Recomposition: Maintaining weight while losing fat
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Alright, I have some comparison photos. I did some unintentional recomp at 200 pounds because I was not motivated to cut. The photo is March 2016 to March 2017, both are exactly 200 pounds. During that time frame I rarely logged food and if I did it wasn't really accurate (more about getting protein). I followed programming similar to PHAT and PHUL with an extra/modified day for delts because mine don't grow.
And yes, I have cellulite as well as stretch marks.
Holy crap - your trap muscles!
Traps and lats and delts - oh my!2 -
Alright, I have some comparison photos. I did some unintentional recomp at 200 pounds because I was not motivated to cut. The photo is March 2016 to March 2017, both are exactly 200 pounds. During that time frame I rarely logged food and if I did it wasn't really accurate (more about getting protein). I followed programming similar to PHAT and PHUL with an extra/modified day for delts because mine don't grow.
And yes, I have cellulite as well as stretch marks.
Holy crap - your trap muscles!
Traps and lats and delts - oh my!
Thank you both! I lean out from the top down, so I'll be happy when this cut is over and I can see the lower body changes. The delts have been slow growing.4 -
MY body just does completely random *kitten*. For months I've been trying get under 100kg then I go into recomp and up my calories and lose 1kg in a week. So now I'm under 100kg lol5
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Alright, I have some comparison photos. I did some unintentional recomp at 200 pounds because I was not motivated to cut. The photo is March 2016 to March 2017, both are exactly 200 pounds. During that time frame I rarely logged food and if I did it wasn't really accurate (more about getting protein). I followed programming similar to PHAT and PHUL with an extra/modified day for delts because mine don't grow.
And yes, I have cellulite as well as stretch marks.
Holy crap - your trap muscles!
Traps and lats and delts - oh my!
Thank you both! I lean out from the top down, so I'll be happy when this cut is over and I can see the lower body changes. The delts have been slow growing.
For that I am jealous. Striated quads but no clear ab's. Great progress btw.2 -
I've been avidly reading this post all day (still haven't gotten all the way through it but skipped to the end). I have been thinking of doing a recomp even though I have more fat to lose (after nearly 5 years I just couldn't eat at a deficit any longer). So I come here and discover that I've been doing a recomp since January. LOL. Boy, am I an idiot. I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing because I see definite changes (looser pants and tops, more defined tummy though very little weight loss and measurements not going down by much).
Thank you, everyone, for your expertise. Now to pick up back in the middle12 -
Woops, some of my favourite people need a bump.
Cheers, h.5 -
Sarasmaintaining wrote: »Thanks for the info I looked into this, but since I do body-weight strength training and not heavy lifting, I don't think it would work for me, bummer!
There are ways you can add resistance to body weight exercises and there are modifications that make body weight exercises harder. Progressive overload is generally viewed as adding more weight, but we can overload the muscles in other ways.
One note on this post. When adding weight to body weight exercises, I would highly recommend using a weighted workout vest so the weight can be evenly distributed. Depending on the type of movement, you can throw your form "out of wack" if you are not careful. Using a weighted vest will help to mitigate this risk.4 -
I'm getting frustrated and don't know if I can recomp or not because I can't keep my weight steady. I'm always gaining a few pounds. Then I'm back in a deficit to lose a few pounds. I can't drop fat if I keep gaining weight, and the deficit is doing me no good!
I feel like I should just bulk/cut because I can gain and lose weight but seem to have issues keeping my weight steady enough. Think I'm just spinning my wheels.....2 -
I'm getting frustrated and don't know if I can recomp or not because I can't keep my weight steady. I'm always gaining a few pounds. Then I'm back in a deficit to lose a few pounds. I can't drop fat if I keep gaining weight, and the deficit is doing me no good!
I feel like I should just bulk/cut because I can gain and lose weight but seem to have issues keeping my weight steady enough. Think I'm just spinning my wheels.....
I did something similar during my year of recomp. As long as you are lifting and progressing with the lifting you'll make progress on lean mass gains. Swings of 20 pounds or more is time to reconsider how you plan to maintain weight long term.1 -
I'm getting frustrated and don't know if I can recomp or not because I can't keep my weight steady. I'm always gaining a few pounds. Then I'm back in a deficit to lose a few pounds. I can't drop fat if I keep gaining weight, and the deficit is doing me no good!
I feel like I should just bulk/cut because I can gain and lose weight but seem to have issues keeping my weight steady enough. Think I'm just spinning my wheels.....
I did something similar during my year of recomp. As long as you are lifting and progressing with the lifting you'll make progress on lean mass gains. Swings of 20 pounds or more is time to reconsider how you plan to maintain weight long term.
Yeah....no way to twenty pounds! I go up and down 3-5lbs, but I'm not talking fluctuating weight. It sticks and then I'm in a battle to get it back off. Overall I've been maintaining for a year so I'm proud of that, but keeping myself at a stable trend weight without having to flip back and forth has been hard.... I'll keep pressing on though.
Interesting to hear you say that all you did was track protein because I was toying with the idea of trying it myself. I'd love to be able to be more flexible with that. I'm wondering if it might help me with adherence too. I think I tend to overeat sometimes because I'm feeling held too tightly to everything fitting macros perfectly.
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3-5 lbs is known expected water weight fluctuations for all kinds of reasons. And not just daily.
Sodium induced can hold on for 3-4 days even.
Increased blood volume for cardio in heat will stay on all summer until you do less and/or cooler.
Water for inflammation from good workout can last 2-3 days.
Stress induced can last weeks, which the stress of seeing increased weight can add more.
Obviously as a woman your BMR and ability to retain water change through the month too, with a week or more hold pattern there.
30 day trend is about the minimum you can give consideration to for discerning something useful.
And hoping you know you can't have a weight goal as in a single number - gotta have a weight range goal as ucmcmp mentions.
Don't trust the scale as a single measuring device.
If stomach is your first place for fat gain like vast majority - other figure to track is measurement of waist at belly button. Straight around and level.
Valid weigh-in measurement day to minimize known water weight changes.
Morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from last workout.4 -
Ok so what is reasonable weight range for maintenance? Say I want to maintain on 100kg. What would be my minimum and maximum weight range?0
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@cnbbnc
How are you defining "steady" - what kind of range? Over what time period?
"Spinning your wheels" - how are you measuring progress? Again over what time period?
Recomp happens in a zone around maintenance not just precisely at maintenance so not really seeing weight zigzagging as a problem in terms of potential development.1 -
Ok so what is reasonable weight range for maintenance? Say I want to maintain on 100kg. What would be my minimum and maximum weight range?
It's very individual, my weight often jumps around a couple of kilos day to day.
On the other hand my colleague hardly varies by a few grams day to day or even week to week.
Plus of course you are a big guy at 100kg so small percentage changes give a bigger number.
Would suggest you just track for a month and try to see what is natural for you.
(PS - congrats on that impressive weight loss!)2 -
Following...I'm new to all this and it was a wake up call going to the gym with my bestie. It was so strange working out without having weightloss as a goal. I have issues with dealing with my needs (get stronger and leaner without necessarily losing weight) and help her lose weight (she is at 290ish). At my highest weight I was around 270/280. 2 years ago I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and lost 100lbs relatively quickly and not in a healthy way (basically not eating and barely leaving the toilet) Now I am at 152ish at 5'6 a few months ago checked my BF and was at 28%. I'm seeing progress at the gym (don't really watch my food since I don’t eat enough most of the time)
Gonna go check out some protein supplements today since I have problems hitting my macros.5 -
Ok so what is reasonable weight range for maintenance? Say I want to maintain on 100kg. What would be my minimum and maximum weight range?
It's very individual, my weight often jumps around a couple of kilos day to day.
On the other hand my colleague hardly varies by a few grams day to day or even week to week.
Plus of course you are a big guy at 100kg so small percentage changes give a bigger number.
Would suggest you just track for a month and try to see what is natural for you.
(PS - congrats on that impressive weight loss!)
Awesome thanks My weight doesnt very all that much although before Easter weekend it did go down to 99.2kg and after Easter it was at 100.7kg lol I figuere 1kg eiher way is ok with me.
Thanks for the compliment3 -
Ok so what is reasonable weight range for maintenance? Say I want to maintain on 100kg. What would be my minimum and maximum weight range?
It's very individual, my weight often jumps around a couple of kilos day to day.
On the other hand my colleague hardly varies by a few grams day to day or even week to week.
Plus of course you are a big guy at 100kg so small percentage changes give a bigger number.
Would suggest you just track for a month and try to see what is natural for you.
(PS - congrats on that impressive weight loss!)
Awesome thanks My weight doesnt very all that much although before Easter weekend it did go down to 99.2kg and after Easter it was at 100.7kg lol I figuere 1kg eiher way is ok with me.
Thanks for the compliment
Up to 3 kg is fairly normal. If you hit 5kg above where you normally are and it doesn't drop within a few days it's time to make adjustments.1 -
Love the insights from @usmcmp and @heybales. I have definitely struggled with maintenance at times. Last year I lost a little over 20 lbs from Nov '15 to Mar '16. But then from Mar '16 to Jan '17 I struggled with bouncing around, usually 0.5-5 lbs over my goal range for maintenance (128-133 lbs). It was frustrating b/c like @cnbbnc it seemed like I was constantly going back to a deficit trying to re-lose. I'd get down to like 133.4 and then bounce up again; it seemed like I could never stay stable within range.
More recently I was up solidly to 5 lbs above goal range so I did a DietBet for accountability and lost the weight. Maintenance has been going better so far this time around in that I've stayed within goal range for over a month (still weighing food, logging carefully, reverse dieting, etc.). Five weeks might not sound like much but it's a better start than I had a year ago, so I'm starting to feel more confident that I can keep this up long-term. I just need to avoid the mentality of "I'm back at goal range, I was disciplined for so long, I can be a little more careless now" ... My new Fitbit Charge 2 has also been great so far in terms of motivation to stay active and being more mindful of (and more accurate with) the CO side of the equation.4 -
I'll add, I do plan to recomp starting in a month. I'm training for a race on May 13. Right now I'm playing it safe by doing my physical therapy home program for strength on my non-running days; after the race I plan to keep eating at maintenance, start YAYOG 3x/wk and go from there.1
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I'm getting frustrated and don't know if I can recomp or not because I can't keep my weight steady. I'm always gaining a few pounds. Then I'm back in a deficit to lose a few pounds. I can't drop fat if I keep gaining weight, and the deficit is doing me no good!
I feel like I should just bulk/cut because I can gain and lose weight but seem to have issues keeping my weight steady enough. Think I'm just spinning my wheels.....
I did something similar during my year of recomp. As long as you are lifting and progressing with the lifting you'll make progress on lean mass gains. Swings of 20 pounds or more is time to reconsider how you plan to maintain weight long term.
Yeah....no way to twenty pounds! I go up and down 3-5lbs, but I'm not talking fluctuating weight. It sticks and then I'm in a battle to get it back off. Overall I've been maintaining for a year so I'm proud of that, but keeping myself at a stable trend weight without having to flip back and forth has been hard.... I'll keep pressing on though.
Interesting to hear you say that all you did was track protein because I was toying with the idea of trying it myself. I'd love to be able to be more flexible with that. I'm wondering if it might help me with adherence too. I think I tend to overeat sometimes because I'm feeling held too tightly to everything fitting macros perfectly.
@cnbbnc, you know I haven't been logging for the past 8 months or so and have been a little uncomfortable about the fluff I've put back on, but not enough to do anything about it. Well, I got on the scale yesterday and was a little down to see the number as well as the fact it was telling me I was around 20% BF now (adjusted for calibration against DEXA). So I bit the bullet and took a progress photo and compared it to last years at this time. Honestly, there's not a big difference. So I think sometimes we feel/see things that other people wouldn't really notice. I'll probably just continue keeping a running log of my protein in my head as I do now and keep it at that. I've enjoyed the freedom of not getting upset when my husband wants to go out to dinner last minute and I didn't plan it into my day. I still find myself making smarter choices most of the time, but I also sit down with a bag of chips occasionally.
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