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Being shredded is where it’s at.

You’ve got sickening definition, your abs pop, and you just can’t keep your eyes off of yourself in the gym mirror with that delicious downlighting – and neither can anyone else.

But then you know what happens…

You soften up, life gets in the way, and that definition you once had turns smooth and before you know it, you’re back to cutting and cursing yourself for slipping up.

What gives?

How do you stay lean year round and be happy with your physique 24/7, 365?

Or even if you’re fresh out your spring cut and looking to maintain that physique for Summer, in this article I will share with you my biggest tips and secrets to maintaining that stunning condition:

1. Diet the right way

The secret on how to stay lean is all in the lead-up.

If you’re dieting hard and being hella restrictive for months before you decide to switch gears and maintain your physique, then odds are high that you’re going to slip, cheat hard, and get lax on your nutrition once it’s over.

This is the #1 mistake I see. Yo-yo diets are a very real phenomenon.

So to avoid this:

1. Take it slow

Ha yeah, just like what you never wanna hear when you’re dating:

Don’t push for fat loss too fast.

This will almost certainly throw off your mental state and cause a rebound even Lebron couldn’t handle.

In Architect of Aesthetics, I told you exactly how fast you should be losing weight per week to stay sane and keep your muscle. I didn’t dish out those guidelines just for the hell of it.

I know you want to hit your goal asap, but fat loss takes time, so think long term and focus on sustainability.

2. Be flexible

Don’t cut out foods and be ridid.

This may be attractive and work well in the short term, but in the long run, you’re going to feel deprived and want to lash out once your cutting phase is over.

Lean on your calories and macros instead, and allow yourself some variability and leeway here and there as long as your requirements are met.

As I’ve said elsewhere:

80-90% of your diet should be clean, wholesome, and varied. The rest can be dirty and whatever you like. Share on X

3. Refeed

Dieting into perpetual darkness will suck the life right out of you.

No one likes eating less and doing that every single day for weeks and months is sure to trigger a cheat or binge sooner or later – even in the most disciplined weight room warriors.

To get around this, incorporate refeeds.

A refeed is just a day of eating at maintenance again. A normal day so you can mentally reset and get that kick of motivation to face a few more days of dieting again.

Look at adding in 1 per week as you get lean, and towards the end of your diet, you may get great benefit from refeeding twice a week or even every other day so seamlessly slip back into maintenance.

4. Ease up towards the finish line

Lots of people think that the longer you’e been dieting, the harder that you have to diet.

This is actually false.

The longer you’ve been dieting, the EASIER your diet should be.

Yeah, you read that right.

Fat loss should be faster and more aggressive early on when you’re highly motivated and still running easy off your previous phase of solid food and good training.

Like I just said with refeeds, at the end of a diet, you might just be at maintenance every other day losing half a pound or less per week.

This makes slipping into maintenance easy as hell.

Your weekly deficit should be reduced the closer to get to your ideal physique, so take your foot off the gas and work WITH your body and natural inclinations as you get lean.

Don’t be stubborn and fight it.

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Follow these tips and you’ll be much less likely to stray once the diet is over and it’s time to maintain. Moving on:

2. Be realistic

Second, you need to be realistic with just how lean you want to stay.

Without getting too deep into the physiological things going on, to feel and perform your best, you shouldn’t try to stay too lean.

How lean you can stay comfortably depends on the person, but to keep it simple:

• Men: 8-10% body fat
• Women: 16-18% body fat

…are good targets of leanness to shoot for that can be maintained comfortably for extended periods.

You’ve got a nice set of abs and some solid definition without the drawbacks that can rear their head at lower body fat percentages. There’s no need to be paper thin.

3. Foods don’t change, just the quantities

This is another huge mistake I see when people switch from cutting to maintaining or gaining.

When they’re cutting, they have a great diet full of a lot of lean meats, crisp fibrous vegetables, and fruits.

Then once it’s over, they get way more liberal with their food choices overnight and switch from the clean, filling foods to more processed, higher energy density sources.

Bad move.

Hunger and desire to eat a lot of tasty foods after you’re done cutting is high, so introducing a bunch of new high calorie treats when your diet is over is going to lead to overeating and erasing those hard-earned cuts.

This is another reason why If It Fits Your Macros has its issues when taken to the extreme.

Read more here: The Problems with IIFYM

4. Keep tabs on your measurements

I get it.

I really do.

When you’re done cutting up, the last thing you want to do is get back to measuring your foods and tracking your scale weight.

You’re sick and tired of the meticulousness and just want to be free as a bird.

But that’s what must be done.

Being able to eyeball portions is important and part of long term physique maintenance, but in the short term, you need to be measuring foods just like you were when you were cutting to ensure that you are staying on track with your intended calorie intake.

Make the mental shift from “chore” to HABIT.

You should also be continuing to measure your scale weight to see that it stabilizes and holds relatively constant.

Initially, your weight will spike and freak you out, but don’t worry, that’s just increased glycogen content within your muscles and more food in your system.

It’ll even out and hold steady, so keep an eye on what the scale is doing over time to ensure that you’re doing well at maintenance.

After a couple months of this, you can be a little more lax with things and eat more intuitively with good habits while keeping an eye on the mirror and the scale to ensure things are going according to plan.

5. Cycle your Calories

Part of having a solid plan is factoring in the errors and your natural desires.

No one should have to live in a hyperbolic time chamber as a social hermit in order to maintain their physique.

After all, that aesthetic physique of yours is going to open up LOTS of doors for you, and you’re missing out if you keep it cooped up in the garage.

So take that into account. 

• You KNOW you’re going to go out every now and then and get hammered or enjoy a few drinks with a dime on the town.
• You KNOW you’re going to hit a fire restaurant on occasion with your crew and want to enjoy the finer things on the menu.

So why would you even bother trying to “stay within your maintenance calories” on that day?

Fuck that. That’s torture. ENJOY YOURSELF.

What you need to do instead is plan ahead:

How to calorie cycle to stay lean

Calorie cycling is simple.

You just want to make sure that at the end of the week, your energy balance is actually balanced out so that you’re neither gaining nor losing weight.

As an example:

Let’s say you’ve got a night out planned on Saturday night and you want to throw down and enjoy yourself.

Not a problem.

Even if you go wild and treat yourself to a few drinks and a great meal and wind up 1000 calories over maintenance that night, all you have to do is have a deficit of 200 calories for the 5 days beforehand.

Or just diet at 500 calories for 2 days beforehand.

That’s ridiculously easy.

And it’s key on how to stay lean because let’s face it, if you keep letting it slip then eventually you’re just going to go #yolo and say screw it and end up having to hit that deficit in an actual cutting diet months later.

BONUS: Intermittent Fasting

Finally, as an added bonus, I’m gonna plug intermittent fasting.

It’s something I’ve been doing for 7 years now, and without a doubt, it’s one of the easiest ways to stay lean while still getting dirty and having some fun often.

Essentially, you fast for a portion of the day and then feed for a smaller portion of the day.

I stick to 15-16 hour fast and 8-9 hour feeding phase, and it makes it simple and painless to have some big meals and drinking sessions while still staying lean and satisfied.

For more on this method, see Martin Berkhan’s website Leangains here. As far as I’m concerned, he pioneered intermittent fasting for the lifting community before the business vultures swooped in.

How to Stay Lean Year Round: Conclusion

And that’s that: How to stay lean year round.

Put these tips into place and enjoy that added definition and boost to your ego.

What are some other tips you’ve got for staying lean all year? 

Comment below.

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Cover and Conclusion photo: Lazar Angelov. Check him out here. 

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