Help, someone guide me from weight loss to body re-composition?

Eat at maintenance and adjust based on results.

I've been in recomp for around 500 days now give or take. Although I've been able to build a fair amount of muscle and strength based on how I work out (body weight only) I've never really been able to reduce fat at the same time as build muscle. There are articles and some trainers who swear you can do it, but I've not been able to do it. In order for me to gain muscle I had to eat at roughly maintenance plus a little bit (100-200 calories over). In order to drop fat I had to lose weight which meant shifting back into a deficit. So for the last 500 days I've been doing a bit of both. From Thanksgiving last year until the end of February of this year I stayed at or around maintenance, focused mostly on body weight strength training/circuit training, and then in February I shifted into a slight deficit, and then last month into a little heavier of a deficit until Thanksgiving this year. Over the winter, just eating 100-200 calories above maintenance I managed to gain around 10 lbs or so. I've been able to cut back about 4 of those pounds so far, and may be able to cut another 4 by Thanksgiving but I'm not in a huge deficit (I don't want to risk losing too much of the muscle I gained, for me it's a tough gain).

I think the biggest thing with recomp is slowly shifting up to maintenance calories. Before I did that, I went about 10 lbs below my goal weight on purpose. I knew with the extra calorie intake I would gain at least that back and I was right to a point. At the end of February I stopped gaining at exactly my original goal weight which is only 5 lbs below 'overweight' BMI for me. My final goal is to build enough muscle over the next two years that I'll be able to drop back to somewhere around 10lbs below the overweight BMI range and be very lean. I think it'll work but it's a very very long process. My suggestion, don't get in a hurry. Adjust your calories over a period of weeks not days.

Also.. during recomp don't change your exercise routine. Keep it the same, or increase it. The point is to build muscle not slack off on the amount of exercise you're doing.

I encourage you to browse the Maintenance forum. Answers to all your questions and some you didn't even know you had. Basically, eat at maintenance cals, set a 5 lb range to fluctuate within, and lift!

FemmeAndi wrote: »

Thank you for sharing you experience. I`m new to this building muscle stage. I never know where to go after I get near my goal weight and my cardio and fitness level is great. So maybe I should lose the remainder 5 pounds before I continue on with p90x3? I dunno but today for 30 minutes it was only different variations of pull up bar and push ups. It was quite boring.

I did go past my original goal by 10 lbs or so on purpose before hitting maintenance calories. I simply added 100 calories a week for about 10 weeks (I was originally at a 2lb/wk deficit) until I hit maintenance calories. I managed to go about 10 lbs below my goal weight doing it that slowly because I knew the added calories to build muscle meant extra weight. My original goal weight was only 5lbs below the 'overweight' BMI number for me, so that's pretty much my hard limit. I never want to be overweight again, my back and knees can't handle it. So if I want to do bulk and cut cycles it has to be within a range under my goal weight. So far it's worked. But if you hit your goal and start there, expect to gain some weight bulking. About 15-20% of what you gain will probably be muscle, the rest will be fat. So keep that in mind. You may indeed want to hit your goal first and/or go below it. However if your goal weight is mid-normal BMI range for you then you have plenty of room to fluctuate. Some people don't care about BMI at all, I just use it as a range to set my goals.

FemmeAndi wrote: »

sardelsa wrote: »

FemmeAndi wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

You eat the appropriate calories to maintain your weight and you train effectively - nothing more complex than that.
Is P90x3 a program for muscle growth? Progressively overloading your muscles?
(I've no idea what P90x3 is.)

It's irrelevant how many calories you burn during your workout as you compensate with you food intake to achieve maintenance calories.

Yes it's a muscle building program. I liked the high calorie burn of the other program because it meant i had a little more wiggle room with my calories, but i was eating it deficit then. I dunno but today it was called `The challenge`and it was only different variations of pull up bar and push ups for 30 minutes and it hurt lol but was unfortunately quite boring.

While I am sure you could get results from P90X3, I wouldn't exactly call it a muscle building program. It is a great program for endurance, fitness, mobility, strength and maybe some muscle building, but there are many more optimal programs out there for actual muscle growth.

And no I wouldn't lose the 5lbs unless you do some sort of resistance training while you do it.. if you lose the 5lbs without doing anything, it will be both fat and muscle.. believe me you want to preserve muscle, not lose more.

Do you have any suggestions of other programs at home i could do? The equipment I have at home is pull-up bar and my heaviest dumbbells are 10lbs.

For the last 5 pounds I would probably do Focus T25 (Start on Beta phase) which is cardio based with resistance training involved (uses dumbbells).

It's difficult because it seemed like I was headed in the right direction but when I started p90x3 on saturday and realized how I dont even break a sweat in it, feels like I'm going to go backwards (Start gaining weight again, and I realize this has to happen to gain muscle but I dunno if my mind is ready to watch the number on the scale go up after I fought so hard to bring it down).

You can check out this link for a few suggestions (under bodyweight)
community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Weight training, especially in the beginning, may not feel as difficult as intense interval cardio. You may not even break a sweat (I typically don't when I lift).. so don't base how successful it is on how difficult it seems. You want to be sure to challenge yourself, make progress over time, and follow the program. And while your weight may fluctuate 5lbs or so, you shouldn't actually be gaining if you are maintaining.

I think it will depend on your goals.. if you want to maintain your weight and continue to improve your fitness, conditioning, stamina, some strength and maybe build a bit, sure.. it's a great program. But if you have very specific body composition goals, well I would find a program that suits that. Again I don't think you won't make progress, it just depends what you are hoping to get out of it.
Good luck!

FemmeAndi wrote: »

sardelsa wrote: »

I think it will depend on your goals.. if you want to maintain your weight and continue to improve your fitness, conditioning, stamina, some strength and maybe build a bit, sure.. it's a great program. But if you have very specific body composition goals, well I would find a program that suits that. Again I don't think you won't make progress, it just depends what you are hoping to get out of it.
Good luck!

Thank you! I'd like to see some ab definition, and to see some muscle definition in my upper arms while my arms are in the resting state. And a little more booty haha

Well definition will come from lowering your bodyfat%, a calorie deficit mainly.

In terms of adding a booty.. well I'm going to be honest, those programs will have very little effect. Something like Strong Curves (there is a bodyweight version) or something similar (not a cardio booty program or anything like that.. it really has to be progressive overload based)