Why can't you be in a calorie deficit for months on end?

The goal of a calorie deficit is, yes, to lose fat and reveal the muscle you've been creating during your lifts while in maintenance. But often times people have this misconception that you can enter a calorie deficit, be in a deficit for 16 weeks, and magically reach your dream body.

What most people don't realize is that being in a calorie deficit puts your body in a state of stress. It elevates your cortisol levels. It can lower your libido. It makes you hungry, and it decreases your energy levels because you're quite literally in an energy deficit. All of this makes it exceedingly difficult to adhere to a calorie deficit for an extended period of time.

Although it's not ideal, and it's not the fast track to success it's often most beneficial to return to your maintenance calories once you start to notice increase in stress, decrease in energy, poor recovery, lower libido, and/or poor sleep. This will allow your body the break in needs to return to baseline and get your energy levels back in check. Returning to maintenance also helps to protect your hormones that can be thrown off during an extended calorie deficit.

It's important to remember that this is a journey. It's a marathon, not a race. This often requires going through calorie deficits that are appropriate in length, returning to maintenance for a sufficient amount of time, and only then, going through another calorie deficit to continue chipping away at your desired fat loss.