Results of a recomp after 7 months - stats overload!

sijomial

For people interested in a recomp rather than cutting / bulking cycles to lose fat and gain muscle while maintaining I thought I’d post my results so far.
Stats are from a BodPod analysis in March and again today.

One thing to note is that although I’ve been mostly maintaining I did have spell of deliberately losing weight as I reset my goal weight down a little to my current 168lbs.

March weight – 172.4
October weight – 168.2
Lost 4.2lbs of overall weight

March fat weight – 40.1
October fat weight – 32.4
Lost 7.7lbs of fat

March lean weight – 132.5
October lean weight – 136
Gained 3.5lbs of lean mass (mostly muscle hopefully!)

March fat percentage – 23.2%
October fat percentage – 19.2%
Down 4%

So slow progress, as expected, but being 53 I’m not a prime candidate for quick muscle gains and I’ve also been primarily focussed on cardio improvements during the cycling season. Happy with this outcome and intend continuing to work on reducing body fat percentage and increasing muscle mass while staying at this weight - I can't tolerate any more shopping for clothes!

My exercise routine is typically 3 cardio sessions and 3 weights sessions a week although I don’t tend to do much lower body weights work due to injury and also saving my legs for cycling.
I follow an intermittent fasting routine as well where I have one or two very low calorie days a week. First four months of this period I was on 5:2 and the last few months I've been maintaining on 6:1 (one low cal day a week).

TavistockToad

nice work, well done!

Barbellgirl

Very nice job on the re-comp. I love when people share these experiences because so many people insist you can't do this (gain muscle mass while losing fat). Are you eating at, above, or below TDEE, and by how much?

I'm 46 and essentially doing the same thing, just a slow clean bulk eating at a small surplus.

sijomial

Very nice job on the re-comp. I love when people share these experiences because so many people insist you can't do this (gain muscle mass while losing fat). Are you eating at, above, or below TDEE, and by how much?

I'm 46 and essentially doing the same thing, just a slow clean bulk eating at a small surplus.

Because of the 6:1 eating pattern the one day of very low calories (600) has to be balanced by a slight surplus (c. 300 cals) on the other six days. So over the course of a week I'm eating at TDEE x7 as my weight is steady week on week. The daily average works out at about 2,400 cals.

beekay70

Awesome results. I am moving into maintenance and also focusing on recomp. I've heard over and over again that you have to be in a surplus in order to build muscle, but from what I've read - body recomposition is losing fat while gaining muscle at maintenance. I am currently at about 16% body fat, but would like to be at 10-12% body fat. I would have to gain around 10 lbs of muscle while maintaining my current weight in order to achieve that. We'll see how it goes.

Barbellgirl

Very nice job on the re-comp. I love when people share these experiences because so many people insist you can't do this (gain muscle mass while losing fat). Are you eating at, above, or below TDEE, and by how much?

I'm 46 and essentially doing the same thing, just a slow clean bulk eating at a small surplus.

Because of the 6:1 eating pattern the one day of very low calories (600) has to be balanced by a slight surplus (c. 300 cals) on the other six days. So over the course of a week I'm eating at TDEE x7 as my weight is steady week on week. The daily average works out at about 2,400 cals.

Okay thank you for explaining that. I do IF as well but the 16/8 lean gains version.

sijomial

Awesome results. I am moving into maintenance and also focusing on recomp. I've heard over and over again that you have to be in a surplus in order to build muscle, but from what I've read - body recomposition is losing fat while gaining muscle at maintenance. I am currently at about 16% body fat, but would like to be at 10-12% body fat. I would have to gain around 10 lbs of muscle while maintaining my current weight in order to achieve that. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck.
I've never believed that bulk/cut is necessary - it might be the quickest way and probably the optimal way for those interested in bodybuilding or muscle gain as the main objective but people's bodies adapt to the stresses put on them irrespective of a notional calorie surplus.

FrnkLft

Tagged for later reading.

pyrowill

Great work! And I now know what a bodpod is.

FrnkLft

Cool thanks man for sharing!

NRBreit

Nice results! Had you been lifting weights previously? Any changes to your weight training plan during the recomp period?

sijomial

Nice results! Had you been lifting weights previously? Any changes to your weight training plan during the recomp period?

I've been doing the same routine for over a year, the only difference between losing weight and recomp is my calorie intake.

Due to knee & back injuries I can't squat, lunge or deadlift so my weights routine is very upper body focussed. Apart from a few leg presses and curls my leg work is various cardio exercises (cycle, rower, elliptical).
I did switch from 6 reps to 10 reps for my weights about ten weeks ago but it doesn't seem to have made a significant difference as regards rate of progress.

pkw58

this is a great thread. Thanks for sharing.

tindy5799

Loved this! Great evidence that your body can do multiple things at once. When I was doing paleo (at a deficit, I know it's against paleo to track calories but I did it anyways) and lifting really heavy + cross fit, I experienced the same thing. I dropped about 10 pounds but I'm pretty sure I gained a lot of muscle during that three month period.

kita_254

Great thread! Bump :-)

jcdoerr

Thank you for posting this! I'm just starting this process and have been planning on doing it much the same way you described. I'm prepared for it to go super slow, but it's nice to know what you were able to accomplish in 6 months. Fantastic work by the way! :drinker: