3 Reasons Why Your Maintenance Phase Isn’t a Failure—It’s a Strategy

 

Hey hey, beautiful human! Today we’re tackling a topic that’s been so misunderstood in the fitness space: maintenance phases.

If you’ve ever felt like eating at maintenance meant you were falling behind, losing progress, or just “holding still”… this episode is going to change everything.

Because maintenance? It’s not a pause—it’s a strategy. And it’s one of the most powerful tools for your long-term success.

What I discuss:

  • What a maintenance phase really is—and why it’s not “doing nothing”

  • How eating at maintenance restores your metabolism, hormones, and energy

  • Why maintenance phases are essential for muscle building, performance, and recovery

  • The mindset shift that helped me finally break out of the “always be cutting” trap

So if you’re tired of chasing results that don’t stick… or feeling like rest equals failure… I promise this episode is going to feel like a deep exhale.

If you loved this episode, you’ll also love Episode 313: 8 Reasons Why Macro Counting Isn’t a Fad Diet. I’ll link it in the show notes for you to easily go listen to next.
👉 https://www.juliealedbetter.com/embrace-your-real/8-reasons-why-macro-counting-isnt-a-fad-diet

If you want more from me, be sure to check out...

Transcript

00:00

Hey there, beautiful human, you're listening to Embrace your Real with me, julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace your real, let's get it. Let's go. Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace your Real podcast.

00:32

You are with me, julie Ledbetter, and today we are having a super important conversation, one that, honestly, I wish I heard way earlier in my fitness journey. Let me ask you this have you ever felt like your maintenance phase was a failure, like it meant you were taking a step backwards or you're wasting time or you're losing progress? If so, you are not alone. In today's fitness culture, especially on social media, there is so much focus on cutting, being in a fat loss phase, constantly chasing that visible change. It's no wonder that so many of us feel like if we're not actively losing fat, we're doing something wrong. But here's what I want to say loud and clear your maintenance phase is not a failure, it is not a step backwards, it is not wasted time. In fact, maintenance is actually a strategy, and a powerful one at that, one that supports long-term results, helps your body thrive and protects your mindset along the way. So in today's episode of Embrace your Real, we're gonna be breaking all of this down. Here's what we're gonna be diving into what a true maintenance phase actually looks like, why it's so important for both your body and your mind, how it helps you make more progress in the long run, the science behind maintenance explained in a very simple, easy to understand way, and also why taking intentional maintenance phases is one of the best things that you can do to support your metabolism, your muscle growth, your hormone, your relationship with food and your mindset. If you've ever felt guilty about taking a break from fat loss or worried that eating at maintenance will undo all of your progress, this episode is going to be an absolute game changer for you.

02:01

But before we dive in, I want to share this review. It comes from Bailey Granger. She gave a five-star review and said favorite podcast ever. The Holy Spirit speaks directly to my heart through Julie. Whether I receive the understanding in the moment I hear it or days later, I always get something. Thank you, julie, for the practical advice and help in learning how to become self-disciplined. You have challenged me to discipline myself both physically, spiritually and mentally. I thank you again. Thank you so much, bailey. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day also to send in that review. I absolutely love this. All right, let's dive into today's episode.

02:35

Okay, first, let's call out the mindset that so many of us have been taught this idea that if you're not cutting or actively trying to lose fat, then you're somehow not making progress. This could not be further from the truth. A true fitness journey is not meant to be one endless fat loss phase. Your body is not designed to stay in a caloric deficit forever. In fact, doing so can actually backfire. It can slow your metabolism, increase stress in your body, disrupt your hormones and make it harder to build muscle. And here's something that I really want you to hear Maintenance is not just holding still.

03:10

Maintenance is a phase where your body is still adapting, it's still repairing and it's definitely thriving. It is where so many positive changes can happen, even if they aren't as flashy as you might see in a cut. Let's kind of break this down a little bit more. I'm gonna be walking you through three reasons why maintenance might just be the most powerful phase of all. Number one maintenance restores your body and sets you up for long-term results. So when you are in a fat loss phase or a caloric deficit, you are intentionally underfeeding your body to create fat loss. You're eating fewer calories than your body actually burns, which forces your body to tap into stored. And yes, this can be a really valuable tool when used intentionally, with plan and for the right length of time. But it's also really important to understand that being in a deficit is a form of stress on the body, and here's why, when you create an energy gap, meaning that you're asking your body to do more with less, several things actually happen inside your body. Your body starts to adapt to that lower energy availability, so your metabolism may start to slow slightly because your body is trying to conserve energy.

04:17

Your hormones can shift, especially hormones related to hunger or fullness stress. Reproductive health, for example, like hormones like leptin, which helps to regulate hunger and energy balance, typically decrease in a deficit, and ghrelin, which stimulates the appetite, tends to increase. Thyroid hormones, which help to regulate metabolism, can also downshift when your body senses low energy availability and because you have less fuel coming in, your recovery capacity is also affected, so you might notice more fatigue, slower recovery between workouts, disrupted sleep all of those signs that your body is working hard to balance energy demands. And now, this doesn't mean a fat loss phase is bad, it's not. It's just that it's a tool, and tools need to be used correctly. It's not something that your body is meant to sustain forever, and that's why maintenance phases are so important.

05:10

When you return to maintenance meaning that you're giving your body enough calories to match what you're burning it allows your body to restore balance. Your metabolism can upregulate again, so hormones can stabilize, recovery improves, energy levels come back, muscle building actually becomes much more efficient again. So, in other words, maintenance gives your body a chance to reset and thrive, so that when you do choose to enter another fat loss phase down the road, your body is actually primed and ready to respond. So when you eat at maintenance meaning that you're fueling your body with enough calories to support your daily movement, your workouts, your life, but you're not intentionally trying to lose fat your body shifts from a state of stress and breakdown into a state of repair and rebuilding. You're giving your body permission to stop focusing on survival and start focusing on thriving.

05:58

One of the biggest shifts. That happens is at a cellular level, though. Your cells have these little powerhouses called mitochondria, and those are responsible for producing the energy that your body needs to function. When you are under fueled, your mitochondrial function can actually slow down, but when you're eating enough, mitochondrial efficiency improves. That means more energy for everything your workouts, your brain, your recovery, all of it. Number two maintenance boosts your training, recovery and performance, so maintenance also allows your muscles to refill their glycogen stores. Glycogen is the stored form of carbohydrate in your muscles and your liver, and it's also the primary fuel source your body taps into during intense workouts. So when you're chronically dieting or you're under eating, glycogen stores can stay low, leading to fatigue, poor performance and slower recovery. Eating at maintenance, however, helps top off these glycogen stores so that you have fuel that you need to train harder and recover faster. Another really important thing that happens during the maintenance phase is that your body becomes more responsive to training. So when you're adequately fueled, your muscles can recover and adapt more efficiently to the stimulus of your workouts, and this is called training adaptation, and it's how you actually get stronger, build muscle and improve endurance over time.

07:17

Without enough calories coming in, your body has to prioritize, and often it will prioritize survival over adaptation. But at maintenance it can fully support these adaptations, and it's not just about your physical health that benefits your brain and your nervous system do as well. So eating enough supports better neurotransmitter function, meaning things like serotonin and dopamine. Those play a huge role in your mood, your motivation, your focus and even how well that you sleep. This is why so many people report feeling more energized, more positive and more mentally clear when they move into a maintenance phase. Your body and your brain finally have the resources that they need to run optimally, not just barely get by. This is exactly why I teach how to move through different seasons inside my Macro Academy and Simple Online Academy not just fat loss phases, but intentional maintenance phases as well, because true long-term success isn't just about being in a deficit forever. It's about allowing your body to thrive in every season. And it's also why, inside my Movement with Julie community, the app is structured to support you no matter what phase you're in. So whether you're cutting, you're maintaining, you're building muscle, because training shouldn't stop when fat loss stops. It should just adjust and grow through every phase and journey that you are in.

08:23

Number three, maintenance heals your mindset and helps your results stick. So let's talk about the mindset side of maintenance. This is just as important as the physical side, in my opinion. In fact, for a lot of us it's actually the harder part. One of the biggest mindset shifts that I personally had to make in my own journey was learning to see maintenance as progress, because for years I truly thought that if I was not in a deficit, if I was not actively trying to lose fat, then I was not working hard enough. I thought progress meant constantly pushing, constantly seeing the scale go down, constantly chasing the next visible result. And that belief led me into some really unhealthy patterns. I was constantly in this under eating, burning out, stalling my progress and feeling so much guilt and frustration around food and my body. But when I finally learned to embrace intentional maintenance phases and when I finally started to understand the science behind why they matter, everything changed for me. My energy improved, I stopped feeling exhausted all the time. My relationship with food started to heal because I was no longer trapped in that restrict, then binge cycle. I could actually enjoy meals without guilt. My workouts got stronger because I was finally feeling my body to perform, not just to shrink. And here's what surprised me the most my body composition actually improved. I built more muscle, I looked more toned and I felt better in my skin, all because I was finally giving my body what it needed to grow and thrive.

09:44

And this is what I talk about also inside my Macro Academy and Simple Online Academy, because maintenance is where your body learns to maintain your results, and here's kind of a little science behind that. So your body is constantly seeking balance. This is called homeostasis. It adapts to whatever you do consistently. So if you lose fat but you never spend time at maintenance, your body does not get the opportunity to stabilize at the new set point. Instead, it stays in the state of stress, trying to defend against further loss, and this oftentimes leads to rebounds, fat gain and slower metabolism.

10:17

Maintenance phases give your body the space to adapt and stabilize. You are essentially teaching your body and your to adapt and stabilize. You are essentially teaching your body and your brain that this new level of fitness, this new body composition, this new way of fueling and moving is safe, sustainable and normal. And when you do that and then choose to enter another fat loss phase or another muscle building phase later on, your body is ready to respond, because you're not working from a place of depletion, you're not stuck in survival mode. You are starting from a strong, balanced, resilient foundation and this is what sets you up for long-term success, not results that come and go with every new diet phase. So if you've struggled with the mindset, if maintenance has felt scary or lazy or you felt like you're giving up, I just want you, I want to encourage you to reframe it. Maintenance, again, is a powerful phase. It is where your body recovers, where your mindset heals and where you actually get to build the foundation for your next level of progress.

11:11

Let's get into how a maintenance phase like how long it, should actually last, because this is another question that I get all the time and there's no one size fits all answer here, but a simple guideline After any intentional fat loss phase, try at least one to 1.5 times the length of that phase at maintenance. So if you were in a deficit, let's say for 12 weeks, aim for at least a 12 to 18 weeks at maintenance. Why? Because it takes time for your metabolism, your hormones and your nervous system to fully recover from the demands of fat loss. And again, if you are at a fat loss phase. I do not recommend you go straight from your fat loss macros into a maintenance macros. This is why I teach you the different phases. You're going to want to go into a reverse diet and reverse diet slowly into maintenance. So again, it's all about how you do it, and the longer and more consistent your maintenance phase, the more stable and resilient your body will become for whatever comes next.

12:07

Another really important reason to spend good, intentional time at maintenance is to reduce the risk of what's called fat overshooting. So this happens when someone comes out of a fat loss phase too quickly without giving their body or their habits enough time to stabilize. And again, this is what I encourage you and why I encourage you to go through a proper reverse diet after a fat loss phase so that you can slowly go back to that maintenance phase. But spending time at maintenance helps your body to reestablish a healthy set point and restore balance. It also gives you time to stabilize those habits things like consistent movement, balanced nutrition, mindful eating and this is where you teach your body and your brain that this new level of fitness, this new way of fueling and moving, is a new normal. And that's when those habits start to feel automatic and sustainable, and that's when long-term results actually stick. So for me personally, some of my biggest muscle gains, some of my best physique changes, that actually has happened at my maintenance or even muscle building phases, because when my body is fueled well, it responds so much better to my training.

13:13

So if you are in a maintenance phase right now, or if you want to take one, I just want to encourage you to reframe it as a strategy. This is not you being lazy, this is not you stalling. This is you being smart. This is you protecting your long-term results and this is you building a healthier, more resilient body that can thrive through every season. And if you've been stuck in this, always be cutting mindset. I want to lovingly challenge you what would happen if you gave yourself permission to maintain, to nourish, to thrive. I can tell you just speaking from my own personal experience and from seeing thousands of women go through this process as well.

13:49

Maintenance is oftentimes where real magic happens. It's where your mindset heals, it's where your metabolism recovers, it's where your relationship with food improves. It's where you learn how to actually enjoy the life that you've worked so hard to build without feeling stuck in diet mode forever. And, most importantly, trust your body, give it what it needs. Embrace the season that you're in, because you are doing amazing things, and maintenance is one of the very best things that you can do to support your long-term health. Stay consistent, trust the process and embrace your real All right. There you have it, the top reasons why maintenance phase is not a failure but a powerful strategy for long-term success.

14:25

Now let me quickly recap. Number one maintenance restores your body and gives the space to rebalance hormones, metabolism and recovery so that you can thrive, not just survive. Number two it makes your body more responsive to training by refueling those glycogen stores, improving energy and allowing for better muscle building and adaptation. And last but not least, number three, maintenance helps to solidify your progress and heal your mindset, preventing burnout, fat regain and reinforcing sustainable habits for the long haul. If you're listening to this and you're nodding your head, thinking, okay, julie, this all makes sense, but I have no idea how to actually move between the phases or what I would even eat for maintenance, I've got you. This is again why I teach you how to go through the phases of macro counting inside my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy.

15:12

Whether you're in a fat loss phase, whether you're in a maintenance phase, you're ready to go into a reverse diet after a fat loss phase, into a maintenance phase, or start building more muscle. I've got you Inside. You're going to learn how to calculate your macros for each phase, when and how to transition between fat loss, reverse dieting, maintenance, muscle building, how to spot signs your body needs a break and how to actually make macro counting simple and sustainable for real life yes, even with kids, busy schedules and vacations. So if you're listening to this episode and realizing that you're needing, that, your body's actually needing a maintenance phase, or you've been in one but feel lost or unsure how to navigate it, my Macro Academy and Simple Online Academy is your next step. I've shared it in the show notes that you can easily go check it out, learn more and join today. Let's take the guesswork out of fueling your body, because maintenance isn't a pause, it's a plan.

15:59

And if this episode helped you, would you do me a favor and share it with a friend who might need this reminder as well? If you haven't already left a review, I'd love for you to do that. It really does help so much in getting this message out to more women. And, last but not least, if you love this episode, I know you will also love episode 313, eight reasons why macro counting isn't a fad diet. I will go ahead and link that in the show notes below, but that is all that I have for today's episode.

16:23

I love you so dang much. I mean it. I'll talk to you in the next one. All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.

 
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