Episode 101: Understanding the Maintenance Stage (5 Part Series: Part III)

Part III of V in this series is all about maintenance: what it is and why it’s an absolute MUST to keep our metabolism healthy long term

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Transcript

 | 5 Part Series Part III Maintenance Final Mon, Aug 04, 2025 11:59AM 16:34 
 | 00:00 Welcome back to the becoming mind strong podcast, and we are in the thick of a five part series called What weight loss actually looks like in menopause. If you have not listened to the episodes before this, it's going to be really important, because these build off of each other. In the first episode, you heard me talk about what I call the weight loss cycle, and that is the thing you heard me say in an earlier episode. You know, I pray that 10 years from now, I have to find something new to teach at mind strong, because we started teaching this stuff to women in their 30s. When I say started teaching this stuff to women in their 30s, what I'm referring to is this weight loss cycle. When we understand the weight loss cycle, we understand how to keep our metabolism healthy for the rest of our life, we get to avoid this whole frustration that so many of us experience in menopause, when eat less, move more, stops working. So we started with a conversation about the weight loss cycle. In the last episode, we dug deep into what I call the healing stage. If you are someone who's already eating low calorie and your body's not releasing the weight. We talked about why that's happening, and most importantly, we talked about what the path looks like to start getting your bet your body better at burning calories, which is what I mean when I say healing stage. In this episode, we're going to talk about what's called maintenance. Maintenance simply means we are sitting pretty. We're not here to lose weight. We're not here to gain weight. We're here to get our body to trust us. We want our body to say, This is who I am and what I do now, so that there actually, there's two reasons. Number one, if you're here to lose weight, so that when you get in the deficit, your body responds, because it's it's become accustomed to, this is who I am and what I do. So that deficit is like a little smack in the face that it's time to lose. The other reason for maintenance is, let's say you've hit your goal weight, or you're just someone who's not here to gain weight. Maintenance is the place you're going to just hang out. You're going to be fueled. Your Workouts, if you're someone who works out, is going to be great. Your sleep is going to be better, your health is going to be better. You're just going to be sitting pretty. Maintenance is an Uber, Uber, Uber important part of this weight loss cycle, especially if you're someone who's gone through a healing stage, a deficit, a weight loss stage, which we're about to talk about in the next episode, will not work without enough time and maintenance. So in this episode, we're going to talk about, how high do I have to go, how long do I have to stay there. What does maintenance look like? Check it out. 02:23 I'm going to pick up this conversation about maintenance building off the last episode. So in the last episode, we talked about, let's say you're someone who comes to us, you're eating less calories in your body needs, and we're putting you through a healing stage. We're going to talk about maintenance as if it's the end of a healing stage. And I'm prefacing it with that, because there are other times when you will be in in a maintenance stage, and that's going to make more sense in the next episode when we talk about weight loss. But for the purposes of right 

now, we're going to take ourselves back to the last episode. Okay, you came to us at 1200 calories. Hypothetically, we're working our goal is to raise you 50 calories a week, as long as your body's responding, as long as hunger is good, energy is good, workouts are feeling good. If you're someone who works out. I want to add a little caveat here. I'm only talking in terms of calories when I'm talking about raising 50 calories a week. What we do in the world of mind strong is we break your total calories down into a distribution of carbs, fat, protein. I have a tremendous amount of podcasts in in earlier seasons talking about macronutrients. They're the three nutrients of which our body needs the most. That's why they're called macronutrients, and they're your carbs, fat, protein. I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole with them, but check out those episodes if you're new to Macros. When we talk about weight loss, calories are king. Or in our world, we say calories are queen. And if we want to talk about bone strength, muscle strength, which are incredibly important in menopause, inner health, sleep, body composition, all the stuff we're actually here for, we need to make sure we're not just paying attention to calories, but that we're distributing them in the correct proportions of carb, fat, protein, that's a bit deeper than we're going to get because it's so incredibly individualized to the person. So I just want to put that out there, that right now I'm talking about going through a healing stage, raising 50 calories a week. Within that calorie distribution, there's a distribution of how much of that is going to carbs, fat, protein. Again, it's so Uber personalized. It's not something I could get deep in the weeds about in a podcast, but it's important to note, so you're in a healing stage, we're working to slowly, slowly raise your calories. The million dollar questions, there's two of them, how high do I need to go? How long do I need to stay there? And my running joke, that is not a joke at all, is how high will you let me and how long will you buckle in? And I'm going to explain what I mean by that. Okay, the whole point of raising our calories, as we know by now, is to get our body better, better at burning calories, the whole point of maintenance when we're sitting pretty, when we're just keeping our. 

05:00 

Numbers steady and letting our body sink in is we want our body to trust. It goes back to that word, trust that this is who I am and what I do now, so the higher our calories are. And again, we're raising our calories without gaining weight, or with very, very minimal weight gain, when done correctly, the higher our calories are scientifically, right? Logically, the better our body is at burning calories. If you're eating 1800 calories a day without gaining weight, or if you're eating 2200 calories a day without gaining weight, guess which metabolism is better at burning calories? The higher your calories are, the better your body is at burning at burning them. 

05:40 

Same is true for length of time, right? If you've only been eating at those higher numbers, and I'm going to talk more in specifics about the higher numbers for a while, but if you've only been doing it for a week or two, your body doesn't trust you, right? This, this is a terrible analogy, but like, if you've been with someone for five years and they cheat on you, is a week of good behavior going to make up for that? I don't think so. Like, buckle in. This is going to take some time. So the longer that we'll we're willing to flex our patients muscle and stay at those higher calories. The more our body is saying this is who I am and what I do, the more effective that cut on the other side, the deficit. What we're going to talk about in the next episode, the weight loss age, the more effective it's going to be. So I'm going to talk in specific numbers here. And for a long time, I hesitated to talk in specific numbers, because this is going to sound scary as 

anything. If you're someone who's been under eating for a long time, the numbers I'm about to talk about like I have watched people's jaws drop to the floor because it sounds like Rachel, this is going to take me a decade to do. It's not that how fast you go again. There's a lot of variables that go with that we talked about in the last episode. But yes, it takes time. It is not an A plus B equals C thing, and I'm going to talk more about that. What that means. It's not an airplane taking off where it's a slow, steady path. It gets faster the longer you do it. Okay, when people ask me, How high do I have to go? My answer again, is, How high will you let me? But if, if in gun to my head, if I have to talk in numbers, the lowest I will take someone is 1900 I hate the number 1900 my real answer is 2000 calories. And I recognize that sounds petrifying if you're so. I mean, I have seen women come to us as low as 500 calories a day, so they hear the word 2000 and they're like, deuces. That is never going to happen. I'm out, yes, it's going to be a longer process. But if we, when we baby step your body up to 2000 calories a day and stay there, which is what we're going to talk about next, how long to stay there, we can have peace of mind that your metabolism is a powerhouse at burning calories. It is on absolute fire, and when we get into that deficit, it's going to work. Now, if you've hung out with me, you know I hate blanket statements, so like Rachel, where are you pulling that number 2000 out of? It's not out of thin air. It's based on statistics over 3000 women, almost over a decade in, or almost a decade in this industry, I have seen where women are successful. I've seen where they're not successful, and I'm going to tell you a story about that in a second. And the sweet spot that I have found is most women do well at 1900 

08:15 

nearly all, and I'm going to talk more about that nearly do do the best at 2000 so it's not a number. I'm pulling out of thin air, and it's not a one size fits all. So I want to tell you I like extreme stories, because it doesn't mean you have to go to this extreme, but it shows you what the body's capable of. I'm going to start with a negative one, and then I'll show you a positive one. I had a member once back in the day when I was the only coach for for mind strong. It was a one woman show. I had a member who was a severe under eater. She was eating 1000 calories a day for years and years and years. And we started her through a healing stage. We got as high as 1800 calories. And at 1800 calories, she came to me and said, Rachel, I'm waving the white flag. I do not want any more food. I'm done. And I gave her the whole mountain analogy, right where 75% the way up, probably more than that. Let's set up camp. Let's chill here. I don't want to risk rolling down the mountain at the end of the day. It's your body, your choice. As the expert here, I'm going to tell you my opinion, but we have to do what feels good for your body. And she was like, Absolutely not. I don't want more food. I don't want to hang out here. Get me in a deficit. So we did, and it was awful because, as suspected, her body did not trust her. Yet it had been too long of under eating and needed more food, and it needed to be at maintenance longer. And to this day, like I can feel it viscerally in my body that having to get on a zoom with her and tell her, look like don't shoot the messenger. My job is to relay what your body is saying to us, and your body is saying it wasn't ready for this. And the only option, at that point, again, unless you're going to go on one of these drugs, the only option is to get back into a healing stage. This is why I keep going back to that mountain analogy, if you're feeling like it's too much food, if you're getting frustrated with the healing stage, as most people do, because it can be slow and tedious. I. 

10:00 

Let's set up camp and hang out there. Let's shift our mindset to focus on the wins, right? Our 

energy, our sleep, our inner health, all the things that come with this healing stage. And let's just chill there and keep climbing. Because what's the point in rolling down the mountain and having to start back over? So that's why, when people ask me, I'm like, Look, my minimum is 1900 but if you're at 1900 like, let's just buckle in and go to 2000 even if we have to hang out there a little bit. Now here's the fun part, okay, and here's where I'm going to use the other extreme analogy. And I want to be clear, most women do not want to go this high, but I want to show you what the human body is capable of. I talked about a little while ago that, you know, most people ask the question backwards, like, how do I know what my body's maintenance is? And if you're eating 1200 or 1000 calories a day and not losing weight, that question is backwards. Your body thinks that's maintenance. We're training your body to know what maintenance is, what the human body is capable of, is absolutely mind blowing, as long as you do this capital C correctly, and introduce calories slowly. The sky is the limit. And here's my other extreme example, knowing, again, that most women don't want to do this, but I had a member once again, back when I was one to one coaching, we trained her metabolism to the point where 2500 calories a day was her maintenance. That means that at 2500 calories a day, she wasn't losing or gaining she was sitting pretty. What that meant is when she got quote, unquote, down to 2000 calories, when she got down to 2000 calories a day, she was losing weight at 2000 calories a day. Now, to most people, they're like, that sounds like a part time job in eating. I don't want that. Most people don't in her situation was a little different. She had a partner who is a chef like it made sense for her. But I give that extreme example to show what the human body is is capable of. And in a couple episodes from now, when we go back to this concept of the cycle, I'm going to show you why that's important, that you get to call the shots here. But for the purpose of this conversation, we're climbing up 1900 is the minimum. I would rather see you at 2000 it's rare, but it happens that we have women who are like, holy cow, I feel so good, right? If you're someone who works out, your workouts are going to be absolute fire. Yes, I want to lose the weight, but I feel too good to stop. Let me keep climbing. The higher you go, the better your metabolism is. Second part of this question is, how long do I have to stay there? And my joke, that's not a joke, that's not a joke, is, how long will you let me again? I have my blanket statement answer. I have my preferred answer, and then I have my sky's the limit answer. The minimum, minimum I will ever keep someone at maintenance is three weeks, and I don't actually recommend three weeks. I'd rather you stay there for a month. Behind the scenes, it every week I have a conversation with my coaches, and I'm like, Let's just tell people 2000 for a month. And they're like, you're going to scare people like, give them a choice. So we we give options, but my gun to my head, answer is, minimum a month again, the longer you stay there, the whole point of this is to get our body to believe this is who I am and what I do now. So staying there for a month will be great. If you can buckle in and stay longer. We're just increasing our body's recognition that this is who I am and what I do. We can not skip this maintenance stage. If you go through a healing stage, you get your numbers up and say, That's it. My patience is up. Get me in a deficit. It's not going to work. 99% of the time it is not going to work because, yes, we've put in the work to get our calories higher. But think about it. You're I'll go back to the terrible cheating analogy, right? It's, it's not enough time, it's not enough consistency, it's not enough trust built. We need our body to believe. Yeah, she did spend years and years and years under fueling me. But look at me now. Look at the fuel I'm getting, not only yesterday and the day before and the day before that. But I can trust It's coming again tomorrow. And when your body has that trust, when your metabolism is good at burning calories, now, when we get into that weight loss stage, your body's going to respond the old rules of eat less, move more, go back to working. Last thing I'm going to say, you heard me say before, I hate blanket answers. I came I'm using these numbers. I'm not going to say came up with these numbers. I did not come up with these numbers. I'm using these numbers because it's what I see time and time again. Has it happened before that? We've taken someone to 2000 we've stayed there for a month. We get in a deficit. Their body 

doesn't respond Absolutely. It is very few and far between. Thank everything. If it was all the time we would be changing these numbers, it is very, very rare that it happens. And it happens. Sometimes we take people up, they do their work, they stay in for a month. We get in a deficit. Their body doesn't respond again. At the end of the day, our body is always communicating with us, whether it's what we want to hear or not. In those cases, what that's telling us is their body's not there yet. Maybe they were under eating for a very long time. Maybe there's a tremendous amount of stress in their life, and getting their nutrition in check absolutely helped their cortisol but there's other factors we have to look at. Maybe they're only getting five hours of sleep a night, and they're because of that, their cortisol levels are raised. There's a host of other health issues going on right in those. 

15:00 

Is. It doesn't mean they're broken. It doesn't mean all hope is lost. We're going to nip it in the bud as soon as possible, right? We'll see quickly your body's not losing we'll go back in a healing stage. We'll just give it longer at the end of the day. The beauty of this, the reason you've heard me say it a million times, if I knew 10 approaches to nutrition that worked and were sustainable, I'd teach 10 differentiated learning is real. This is the only approach that I have ever taught, or I ever see myself teaching, because it is human biology. 101, what we are doing is learning your body is flowing with your body, and the beauty of it is the work works. When you do the work, it's not going to be on the time frame any of us want. It can be slow, it can be tedious, but at the end of the day, I'll go back to my billionaire analogy, if I promise you, you're going to be a billionaire sometime in the next six months. Sure, we want it sooner than later, but what we want is that peace of mind, that it's going to work. And this is what healing your metabolism is about. It's biology, 101, it will work when you follow the path. It is not the same path for every person. It is not at all the same timeline for every person, but we can find peace in the fact that it is how the human body is designed. It is how a menopausal body works, and the work works when you do the work. So in the next episode, we're going to talk about what I call the weight loss stage. So we've gone through a healing stage. We've gotten our body better at burning calories. We've gone up to maintenance. We went minimum 1900 ideally 2000 plus. We've stayed there minimum three weeks. But really I hate that three week mark. I'm going to say a month plus, if you can buckle in longer, buckle in longer. Next we're going to talk about what that weight loss looks like. I'll see in the next episode. You.