Recomping After Menopause
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KetoneKaren
Posts: 6,411 Member
Is anyone else interested in recomping after menopause? I want to build muscle while losing fat and wonder if there are like-minded postmenopausal women with a similar interest.
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Well, I was doing that last year with a trainer but I had gallbladder surgery in May and I can't do any heavy lifting for a few more months. I am currently walking and hiking, but I will probably start with some light weight/high repetition work soon to try to build some strength, and maybe explore so other stuff that doesn't implicate the core much (step ups?). Unfortunately my surgeon said about 6 months before I'm ready for heavy again due to internal stitches/healing.
I'm also stuck with a low fat diet without the gallbladder, so it's been high carb/low fat for the past couple of months, which has actually been really effective for weight loss but I'm not sure how it will be for building strength.
I'm about 15 lbs away from my primary goal, but in the range to start a recomp, if I can find ways to build muscle without messing myself up.
What are you thinking about doing?1 -
I don't know what Recomping is.0
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Recompositioning. It's basically increasing muscle while reducing fat at the same time, which usually means eating at maintenance or close to it because muscle growth arguably does not occur in a deficit.
My surgeon has tentatively OK'd an increase in exercise with the caveat that I stop if it hurts and wait two weeks to try again. So I am going to start doing bodyweight exercises, probably push ups and planks to start.1 -
I never heard of that. Good luck with it!1
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Tagging this to follow along.1
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Yes, I've lost some weight, and I would like to shore up my muscle mass against the aging process.1
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I don't know what Shoring Up means either. I'm pretty lost in this post !!!0
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I had an unexpected schedule complication over the past few weeks that will be resolved next week, so I'll be signing up for the gym again. I'm not sure how much I can do just yet, but I'm starting to do some push ups against a counter, working my way down to the floor. I think I will be stuck with the machines for awhile, but my weight loss is slowing down and I've been kind of anxious, which is usually a sign I need to go to maintenance for a little bit anyway.
MostlyWater, we lose lean muscle mass as part of the aging process, so resistance training to build and protect muscle mass is especially beneficial for women our age. More muscle mass means a better metabolism. There was a study that indicated that resistance training might have as much impact on preventing abdominal fat gain as HRT (I'm on HRT, but resistance training is obviously beneficial in any case). Resistance training is also good for bone health, which is a concern for anyone not getting estrogen.
Recomposition is simply building muscle while reducing fat. The theory is that this can be done with maintenance level calories and resistance training/lifting.1 -
TheGaudyMagpie wrote: »I had an unexpected schedule complication over the past few weeks that will be resolved next week, so I'll be signing up for the gym again. I'm not sure how much I can do just yet, but I'm starting to do some push ups against a counter, working my way down to the floor. I think I will be stuck with the machines for awhile, but my weight loss is slowing down and I've been kind of anxious, which is usually a sign I need to go to maintenance for a little bit anyway.
MostlyWater, we lose lean muscle mass as part of the aging process, so resistance training to build and protect muscle mass is especially beneficial for women our age. More muscle mass means a better metabolism. There was a study that indicated that resistance training might have as much impact on preventing abdominal fat gain as HRT (I'm on HRT, but resistance training is obviously beneficial in any case). Resistance training is also good for bone health, which is a concern for anyone not getting estrogen.
Recomposition is simply building muscle while reducing fat. The theory is that this can be done with maintenance level calories and resistance training/lifting.
Thank you - yes, I do know this - I didn't realize that "shoring up" was a shortened version of saying this.
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I think she meant "shoring up" in the sense of "protecting."1
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So, if your deficit is only around 200 per day, do you think that would be considered recomp, or do you think you have to eat even closer to maintenance?
I've always thought of it as being exactly maintenance, but maybe. . . . .??0 -
I think you might be able to recomp on that. The common wisdom is that you can't build muscle in a deficit, except for "newbie gains." I'm not entirely sure how true that is. I feel like here on MFP, there is kind of a canon regarding fitness that has been built up, but I've seen some indications elsewhere that it's possible to recomp with a small deficit. I think that Leangains, for example, has you increase calories on exercise/lift days with a deficit on other days, so perhaps that's something that might work for you.
Lyle McDonald has written a lot of articles about recompositioning. If I remember correctly, I believe that he says it's possible to recomp on a small deficit. Here's his site if you want to poke around: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/
I semi-committed to a 10K in a few months, so I will probably be focusing more on training for that than recomp (and it's easier on my long-term surgery recovery). Unfortunately, the heatwave is preventing the training from getting started. I'm hoping my hiking experience will cover me (it's an elevation gain run). I have an exercise bike so I will probably start using that in the evening (in the AC!).1 -
I've visited the Lyle McDonald site, and there is some good stuff there. There is a great article about women and weight loss/bodybuilding. It doesn't speak specifically to peri and meno, but there are certainly some conclusions you could draw. . . .1
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KetoneKaren wrote: »Is anyone else interested in recomping after menopause? I want to build muscle while losing fat and wonder if there are like-minded postmenopausal women with a similar interest.
I'm in! If you'd like to add me I'm definitely ready to do this! I workout 5 days a week strength train and cardio together some days and others just weight train only using bodyspace website templates and have noticed getting stronger and a little more definition in upper body but need to heavy up to increase more definition in lower body ( have a weak left knee so have to be careful how much I lift til this gets stonger) but really ready to give this a try
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