What is Maingaining? And Should You Try It?
- Ellie Godde
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
Updated: May 1
I heard the term maingaining for the first time just the other day — and it immediately clicked. As I listened to the explanation, I realised it perfectly described the way I’ve been approaching nutrition and training for years. I just didn’t know there was a name for it.
So, What is Maingaining?
At its core, maingaining refers to maintaining your current *body weight (or staying close to it) while continuing to build muscle and improve strength. Instead of the traditional “bulk and cut” cycles — where you eat in a large calorie surplus to gain muscle (and fat), then diet aggressively to lose the fat — maingaining focuses on slow, steady progress. You prioritize eating around your maintenance calories, gaining strength, and building muscle while minimising fat gain.
For many people, especially those who are not looking to compete in bodybuilding or need to make drastic physique changes, maingaining offers a much more sustainable and lifestyle-friendly approach to fitness.
Benefits of Maingaining
Here are a few reasons I encourage clients (and myself!) to consider maingaining:
Long-Term Sustainability: No massive swings in weight or restrictive diets.
Consistency: Focus more on performance and how you feel, not just the number on the scale.
Better Relationship with Food: Eat mindfully, without constant stress over gaining or losing.
Year-Round Confidence: Feel great and strong in your body every season.
Personally, what speaks to me the most is the way maingaining supports a healthy, balanced relationship with food and fitness. It gives me freedom — and it’s the same freedom I want to help my clients experience, too.
Is Maingaining Right for You?
Maingaining works beautifully if you:
Already have a decent base of strength
Are patient with slower, steadier muscle growth
Want a fitness lifestyle that’s sustainable long-term
Care about health, energy, and performance, not just appearance
This approach is especially great for women getting into strength training, busy professionals who don’t want to spend their lives in endless diet cycles, and anyone recovering from a rocky relationship with food and body image. If you’re looking to build a strong, capable body without constantly chasing extremes, maingaining could be exactly what you need.
How to Start Maingaining
If you’re ready to try maingaining, here are a few simple steps to begin:
Find Your Maintenance Calories: Track your food for a week without changing habits to understand your natural intake and weight trends.
Focus on Performance: Track strength gains in the gym — progression is the clearest indicator that you’re on the right path.
Be Patient: Muscle gain at maintenance happens more slowly, but it’s sustainable.
Prioritise Protein: Meeting your protein needs is essential for muscle repair and growth.
Stay Active: Move your body daily to support your overall health and recovery.
For me, tracking lifts is absolutely critical to monitoring strength progress when implementing maintenance. When the scale isn’t moving — and often, it won’t — seeing improvements in my lifts keeps me motivated and reassured that I’m moving forward.
My Final Thoughts on Maingaining
Maingaining isn’t just a trend — it’s a mindset shift. It challenges the idea that progress has to be fast, extreme, or visible on the scale. It asks you to focus on building strength, fueling your body, and finding pride in steady, lifelong growth.
If I could give one piece of advice to someone starting their maingaining journey today, it would be this: trust the process and celebrate every strength milestone, no matter how small it feels. Real, lasting change comes from stacking up small wins over time.
Ready to Start Your Maingaining Journey?
If you’re looking for personalised coaching, programming, and guidance tailored to your lifestyle, I’d love to help you build a stronger, more confident version of yourself — without the extremes.
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