What are y'all's maintenance calories on cycle

[Deadpool99]

I’m on 720mg test e/600 mast e/600 tren a/8ius HGH.
Age: 21, 5 foot 11, 200lbs around 15% bf and activity level to 4-5 times per week.

My maintenance has been 3890 calories.

I wanted to open a thread to ask what were your guy’s maintenance calories on your peak cycle or whatever cycle you calculated.

I’m very curious how much you guys manage to eat to maintain weight on your cycles. I felt like I was slowly recomping at 3890 calories, it was my first time using tren so it makes sense that my weight could have been stable while I lose fat. For reference my metabolism is pretty average, TDEE calculators put me at 2850 calories TDEE naturally and was accurate. So I managed to eat 1000 calories more easily, I have a feeling It could have been higher so I wanted to here your guy’s numbers.

 

[Oldhand]

I am twice your age, but I am 5’ 10” and about 200lbs… body fat is hard to gauge but around 12% is my guess. I am methodical about diet and training so I am pretty certain I have calories dialed in. I’ll explain below.

My maintenance calories are 2600. I ate this for nearly 2 years in a row. Almost every morning I was 194-196 lbs. During this time period my cycles were test/primo (winter/spring), test/eq (fall/winter), and test/tren/mast (spring/summer). So note there are no “wet” compounds here.

This August I upped it to 3000 and I have slowly been putting on weight. In the morning, I weigh about 197-199. It is important to mention I am on NPP currently which is not a “dry” compound.

There have been no adjustments in my physical activity/cardio/work life. The weight change this past month pretty much proves 2600 cals is a good maintenance number for me.

 

[RockyP]

I have not done a high dose mass phase in 15 years and prob won’t again at my age. When I do back out of this cut I just plan to add NPP 150 mg weekly to what I’m taking (and eat closer to 4000 cals). Currently cutting on 3000 cals daily (that’s the goal, but with Tirz it’s been closer to 2600). I’m about 240 lbs losing 2 lbs a week For the past 2 months. Maintenance without cardio is around is around 3700. Regimen is test 225 / primo 225 / 4 iu GH and 7.5 mg Tirz.

 

[Deadpool99]

I am twice your age, but I am 5’ 10” and about 200lbs… body fat is hard to gauge but around 12% is my guess. I am methodical about diet and training so I am pretty certain I have calories dialed in. I’ll explain below.

My maintenance calories are 2600. I ate this for nearly 2 years in a row. Almost every morning I was 194-196 lbs. During this time period my cycles were test/primo (winter/spring), test/eq (fall/winter), and test/tren/mast (spring/summer). So note there are no “wet” compounds here.

This August I upped it to 3000 and I have slowly been putting on weight. In the morning, I weigh about 197-199. It is important to mention I am on NPP currently which is not a “dry” compound.

There have been no adjustments in my physical activity/cardio/work life. The weight change this past month pretty much proves 2600 cals is a good maintenance number for me.

Wouldn’t you adjust your calories depending on your compounds, as they can increase your tdee, for example when your tren, ofc idk the doses but tren usually allows you to eat more while maintaining weight.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I’m on 720mg test e/600 mast e/600 tren a/8ius HGH.
Age: 21, 5 foot 11, 200lbs around 15% bf and activity level to 4-5 times per week.

My maintenance has been 3890 calories.

I wanted to open a thread to ask what were your guy’s maintenance calories on your peak cycle or whatever cycle you calculated.

I’m very curious how much you guys manage to eat to maintain weight on your cycles. I felt like I was slowly recomping at 3890 calories, it was my first time using tren so it makes sense that my weight could have been stable while I lose fat. For reference my metabolism is pretty average, TDEE calculators put me at 2850 calories TDEE naturally and was accurate. So I managed to eat 1000 calories more easily, I have a feeling It could have been higher so I wanted to here your guy’s numbers.

Jesus.... You are on alot of shit and you aren't that big...

This is a weird basic question to ask for someone running an advanced cycle

You adjust to goals and rate of growth

 

[Deadpool99]

Jesus.... You are on alot of shit and you aren't that big...

This is a weird basic question to ask for someone running an advanced cycle

You adjust to goals and rate of growth

Well my goal is not as common as I think it is in this forum. It’s only my third cycle, spent half the cycle cutting as I realized my bf is way worse than I thought, my excess skin made it hard to gauge.

My goal is to recomp then build as much muscle on maintenance calories. The reason I go high doses is because I tolerate well, blood markers are healthy, my cardiac MRI are also good.

I plan on running a last big blast to see how much I can build, my last lever which I can use to accelerate muscle gain is insulin, so that’ll be interesting.

For reference my starting point was 156lbs at 16% bf, I did a big water fast which made me drop from 286lbs down to 156lbs, however my bf was high as the way I did made me lose significant muscle.

I have spent 3 years deep diving into research and literature on bodybuilding and diet, so I’m confident about my TDEE, but I was always curious what others ate, as i see ppl online claiming to eat calories which seem ridiculous to me.

 

[Deadpool99]

Well my goal is not as common as I think it is in this forum. It’s only my third cycle, spent half the cycle cutting as I realized my bf is way worse than I thought, my excess skin made it hard to gauge.

My goal is to recomp then build as much muscle on maintenance calories. The reason I go high doses is because I tolerate well, blood markers are healthy, my cardiac MRI are also good.

I plan on running a last big blast to see how much I can build, my last lever which I can use to accelerate muscle gain is insulin, so that’ll be interesting.

For reference my starting point was 156lbs at 16% bf, I did a big water fast which made me drop from 286lbs down to 156lbs, however my bf was high as the way I did made me lose significant muscle.

I have spent 3 years deep diving into research and literature on bodybuilding and diet, so I’m confident about my TDEE, but I was always curious what others ate, as i see ppl online claiming to eat calories which seem ridiculous to me.

My dream was achieving 10% bf, after my 6-9 aggressive cut (bridge between my blasts) I should be 10% or below hopefully. My genetic fat storage and excess skin make it a nightmare, I store all my fat in my abdomen and some in my face, none in my back/glute/thigh/back. Which makes my belly looks shitty while my legs look like an IFBB pro (not a joke). After the cut, I am very interested in seeing how much I can continue to gain. I think eventually I’ll bulk but not now, not ready to gain fat again intentionally.

The interesting part is all the muscle I’ve gained has probably been around a slight deficit. My physique difference is day and night, ofc 600mg of tren helps, I’d like to see how much I can seriously gain before I plateau.

Sorry if I yapped a bit too much

 

[Bandern]

Running maintenance calories on cycle seems like a waste of drugs to me.

I gain about a pound a week on 4200ish calories which would put my maintenance at roughly 3700. But I’ve had to bump food up several times since the beginning of my growth phase.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

3rd cycle at your height/weight/bf%?

cut the gear in half dude

 

[Oldhand]

Wouldn’t you adjust your calories depending on your compounds, as they can increase your tdee, for example when your tren, ofc idk the doses but tren usually allows you to eat more while maintaining weight.

Really it depends on your goals. Tren is probably the most versatile compound of them all. It can be taken for bulking, cutting, or recomp. Some people like to take low doses for feed efficiency too.

 

[Deadpool99]

3rd cycle at your height/weight/bf%?

cut the gear in half dude

If i cut my does in half, at some point, doesn't AR saturation + nutrient limits reach a plateau.
With 300–400 mg test and no insulin/GH, muscle gain at maintenance slows to almost nothing once you’re past your “newbie enhanced gains.”
If my blood markers are goods, and MRI is clean and for my dumbass goal of gaining on maintenance, isn't higher does somewhat justified.

after my last blast, I'm going on a 20 week TRT cruise, to reset my body and give it a well deserved rest.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

If i cut my does in half, at some point, doesn't AR saturation + nutrient limits reach a plateau.
With 300–400 mg test and no insulin/GH, muscle gain at maintenance slows to almost nothing once you’re past your “newbie enhanced gains.”
If my blood markers are goods, and MRI is clean and for my dumbass goal of gaining on maintenance, isn't higher does somewhat justified.

after my last blast, I'm going on a 20 week TRT cruise, to reset my body and give it a well deserved rest.

you are overthinking this stuff. you are on a heavy dose of drugs and on the smaller side of needing this. I love science but it becomes counter productive.


Instead of focusing on the tiny details of gear.
Pick gear that causes least amount of sides to your personal and professional life.

Inject AAS, eat well, STFU, and lift

 

[Deadpool99]

you are overthinking this stuff. you are on a heavy dose of drugs and on the smaller side of needing this. I love science but it becomes counter productive.


Instead of focusing on the tiny details of gear.
Pick gear that causes least amount of sides to your personal and professional life.

Inject AAS, eat well, STFU, and lift

That's the only reason I take these doses tbh, my plan was 150mg tren but then i got no sides, then upped it slowly to 600mg and had only 2 mild side effect (night sweats and appetite suppression but very manageable and still sleep 9 hours and hit my macros). I get no acne, BP, CBC issues, no water retention. In terms of day to day, if I drop to a TRT dose I will feel 0 difference tbh. Kidneys are better than bassline, ldl is literally below reference. I thank my supplementation for the improvements in blood markers and my body for perfectly tolerating it.

I have a red line where if my cholesterol ratio is fucked, kidney gets worse, or I get very bad CBC issues, I stop the cycle immediately. Or if my Cardiac MRI is off.

 

[malfeasance]

So . . . which is it? 15% or 10%

Or 10% with a fat belly and the legs of an IFBB Pro at only 200 pounds at almost 6 feet tall

and dropping almost 100 pounds from a water fast

and coming in with maintenance calories and cutting half the cycle and . . .

dude, you are all over the map. Take a breath.

To address the initial issue, maintenance calories are the calories on which you are neither gaining nor losing weight. If you go two to three weeks on the same calories every day, carefully tracked, and your scale weight does not budge, then congratulations, you have found your maintenance calories.

If the scale goes up, then you are above your maintenance calories.

If the scale goes down, then you are below your maintenance calories.

It really is that simple.

All of the I added tren and I "feel" like I am recomping stuff really does not matter. The weight on the scale and the calories that are laboriously and diligently tracked are all that matter.

 

[malfeasance]

Also, my answer to the headline question does not matter, at least not to you. Yours and mine are not related at all.

Mine does not even stay the same, nor will yours.

My maintenance calories at the beginning of prep are nowhere near the same as they are 15 weeks later.

Having others chime in, even if their guesstimate is accurate at the time, for themselves, in their current condition, really provides useless information for you.

 

[Deadpool99]

So . . . which is it? 15% or 10%

Or 10% with a fat belly and the legs of an IFBB Pro at only 200 pounds at almost 6 feet tall

and dropping almost 100 pounds from a water fast

and coming in with maintenance calories and cutting half the cycle and . . .

dude, you are all over the map. Take a breath.

To address the initial issue, maintenance calories are the calories on which you are neither gaining nor losing weight. If you go two to three weeks on the same calories every day, carefully tracked, and your scale weight does not budge, then congratulations, you have found your maintenance calories.

If the scale goes up, then you are above your maintenance calories.

If the scale goes down, then you are below your maintenance calories.

It really is that simple.

All of the I added tren and I "feel" like I am recomping stuff really does not matter. The weight on the scale and the calories that are laboriously and diligently tracked are all that matter.

- Maintenance was assuming I'm at 13-15 bf% ( I believe I'm closer to 13), but plan is to be 10% or below after my cut.
- Never said I was 10% with a belly, just said that I store alot there , and my lower body is very lean even at 13-15% bf.
- I am not trying to figure out maintenance, I know it but am curious how much ppl can stomach.
- the water fast was 2 years ago, this all didn't happen in day and night, there were phases as I slowly gained muscle.
- the cutting in half was advice from a member not my plan. I have laid out my cycle from week 1 to week 74 diligently.
- Yes my macros are tracked religiously and hit everyday. I spent weeks perfecting it

I also want to apologize for typing alot, I guess it gets kinda confusing. I just have never discussed my cycle/muscle building journey with anyone as I don't have anyone in my life who has similar goals. Thus no one can rly understand or have valuable input. Just moved to the US and joined this forum a few months ago.

 

[Deadpool99]

Also, my answer to the headline question does not matter, at least not to you. Yours and mine are not related at all.

Mine does not even stay the same, nor will yours.

My maintenance calories at the beginning of prep are nowhere near the same as they are 15 weeks later.

Having others chime in, even if their guesstimate is accurate at the time, for themselves, in their current condition, really provides useless information for you.

I wasn't rly asking people for the sake of hopefully applying their knowledge to me, mainly was curious. I spent alot of time studying and testing caloric intake so I am very curious how ppl eat. As it varies alot and I find that interesting. I would never apply someone's intake to myself.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

i also wanted to make my comments to not condone this type of drug behavior among other users, for the sake of harm reduction.


Do what you want.

I just don't think its necessary and if you cant grow on half of this gear at your size then there is a bigger problem.

 

[Deadpool99]

i also wanted to make my comments to not condone this type of drug behavior among other users, for the sake of harm reduction.

I also agree on that note.
We pivoted into gear doses, but I am still interested in seeing other ppl's maintenance calories.

 

[dinfar1337]

i think you're an idiot who have used a online calculator

and not looking at your weekly changes in weight if you think you have such thing as a maintenace.

just from whether you're cutting or bulking you'll burn a vastly different number of calories. theres alot of things influencing this and ive never truly been burning just 2600 or 5000 calories, even if it was just for 4 weeks.

sadly the gay ass body wants to achieve some homostasis which have a strong effect on me unless i want to starve and lose all my muscle mass.

so i've found best results cycling calories by dropping calories by 10% or upping by 5% every 2 weeks > into a refeed every 6 weeks. on cuts i do this refeed anywhere from 3000 calories

and on bulk my refeed is at 4000 calories with real bulk somewhere between 4500-5000 calories

this is just last cut/bulk numbers its always changing...