"If you want to recomp..."

cmeiron

"If you want to recomp you have to eat at a surplus on lifting days and at a deficit on non lifting days."

So I just read this response from Sara in another thread - how does this work?

Do you still have a deficit overall (i.e. over the course of a week or month), or a surplus, or maintenance? Why does it matter whether your excess calories are taken in on the same day as lifting rather than 24 hours later?

I'm currently eating at a deficit and eat the same every day regardless of whether I'm lifting, doing cardio, or resting. Am I compromising my progress? My goal is to reduce body fat and gain strength (I'd love added muscle mass but don't think I can achieve more than newb gains on an overall deficit, correct?)

Perhaps I don't understand what "recomp" means?

Can anyone clarify?

Sarauk2sf

So, outside 'newbie gains' or 'overweight gains', you cannot gain muscle mass on a deficit. Under a more direct approach, to gain muscle mass you go through bulk/cut cycles. You eat at a consistent surplus, with doing an appropriate strength training routine to bulk. This will add fat and muscle. You then cut to get rid of the fat and try to maintain the muscle.

For a recomp, you are basically doing the same thing - but with daily overs//unders rather than eating at a surplus and then a deficit for months. So, on lifting days, as you need a surplus to gain muscle, you eat over maintenance. Then on non lifting days, to cut the fat you will also be gaining eating at a surplus, you eat at a deficit. Some people also just eat at a static number each day.

The problem with recomping - it is very inefficient and hit and miss. Your TDEE changes daily, your food is absorbed and utilized at different rates and throughout a relatively long period of time - so what you eat one day will not necessarily to towards a surplus and therefore muscle gains for that day. So this makes it a bit of a crap shoot. Obviously some of the times, it will go towards muscle gains, which is why people do it when they do not want to do a straight bulk/cut cycle.

If your goals are strength gains - you can absolutely get those on a deficit however.

I used to vary my calories somewhat to have higher calories on lifting days - but that was purely for energy requirements and not body recomp requirements. I do not do well lifting on low (for me) calories.

Martucha123

I think that if it works, it's the best for people who do IF-leangains and train before the feeding window. Than it's really clear that the food go towards the muscle gains, as you eat all of it 8 h after the work out and then you don't eat for the next 16h. If you eat from 12 to 10 pm and train around 7 pm like I do it does not really make sense to eat more on lifting days and less on rest days to recomp, IMO it gets all mixed up and you get same results as eating TDEE flat. That does not mean you can't recomp then, I think that if you have high enough bf% you will recomp a bit eating TDEE even if the calories are flat or all over the place like mine are, but the results of cut and bulk are much faster.

Sarauk2sf

I think that if it works, it's the best for people who do IF-leangains and train before the feeding window. Than it's really clear that the food go towards the muscle gains, as you eat all of it 8 h after the work out and then you don't eat for the next 16h. If you eat from 12 to 10 pm and train around 7 pm like I do it does not really make sense to eat more on lifting days and less on rest days to recomp, IMO it gets all mixed up and you get same results as eating TDEE flat. That does not mean you can't recomp then, I think that if you have high enough bf% you will recomp a bit eating TDEE even if the calories are flat or all over the place like mine are, but the results of cut and bulk are much faster.

I actually do not quite agree with this. Protein goes to muscle gain, not food in general. You need more food in general to make sure you have enough energy to take care of the rest of your bodies requirements so you have enough protein left over for muscle synthesis. You need energy to have an effective workout also. Also, you need to remember that food takes time to digest and absorb.

I have not seen a compelling study that shows that IF style recomp works better than a non-IF style recomp. If someone has one I am obviously happy to change my views on this as I may be missing something in my thought process.

sijomial

I follow the 5:2 eating plan (2 days on 600 cals, 5 days eating "normally"). I'm also at my goal weight and so am maintaining.
Effectively I'm under-eating (a lot...) on 2 days a week and eating a surplus for 5 days to balance my calories over the week.
Mostly my exercise occurs on the 5 over-eating days.

The results have been slow but steady - which suits me fine, I'm not in a hurry. Losing approx 1% body fat a month without changing weight.

Strength gains are also fairly slow but steady, again this suits me as various injuries prevent me from pushing too hard/fast.
Might also be slow and steady as I'm an old fart of course......

Sarauk2sf

^^this approach makes more sense to me as you have such a large 'window' of surplus that the timing re absorption and utilization is less of an issue. I would imagine also that it is easier to determine whether you are at a surplus of not as the higher calorie days also correspond with higher activity days (as long as you are actually eating to take that into account).

However, 600 calories would leave no room for ice cream so it's a no go for me

sijomial

^^this approach makes more sense to me as you have such a large 'window' of surplus that the timing re absorption and utilization is less of an issue. I would imagine also that it is easier to determine whether you are at a surplus of not as the higher calorie days also correspond with higher activity days (as long as you are actually eating to take that into account).

However, 600 calories would leave no room for ice cream so it's a no go for me

I follow the "MFP method" of net calories on the 5 days so yes my intake does match my exercise. I could eat ice cream 5 days a week but prefer beer and cashews.... :drinker:

Sarauk2sf

Locking so we can keep track of active threads better. Please PM myself or SideSteel if you have any further questions and we will unlock. Please link the thread in the PM.