Firstly - congratulations! A successful fat loss diet is difficult to do. Be happy with your success and don't diminish it if you didn't quite hit the number you were going for. If your goal was to lose 50 pounds but you lost 40 that is still a success. You're in a better place than before the diet began and do not ever diminish that accomplishment. By now you've learned that dieting is a mental game. That in the difficult times you're telling yourself that it's possible and that you don't need to divert drastically. If you followed the general guidelines from part 1 so that you didn't eliminate Non Nutrient Dense Food (NNDF or "bad" food), you increased food volume per calorie, and acknowledged emotions around eating then you're in a good spot to move forward.
Moving forward from a successful diet requires an understanding of different phases of eating. A successful diet shows understanding of a fat loss phase however there are two other broad categories in the maintenance phase and the weight gain phase. These go by other names as well. Fat loss phases can be called weight loss phases/diets, cuts, caloric deficits, diets, or any other number of terms. Maintenance phases can be called maintenance diets, caloric maintenance, health phases, or other similar terms. Weight gain phases can be called weight gain diets, bulking, caloric surpluses, or more terms on top of that. Each phase has a direct goal based around the body composition at the start and the desired body composition at the end of it. A bulk has a person gaining weight, muscle and fat throughout. Maintenance would be weight and body composition staying roughly the same throughout. Fat loss decreases body fat and most likely weight throughout. The question becomes how should these phases be arranged?
Let's take this back to you after your successful fat loss diet. Nobody can stay in a caloric deficit forever. It is unhealthy to stay that way and if that has been going on for a long time (years in some cases) then it either already is an eating disorder or is leading to an eating disorder. The importance of health requires abolishing those eating disorders and may require medical assistance/intervention that cannot be handled here. Now, there are an infinite amount of situations and variables around what happens in/after a fat loss phase and some of them will be gone over in a more indepth fashion in part 3. For this article we're going to take the position that the person being addressed here has completed their fat loss phase and is at a body fat level that is not detrimental to their health.
After the fat loss phase has been completed the two options are maintenance and bulk. This begins another conversation of what your long term goals are. Let's say your goal is to just get to a healthy point where you can run around, play with children/nieces/nephews and not feel like you ran a marathon at the end of the day. Maintenance/health phase may be the way to go. If you're an athlete looking to improve your performance and/or physique then you could either go maintenance/health or bulk. Either way a few guidelines should be in place to prevent going overboard with the newfound freedom.
The big temptation when completing a fat loss diet is to return to eating all the big and tasty foods whenever you want. To a certain extent this is ok but only to a certain extent. A very large part of the reason why so many people rebound after a diet and gain back the weight they lost is because the diet didn't establish healthy eating habits that can be carried into the following maintenance phase. The majority of people seeking to lose weight have that number on the scale, size of pants or some equivalent measure as a place they feel comfortable that they wish to return to. Once that point is reached they turn off the dieting mindset, what they did prior and since they ate how they did prior they gain weight to land right back where they were. Thus nullifying the diet. Once a person reaches the goal weight they need to go into the mindset of entering a maintenance diet phase. Remember - a diet is simply the food eaten. It is not attached to weight loss only. Continue the habits of the weight loss diet, keep most of the foods on the side of nutrient dense but allow the freedom for NNDF to be included within reason. Be mindful of weight gain overall but not obsessive about it. Find the personal balance of monitoring how the maintenance phase continues and not stressing over food too much. Done correctly there is a good chance that if a fat loss phase needs to be done again to return back to the desired baseline it will be an easy and effective transition with a smooth return to maintenance after.
The health phase is geared more towards competitive and/or extreme athletes. This category goes through times where they push the body past where it is normally supposed to go and it can come with high consequences. A simple example is a bodybuilder immediately after a show. The athlete is at a bodyfat level that makes it difficult to function, sleep is disrupted, hormones are all over the place, the risk of injury is high and the list just goes on. This makes the first priority getting them back to a healthy spot. The priority becomes getting them back to a healthy body fat level where hormones can start behaving normally again. Blood work returning to their baseline levels to give more evidence of healthy internal organs. Recovery capacity returning to normal so injury risk lessens. Mentally they recharge so they can get back to training, eating and working towards the next goal from a healthily capable state. The health phase primes the athlete physically and mentally and can be done at any point when required. Pushing extreme weight/muscle gain can be very taxing as well and may require a health phase afterwards.
There is a phrase in medicine that the "dosage makes the poison" and it is true with diets of any goal. On maintenance calories you may have anywhere from 200-1000 calories a day on top of what had you in a deficit. If your favorite bakery's cinnamon rolls are able to be eaten while you stay in a caloric balance then the dosage is healthy. That is more easily accomplished when they are included in the fat loss phase to some extent. If NNDF were eliminated completely then the forbidden fruit factor makes it all too easy to lose control and skyrocket calories to a surplus resulting in a larger, more unhealthy dose. A great strategy to stay within maintenance is to stick to the 80/20 rule as was the case with the fat loss phase. Continue the habits that were built and enjoy the greater freedom that the extra calories in maintenance can give you. If in the fat loss phase you only had one slice of cake at your niece's 3rd birthday party then feel free to have a second on that day. It is ok. Remember it is all about averages. If the week's calories average out to maintenance calories then you're good. It can be argued that maintenance can be easier than bulking as the level of adherence may actually be less. That sounds backwards but let's give it the dive the topic deserves
There is a concept in the lifting world of a "dirty bulk" and for some it's a great tool. The stories of JM Blakeley competing in 5 different weight classes in a single year are notorious in the powerlifting world. He's one of the best benchers and strength training minds there is. His ability to put on weight and take it off was pretty incredible. However, he's one of the very few to do this with competence. In the modern strength and physique world I am hard pressed to find a situation where I would recommend gaining 100 pounds in a year and losing it the next. The point of a caloric surplus is usually to gain muscle. Gaining appreciable amounts of muscle is a game of efficiency and if a person is in a caloric surplus the amount of muscle gain is most likely not going to be different if the surplus was 25 calories or 2500 calories. Remember - this is about the long game. So the next cut is something to consider. It's a lot easier to lose 10 pounds than 30. Strategically speaking this also means that you can stay bulking for longer.
The strategy of how the different phases are planned is a key part of what prevents progress from stalling. Compare the dirty bulk discussed above to a more controlled "lean bulk." If someone wants to gain as much muscle as possible and so decides to push themselves to gain 20 pounds of bodyweight the optimal method would be the one that makes the largest percentage of muscle possible in those 20 pounds. If someone plans a slow bulk where they gain 1 pound per week it would take 20 weeks to reach the goal weight. If someone does a dirty bulk eating everything in sight and gains 2 pounds per week they've now only done a bulk for 10 weeks. Essentially meaning they gained about half as much muscle as the lean bulker. It is quite simply less efficient and more time has to be spent in a caloric deficit. That just seems unnecessarily unpleasant. So even though it's less immediately gratifying, the lean bulk may be the better way to go despite it meaning much more control becomes necessary. That's where healthy eating habits really show their worth. They will help reduce the temptation to go overboard with freedom because freedom isn't a new concept with the new phase. The preceding fat loss phase was handled in a way where freedom was still had so simply adding some more options is not a major difference in level of control needed. This helps adherence and will help prevent unplanned weight spikes.
So there we have the brief outlines for maintenance, health, and bulking follow ups for a fat loss diet. The decision for which one is the correct follow up is dependent on you and your goals. The amount of nuance for all of these options are immense so if you're having any difficulties feel free to reach out. In depth consultations are available on the site or quick questions can use the contact tab or instagram to send a message.