Body Recomp Question

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foreverblissful
foreverblissful Posts: 50 Member
edited November 2019 in Health and Weight Loss
I’ve made another post on this a few weeks ago, but now that I’m getting closer to my transition weight and have a better idea of how I want my transition to look like? I’m still a little anxious about how to do this successfully without undoing all of my hard work.

I currently do 4 days of weight training, to which immediately after I will do a 10-20treadmill HIIT workout, and I do a 5th day of cardio only for 20 minutes(the same treadmill HIIT workout mentioned before).

I am currently losing around 2lbs a week with this regimen. I have heard people say you need to cut cardio when you switch to body recomp because it can mess with muscle growth? Would it be unrealistic to expect to continue my cardio/weight training routine and STILL be in body recomp mode if I just supplement with protein to even out my deficit? I don’t want to be stuck as “skinny fat” and “slim,” I’m trying to become lean.

My main concern is if I cut some of my cardio I’m scared of my calories being limited to the size they are now(1200ish-1500ish) making it harder for me to get the .8 protein/weight ratio. I also feel guilty for admitting this, but I also like the idea of just being able to eat more in general haha! I just don’t want to feel “restricted.” Any insight will be much appreciated

Replies

  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Congrats on your loss and your successful workout regime.
    1. Cardio does not interfere with building muscle or strength.
    2. You should target a loss of 2 lb per week nobly when you have more than 75 lbs to lose. You should decease your deficit as your journey progresses. This is best for nutrition and health and helps minimize muscle loss while losing. When you are 10-15 lb from goal, you should be losing about 0.5 per week.
    3. MFP has sticky posts with links about recomp and lifting programs. I can’t post the links right now but someone probably will. I encourage you to read these posts for more info about your questions.
    keep it going!
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,484 Member
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    If you are losing 2lbs a week and close to maintaining you should get about an extra 1000 cals a day.
    This should give you plenty of room for all macros.

    As far as still doing cardio, carry on with what you are doing if you are enjoying it.

    You may find you want to focus more on weight lifting at some point, this may lead to you adjusting your cardio and cal intake.

    I can’t do a good lifting session and an intense cardio routine on the same day, both suffer and I would be more prone to burn out, or even injury. My preference is weights one day with a little LISS and medium intensity cardio on the alternate day. 3days weights, 2day cardio, 1/2 days yoga.

    Transition to maintenance and recomp using the routine you are doing. Once you have your maintenance cals established decide what you want to do with regards to cardio and strength training.

    Changing both cals and exercise routine at the same time can make it harder to establish a good maintenance base.

    Cheers, h.
  • foreverblissful
    foreverblissful Posts: 50 Member
    edited November 2019
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    middlehaitch wrote: »
    If you are losing 2lbs a week and close to maintaining you should get about an extra 1000 cals a day.
    This should give you plenty of room for all macros.

    As far as still doing cardio, carry on with what you are doing if you are enjoying it.

    You may find you want to focus more on weight lifting at some point, this may lead to you adjusting your cardio and cal intake.

    I can’t do a good lifting session and an intense cardio routine on the same day, both suffer and I would be more prone to burn out, or even injury. My preference is weights one day with a little LISS and medium intensity cardio on the alternate day. 3days weights, 2day cardio, 1/2 days yoga.

    Transition to maintenance and recomp using the routine you are doing. Once you have your maintenance cals established decide what you want to do with regards to cardio and strength training.

    Changing both cals and exercise routine at the same time can make it harder to establish a good maintenance base.

    Cheers, h.

    Wow 1000 extra calories?! Thats a lot of food lol! No wonder non-weight losing active people can eat so much! Thank you so much I thought it was going to look something like an extra 100 or 200.

    Also the reason I combine my lifting and cardio are more out of convenience. My cardio is the only thing that suffers in terms of how much I can push myself, because it’s what I do last. I don’t mind, I know maybe if I did cardio separate I would be able to do more intensive, longer HIIT very easily, but I don’t think it’s a necessity for me right now. Maybe sometime in the future when I want to work on endurance.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,484 Member
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    Just as an experiment put your maintenance weight into MFP, and adjust your goal from losing 2lbs a week to maintenance and see how many cals you will get.

    I just said 1000 cals because you said you were still losing 2lbs a week.

    You may find it easier to move into maintenance if you start upping your cals and slowing your loss now. This will make it more a glide into maintenance rather than a leap.

    Either way you will probably experience weight fluctuations. This is not, in most cases, fat gain. It is your body holding and digesting more food, and water weight.

    Cheers, h.

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