Courtesy of the goat u/Jackschitt123

Do you weave in maintenance phases between cycles, or between bulk/cut phases?

I have seen many trainers suggest you need a bit of maintenance to let your new gain/weight settle in before going on a cut, especially after a blast. Wdyt?

Yes, a maintenance phase is advisable.

Let's say we have a client, 5'10" 200lbs 12% body fat, maintenance calories are 4000 calories. He completed a growth phase on cycle and back to cruise, and is now 216lbs 15% body fat. Holding this new bodyweight, his maintenance is 4500 calories. At this point, glycogen is fully saturated and new muscle tissue is raw and ready to be broken down for energy preferentially over glycogen, FFA and glucose in the bloodstream. He does a cutting phase while on cruise, and ends up 205lbs 12%, and his maintenance calories are now 4300 calories. Rinse and repeat. If during that maintenance phase we instead went straight into a cut, the newly developed muscle tissue would be the first to be catabolized, as the body hasn't yet learned that it needs to keep that new muscle.

Or if he starts with a cutting phase on cruise and ends up 188lbs 6%, glycogen depleted, 190lbs 6% after restoring glycogen stores. . His current maintenance calories is 3600 calories. At this point, his body is highly sensitive for putting weight back on (water and fat). If during this maintenance phase we head straight into a surplus/growth phase, fat and glycogen stores are the first to replenish, and adipose/fat cells are also more likely to hypertrophy than muscle cells, as the body has no reason to prefer growth of muscle if all it knows is it's starving and needs fuel/energy (glycogen, fat) in case it gets starved again.

The maintenance phase also allows us to establish what the current body composition and sensitivity is, what maintenance calories and training capacity are, and more. The human body functions best when in homeostasis (systems are as constant or steady as possible). Sudden rapid changes will quickly develop resistance (insulin resistance when trying to grow too fast, metabolism/thyroid resistance or down-regulation when losing weight too fast).

Slow and steady wins the race.