sprinting? Can I try some HIIT workouts? Can I try just some high knees and butt kicks and do that for my HIIT? It doesn't need to be fancy, it doesn't need to be overthought. Can I go for some? Can I go rollerblading? Can I go for bike rides? Right, like, throw some other things in there. Become powerful.

Speaker 2:

Think about explosive activities. Think about extending the life of your body, not just building muscle. We'll get back to that in the fall. We'll get back to that in the winter, when it's more structured and you have more time and it's more dedicated time and you can't be outside as much or whatever. Right, but right now, use it as a body recomp.

Speaker 2:

Really, really think about body composition and body recomposition for yourself. Really, really think about maintenance, calories and how fucking amazing it is to treat your body well. Think about how amazing it is to experiment with your body. In years past I would have not cared if I could sprint or anything like that, but I'm really encouraging, obviously myself to do that. I know there's a lot of benefits to sprinting, which I talked about in a past episode as well. A lot of benefits to sprinting as far as you know, getting rid of visceral fat and just a lot of hormonal changes going on in you know, ladies, my age paramenopause and menopause and those types of things Like changing it up and trying to become powerful and just trying to see what your body can do is so important for mixing it up and not only mixing it up for yourself mentally, but physically too for your body to see some changes. So look at maintenance phase as a welcomed middle ground.

Speaker 2:

Maybe if you're in a maintenance phase kind of accidentally, and you're like I didn't see this life event happening, but here we are, I'm going to just maintain my body right now and that's powerful. It is so powerful to be able to maintain your body, because what's the point of building muscle if you're just going to lose it? What's the point of losing fat if you're just going to gain it back? The real work and the like. You are a freaking badass because you have maintained your body for years that's what I hear all the time is like Christy, your body looks pretty much the same as it has as it did five years ago. Yeah, I know, and I work my ass off to look the freaking same. Currently I'm actually sitting a little bit higher muscle mass. But I've been really good with my creatine. I've been really good with my lifts. I've been really good with my sprinting. I've been really focused on what I can do and I figured out my body right now, which means it'll probably change in like three months, because every time I figure it out I have to freaking pivot. But yeah, it's just. It's really amazing to be able to say, okay, this is happening, but I can still control how I feel and the work that I put in. I can still control where my energy goes. I can still control how heavy I lift or how many reps I can do or how many days I show up. Like it's still in your control and I think that's really, really powerful. So those are my thoughts on body recomp right now and maintenance and this middle ground that a lot of people don't talk about. It doesn't always have to be cut surplus deficit, surplus build cut. There's a sweet middle ground that I think we are missing and it's not talked about a lot, so it's about time we freaking talk about it.

Speaker 2:

So thank you for listening to today's episode. I really really appreciate it. You guys. I'm really excited for things that are coming to Unfuck your Fitness, whether it be just the brand or the podcast, and I'm really really appreciative of each and every one of you who listen. Please go rate and review the podcast on Apple, and please go rate and leave me a comment on Spotify. I'm loving that comment feature and share the podcast with as many people as you possibly can. I just love it when someone finds the show and they're like I'm binging it and I'm learning so much. I think that just means the world to me. But yeah, I really appreciate all of that and it means the world to me. Every comment that I get, every share that I get, every review that I get. It really really helps the show and this is my pride and joy and I love talking to you every week twice a week now. So thanks for listening and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo Fit. I will see you next time. Bye.