Completely confused by recomp ?

weedspot

Hi!

My starting weight was 80kgs (176 lbs) I’m 174cm (5’7) and currently at a 500 cal deficit. Which puts me at roughly 2000 calories a day.
I workout for 60-90min 4 to 6 times a week.
I’ve been at a 500 calories deficit for 2 months. I lost a little over 5kgs (~11lbs). I need to lose another 5kgs to be at my goal weight.

Recently I keep reading post about people who decided to recomp and now I’m confused. I thought that to lose fat you needed to be at a deficit. Which makes sense, burn more than you eat in order to lose. And that working out would help you build muscle while losing fat. And I thought that I had been recomposing for the past 2 months

Except that people also seem to say that you need to eat at you TDEE if you want to properly recomp.

So which is it ? Deficit + resistance training or maintenance + resistance training ?

I want to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Even if it’s a slow gain

Dogmom1978

If you are knew to working out, you can make some small muscle gains while in a deficit. It is much easier to put on muscle while eating at a surplus, but not impossible to do so at a deficit or maintenance.

In order to build muscle though, you do need a progressive resistance program. If you just do the exact same resistance/weight, sets, reps, etc each time, your body adapts to that and you won’t progress.

Dogmom1978

I hate typos and it won’t let me edit. That should say “new” not “knew” lol

cmriverside

Technically?

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

https://bodyrecomposition.com/

age_is_just_a_number

Try these articles:
https://legionathletics.com/newbie-gains/
https://legionathletics.com/calorie-cycling/
https://legionathletics.com/body-recomposition/


Warning: Legion Athletics is a supplement and coaching company. I do not support the use of supplements and have not purchased anything from them. I just find their articles informative.

sijomial

Recomp isn't only possible at precisely your TDEE, there is a band either side of TDEE where losing fat and gaining muscle can happen.
And that band is very personal. If you are relatively under-trained and over-fat then that range would be wider than someone who is lean and closer to their genetic potential with many years of dedicated training.
Younger an advantage compared to older (although I recomped successfully this year at age 60 after gyms reopened but that was helped because I was returning to a previously attained level...)
Also of course different people also respond better/worse to training.

But the bigger your deficit the lower (or slower) your chances of gaining muscle are as conditions for gaining muscle are compromised. As you still want to lose weight then clearly you need to be in a deficit, but if muscle building is a competing priority you might want to reduce the size of your deficit from your current 1lb/week goal.

Whatever your calorie balance effective training is key as that initiates the whole process whether that's retaining what muscle you have or gaining some, diet suports the process but doesn't drive muscle gain (unless some is malnurished of course...).

There's actually NOTHING complicated about recomp - it's just the totally normal response to effective training while eating at roughly your maintenance level. Stress your muscles with a good training program and support the process with an adequate diet. AKA "getting in shape" - it's what loads of gym goers who have never tracked a calorie or their bodyweight do.