Overall help with recomp!

Raegold

Hi! I'm in need of some general direction in terms of my recomp goals, if anyone is willing to give me some tips! I'm currently 5'3, and around 135lbs. I had dieted down and lost 40 lbs over the course of a year after my second baby, I got down to around 132.6. 135 is my 'fed' weight. I decided to take a break/refeed because I was getting STARVING, and thought that was a sign I needed a deficit break. I'm currently still nursing my 17 month old about 4-5x a day.

My goals are to 1) increase strength during this refeed. I lost strength during my pregnancies and from some childbirth complications. Goals are to deadlift 40lbs, squat 40lbs, and attempt possibly an overhand pullup. 2) once the refeed is over and i have my strength back up, I want to diet down to around 125lbs while maintaining my strength goals.

My question is... once i reach my strength goals, do I immediately switch to a deficit? And how do I maintain the strength while in my deficit? I've learned in the past that hardcore workouts DONT go well while i'm trying to lose fat. I just end up insanely hungry. I know that I'll lose some lean muscle, but I'd like to keep it as minimal as possible. I'm assuming I should keep my protein high, in terms of macros, when I'm in a deficit?

I guess my biggest areas of concern are... how long to refeed after over a year of dieting, and then how to best maintain muscle and strength when I diet again.

Thank you for any and all tips!!!!

jemhh

I would call this a diet break or maintenance break rather than a refeed. It's up to you to determine the length. At least a week but certainly longer is fine too. I chose to maintain for around a year after my year with a big loss.

If you use a small deficit you should be fine strength-wise. A 10% deficit, or 150-200 calories per day on average.

Raegold

jemhh wrote: »

I would call this a diet break or maintenance break rather than a refeed. It's up to you to determine the length. At least a week but certainly longer is fine too. I chose to maintain for around a year after my year with a big loss.

If you use a small deficit you should be fine strength-wise. A 10% deficit, or 150-200 calories per day on average.

Thank you! I usually in the past would shoot for 500 calorie deficit per day so I'd lose 1 lb per week, but maybe this time I'll do 250 instead. It's tough bc I like to see the big numbers on the scale, but I'd really like to keep my strength up.