Recomposition: Maintaining weight while losing fat
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If you're worried about underestimating your protein, error on the side of higher, if that's economically feasible for you. Unless you have medical conditions, there's no harm in going over your protein recommendations.
Do you need specific macros for recomp?A woman i worked with went from 26% body fat to 16% body fat in 18 months. But she was extremely methodical with her eating (practically ate the same thing every day)
Or i should rephrase that, how many g of protein and fat is the best to have?
0.8 per lean body mass is what i've seen some mention on these forums but what if you can only judge your body fat percentage based only on measurements and not an actual test?
Do you estimate towards a higher lbm so your protein intake won't be less than what you need?
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@whmscllI haven't seen anything BMI-based but from what I've read in the past, being overweight, underweight, low weight, or skinny fat are not ideal for recomping. I look at the bodybuilding.com female forums and here is a post from somebody who usually has fairly good advice. She estimates a good range, bf-wise, is 24-30% for women.
Okay, I read that post. If recomp is such a long, arduous process, why does anyone do it? ? I don't see the difference in benefits between recomp vs. bulk and cut. Confused!
My experience and perspective......
Long process -
Depends if you have a specific goal and what that goal is and how far from that goal you are. Also depends on your capabilities, for a young/chubby/newby/male progress isn't really likely to be limited by eating at maintenance.
I've got back to close to lifetime bests for strength, probably as lean as I've ever been and probably have probably better aerobic fitness than I've ever had.
I saw progress immediately in term of strength & performance. Measurable progress in body composition in six months (c. 4% BF drop). Took a bit longer to see progress reflected in the mirror and tape measure but that's not my main focus.
Arduous -
Not in the slightest. I enjoy eating at maintenance and enjoy training. What I don't enjoy is getting fatter/heavier or having to eat at a deficit and having decreased training performance and recovery. So for me bulk/cut would be arduous.
Why doesn't everyone just bulk and cut -
Just like recomp isn't the right choice for everyone, bulk/cut isn't the right choice for everyone. As an "elderly" male with 40 years in the gym my progress isn't limited by calories (injuries, age, training years, being near my lifetime peak are my limiting factors). A surplus would just make me fat. Extra weight would also be counterproductive to my main sport - cycling.
I also hate dieting! That also touches on the mental/emotional side of making the choice between the two approaches. I'm very happy at maintenance, gaining or losing weight wouldn't improve that for me.
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argh, wish I've found this thread at it's beginning, lazy to read through 10+ pages
recomping myself since New Year, maintaining since August '14, no change in weight or BF% (though that is measured by a personal weigh via feet only) - but people say progress is visible, I should measure more..
after holidays I might move to attempting a clean bulk - that'll be tricky..
@sijomial my thoughts exactly (except 40 years in a gym and I plan to return to Ultimate Frisbee as my main sport later this year) 1 -
I had this girl a 1g or pro/lb of lbm, .35g to.4g of fat and remainder carbs. Since she was doing crossfit 5 days a week i wanted to enough carbs were plentiful. She was at 2200 calories as well.
Do you need specific macros for recomp?A woman i worked with went from 26% body fat to 16% body fat in 18 months. But she was extremely methodical with her eating (practically ate the same thing every day)
Or i should rephrase that, how many g of protein and fat is the best to have?
0.8 per lean body mass is what i've seen some mention on these forums but what if you can only judge your body fat percentage based only on measurements and not an actual test?
Do you estimate towards a higher lbm so your protein intake won't be less than what you need?
But a good range for pro is .8 to 1g /lb of lbm, fst is around .35 to .6g /lb of lbm and remainder is carbs. But overall, it depends on training regime and maintenance levels. Someone with a lower maintenance may have to sacrafice carbs for increased fat to help with satiety. And then you need to consider variables for eating style (diet preference) and medical requirements.
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This thread is super helpful, thanks OP. Just curious, those who have sucessfully recomped, what does your week's exercises look like? Some have shared already, thank you. Do you all just lift heavy? Other sports/cardio in the mix? How many times a week?0
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Typical routine-sistrsprkl wrote: »This thread is super helpful, thanks OP. Just curious, those who have sucessfully recomped, what does your week's exercises look like? Some have shared already, thank you. Do you all just lift heavy? Other sports/cardio in the mix? How many times a week?
3x a week weights/strength - almost exclusively compound lifts and core. Mixture of free weights, machines and bodyweight. Don't do a lot of leg strength work, partly injury related, mostly for recovery reasons.
3x a week cardio - mostly cycling or cycling related, ranges from 1 hour in gym to multiple hours on the roads.
Do other bits and pieces for fun or variety (rowing, elliptical, squash....).
Emphasis tends to flip between summer (cycling) and winter (strength).
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sistrsprkl wrote: »This thread is super helpful, thanks OP. Just curious, those who have sucessfully recomped, what does your week's exercises look like? Some have shared already, thank you. Do you all just lift heavy? Other sports/cardio in the mix? How many times a week?
When I was doing it I just lifted 5 days per week, no cardio. I followed the original version of Layne Norton's PHAT program.2 -
sistrsprkl wrote: »This thread is super helpful, thanks OP. Just curious, those who have sucessfully recomped, what does your week's exercises look like? Some have shared already, thank you. Do you all just lift heavy? Other sports/cardio in the mix? How many times a week?
Lifting 3x weekly and cycling. I work with a coach and my primary lifts are Olympic lifts and I typically do them at about 60% of my max. I typically do an undulating periodization of 12/6/3 for my other compound movements (squat variations, bench variations, push press/OH press) and then some isolation stuff at the end of my workouts...I do some bicep work on pull days and tricep work on push days and then some core work. A lot of the stuff I do is geared towards athletic explosiveness.
I ride 60-80 miles per week on average depending...0 -
sistrsprkl wrote: »This thread is super helpful, thanks OP. Just curious, those who have sucessfully recomped, what does your week's exercises look like? Some have shared already, thank you. Do you all just lift heavy? Other sports/cardio in the mix? How many times a week?
4 days lifting per week with an upper/lower split. Usually one day of stretching/flexibility. Usually 2-3 long walks per week. I like hiking so I do that whenever I can.0 -
Also to answer what my week looks like: I just started splits 6 days. Chest/Tris, Legs, Backs/Bis, 1 day Cardio, Shoulders and one off day...then rinse and repeat.. I run every morning 5 miles, 6 days a week as well.
I went from full body 3 days and 2 cardio days with 2 days off... it was working just fine, but wanted a more intense training on all muscle groups...
Talk about some dedication to a daily routine... but loving every minute..2 -
sistrsprkl wrote: »This thread is super helpful, thanks OP. Just curious, those who have sucessfully recomped, what does your week's exercises look like? Some have shared already, thank you. Do you all just lift heavy? Other sports/cardio in the mix? How many times a week?
I lift heavy 3 days a week, cycle or swim 1 day a week, yoga usually 1 day a week, and run or ruck 1-3 days a week. Most days I only workout once a day, but sometimes I workout twice. When I do two, I run at one and lift at the other.1 -
sistrsprkl wrote: »This thread is super helpful, thanks OP. Just curious, those who have sucessfully recomped, what does your week's exercises look like? Some have shared already, thank you. Do you all just lift heavy? Other sports/cardio in the mix? How many times a week?
I lift 7 days a week with the upper/lower split. I'll probably reduce the number of days once I'm lifting significantly "heavy", which will actually be pretty soon.
Every day I warm up with 20 minutes on a stair machine, later I do 3 - 5 miles brisk walking. So very minimal cardio. (The 20 minutes are per doctor's orders.)1 -
Thanks for the responses, very helpful to see what people are doing. Looks like I need to lift more frequently...0
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Me too. Chiming in so I can find this thread again.cleanbulk_hatersgfy wrote: »Noob on recomp. Am all ears.
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ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »I don't have any research, but I'll post my results here. I've been recomping for about 2 years. I have chronic illness and eating at a deficit can be too much stress on my system.
On the left I was 125 lbs, 24% body fat according to the Eat, Train, Progress body fat estimation thread. On the right I'm still 125 lbs but 2 sizes smaller.
Amazing!! Great work!!
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arditarose wrote: »I'm only on my 7th week of a recomp. Man this takes patience. Every time I go to ask a question on this thread, I just hit back space because I either know the answer...or know no one really does.
Right now I'm getting this hangy/loose skin looking fat that I used to get right before I'd drop some weight in a deficit. I'm very curious what's going to happen with it on a recomp...Maybe my measurements will start to budge? Does this happen to anyone else?
This morning I noticed a strange indent in my skin - below my belly button. Looking closer it seems like the skin is a little loser there but I can feel muscle under the skin. I am assuming that I lost a little bit of fat there. If only it would come off my thighs and butt as quickly as it comes off my stomach...1 -
arditarose wrote: »I'm only on my 7th week of a recomp. Man this takes patience. Every time I go to ask a question on this thread, I just hit back space because I either know the answer...or know no one really does.
Right now I'm getting this hangy/loose skin looking fat that I used to get right before I'd drop some weight in a deficit. I'm very curious what's going to happen with it on a recomp...Maybe my measurements will start to budge? Does this happen to anyone else?
This morning I noticed a strange indent in my skin - below my belly button. Looking closer it seems like the skin is a little loser there but I can feel muscle under the skin. I am assuming that I lost a little bit of fat there. If only it would come off my thighs and butt as quickly as it comes off my stomach...
Yeah...today I started seeing veins and some cool looking bumps in my lower abdomen. Thighs still as chunky as ever.0 -
arditarose wrote: »I'm only on my 7th week of a recomp. Man this takes patience. Every time I go to ask a question on this thread, I just hit back space because I either know the answer...or know no one really does.
Right now I'm getting this hangy/loose skin looking fat that I used to get right before I'd drop some weight in a deficit. I'm very curious what's going to happen with it on a recomp...Maybe my measurements will start to budge? Does this happen to anyone else?
This morning I noticed a strange indent in my skin - below my belly button. Looking closer it seems like the skin is a little loser there but I can feel muscle under the skin. I am assuming that I lost a little bit of fat there. If only it would come off my thighs and butt as quickly as it comes off my stomach...
It's going to come off where it is going to come off.
I feel odd having a chest that sticks out further than my stomach, but my gut seems to be an easier spot for me to drop weight too.0 -
I've brought this up in another thread before, but discussion didn't go far -- was wondering about switching to maintenance/recomp, even though I have ~7lbs to goal, but using the TDEE of my goal weight for maintenance cals.
The idea being that it'd still be a deficit between current weight's TDEE and Goal's, so I'd still lose, albeit slowly, and then eventually even out...
Of course, I know that TDEE calculations can be off in either direction based on many factors, but in my situation, a little experimentation into this theory might be worthwhile...
Thoughts?0 -
What a great thread, I'll read it all tomorrow night. Thank you!0
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HollandOats wrote: »I've brought this up in another thread before, but discussion didn't go far -- was wondering about switching to maintenance/recomp, even though I have ~7lbs to goal, but using the TDEE of my goal weight for maintenance cals.
The idea being that it'd still be a deficit between current weight's TDEE and Goal's, so I'd still lose, albeit slowly, and then eventually even out...
Of course, I know that TDEE calculations can be off in either direction based on many factors, but in my situation, a little experimentation into this theory might be worthwhile...
Thoughts?
I don't see why you couldn't do that. Realistically, the difference in your TDEE at 7 pounds less than right now is going to be pretty small. You could go ahead and calculate it yourself to see that. TDEE calculations are best estimates and TDEE isn't a constant anyway.2 -
HollandOats wrote: »I've brought this up in another thread before, but discussion didn't go far -- was wondering about switching to maintenance/recomp, even though I have ~7lbs to goal, but using the TDEE of my goal weight for maintenance cals.
The idea being that it'd still be a deficit between current weight's TDEE and Goal's, so I'd still lose, albeit slowly, and then eventually even out...
Of course, I know that TDEE calculations can be off in either direction based on many factors, but in my situation, a little experimentation into this theory might be worthwhile...
Thoughts?
My thoughst are that the theory is sound but....
Calculators are too inaccurate.
7lb would be a minute difference in TDEE.
An easier way perhaps is just custom set your target calories from where they are now so that you slow your weight loss to a crawl. A soft landing to goal weight rather than get to goal weight and start searching for maintenance calories.3 -
Much obliged for the responses... I think that sounds like a good logical approach, @sijomial ... I'm gonna run the numbers...2
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I believe the general estimate is each pound of fat contributes around 4 calories to BMR, so yeah, 7 pounds is probably a 28 calorie difference. That's going to get swallowed in the variability of TDEE.0
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Bump to read later.
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arditarose wrote: »
This morning I noticed a strange indent in my skin - below my belly button. Looking closer it seems like the skin is a little loser there but I can feel muscle under the skin. I am assuming that I lost a little bit of fat there. If only it would come off my thighs and butt as quickly as it comes off my stomach...
I wish it would come off my stomach more quickly. We each have our own places that seem to hold fat. Blah.0 -
Almost there.0
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I did a bulk months ago and hated the way my stomack looked after. I decided to stop the bulk after gaining 15 to 20 pounts. Im 6'3 and i weighed 215. Ive been recomping for a couple weeks now. I am staying anywhere between 210 and 215. Ive noticed my stomach coming back. Im just really scared im going to lose muscle. Ive been eating 320 g protein a day and carb cycling. Will try to maintain this for a month and see where i am at.0
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LiftingRiot wrote: »I did a bulk months ago and hated the way my stomack looked after. I decided to stop the bulk after gaining 15 to 20 pounts. Im 6'3 and i weighed 215. Ive been recomping for a couple weeks now. I am staying anywhere between 210 and 215. Ive noticed my stomach coming back. Im just really scared im going to lose muscle. Ive been eating 320 g protein a day and carb cycling. Will try to maintain this for a month and see where i am at.
That's significantly more protein than you need. Even 215g would be more than enough. If you lift and maintain weight you aren't going to lose muscle even if you dropped your protein lower than .8g/lb LBM.1
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