Recomposition: Maintaining weight while losing fat
Replies
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With a recomp you aren't losing weight. What other body measures are worth following instead? Body fat should decrease right? How soon should you see results there? Should you expect waist size to drop, or does it stay the same size but more muscular?1
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robingmurphy wrote: »With a recomp you aren't losing weight. What other body measures are worth following instead? Body fat should decrease right? How soon should you see results there? Should you expect waist size to drop, or does it stay the same size but more muscular?
Some of what you ask will be determined by genetics and some by the recomp. The body measures you use instead of weight are body measurements. Waist, hips, chest, arms, calf, thighs for example. Yes, body fat should decrease but there is no truly reliable way to determine this very precisely. All measurement methods have some margin for error. Dexa scans and Hydrostatic testing being the best.
Whether waist size drops or not depends on how much abdominal fat one carries. If not much, the waist could stay the same and be more lean and muscular. But that is mostly determined by genetics and is the same recomp or not.
As far as how fast one seems results, recomp is a slow process. Very slow. An untrained subject will initially see result with muscle gains a little quicker.
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So is there any reason why a person could not do recomp cycles during the last 30 or so pounds of weight loss? If so, what would make sense? Would something like 4 months at TDEE followed by 2 months of deficit (the deficit part I will figure out) be worth doing? I am not in a significant hurry to finish losing and I am patient enough that just because some of my results will stay hidden won't bother me. I don't think I would be interested in any type of bulking while I still have so much to lose.
You certainly could try this. As a relatively untrained subject and if you still have a good amount to lose, you are in a great position to initially gain muscle mass for a few months even in a deficit. I forget how much more you have to lose. But as you get closer to goal, you could certainly cycle recomp with deficit until you get to where you want to be leanness and muscle mass wise.2 -
@robingmurphy
With a recomp you aren't losing weight. What other body measures are worth following instead?
Whichever ones are of interest to you. (Upper arms, upper legs, chest and waist were mine. Neck was a waste of time as impossible to be consistent, probably should have added calf muscle measurements too.)
Body fat should decrease right?
Correct
How soon should you see results there?
That's a how long is a piece of string question as it depends on the rate at which you personally can add muscle. Young, male, untrained, athletic bodyfat levels, good responder to stimulus who starts training consistently is going to see results in weeks. Change those variables and the speed of muscle gain changes too. The "seeing results" part (as opposed to getting results) is very dependant on your bodyfat levels - just a small covering of fat can mask what's going on underneath
Should you expect waist size to drop, or does it stay the same size but more muscular?
If you are carrying excess fat there yes you would most likely measure less over time.
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@robingmurphy
With a recomp you aren't losing weight. What other body measures are worth following instead?
Whichever ones are of interest to you. (Upper arms, upper legs, chest and waist were mine. Neck was a waste of time as impossible to be consistent, probably should have added calf muscle measurements too.)
Body fat should decrease right?
Correct
How soon should you see results there?
That's a how long is a piece of string question as it depends on the rate at which you personally can add muscle. Young, male, untrained, athletic bodyfat levels, good responder to stimulus who starts training consistently is going to see results in weeks. Change those variables and the speed of muscle gain changes too. The "seeing results" part (as opposed to getting results) is very dependant on your bodyfat levels - just a small covering of fat can mask what's going on underneath
Should you expect waist size to drop, or does it stay the same size but more muscular?
If you are carrying excess fat there yes you would most likely measure less over time.
Something I forgot to mention as appearence seems to be your main driver - progress photos. Same lighting, same clothes/no clothes, same pose(s), whole body. Changes in body composition can be very subtle and often you simply don't notice see those long term changes when you see yourself in the mirror every day.
(Background - my profile picture came from me moaning to my wife I wasn't seeing any progress despite getting much stronger, BF% estimates improving, tape measurements changing. See responded - I can see the differrence in your back and took some pictures. A bit of chub was masking progress on my front but losing some chub from my back revealed what was happening. It's a jigsaw of data and the individual pieces don't tell the whole story.)12 -
I think I am at a point where I would like to start working on recomp. I am about 10-15 pounds above my ultimate goal weight but I think that recomp may help me achieve what I am looking for vs continuing to lose. I am currently 5'4" and maintaining between 130-135 lbs. My question revolves around recomp with restrictions. After a knee injury about 3 years ago I found out through an MRI that I don't have a ton of cartilage left in either of my knees (left being worse). The orthopedic surgeon said I would need both knees replaced at some point but I was too young for that to be a consideration for some time (I was 38 at the time). His recommendation was to preserve the cartilage I have left by restricting certain activities that could exacerbate the breakdown of the remaining cartilage. He said I should avoid running, jumping activities, squats, lunges and squatting or kneeling for extended periods of time. Currently I mostly swim for exercise but during the summer months I also do some biking and walking. Most of the recomp programs I have looked at (Strong Curves, Starting Strength, Strong Lifts 5x5) all require a decent % of squats, lunges or both. Does anyone know if it is possible to recomp without doing squats and lunges? Does anyone have a program they use or would recommend?3
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@tracybear86
There isn't such a thing as a recomp program. There are simply lifting programs with different blends of hypertrophy and strength focus and targeted at lifters with different levels of experience/training years.
Yes being injury limited in your choice of lifts will slow your progress (as it does for me with chronic knee and back injuries). Not being able to do the big compound lifts that work the biggest muscles in your body will inevitably affect your potential rate of progress. You can only play the cards you are dealt but that doesn't stop you making progress - it just slows it down.
I wouldn't recommend my self-devised program as I've never seen one written specifically for an elderly cyclist with mashed knees and back.
But I do stick to the principles of the correct volume and intensity of the lifts I can do. Off the shelf programs don't really work if you can't do the lifts specified - a well qualified PT or physical therapist might be a better option.
BTW - my surgeons told me at age 31 I would have a total knee replacement by age 50 due to losing 90% of a cartilage and a cruciate ligament. But at 59 my knee is still allowing me to cycle 5,000 miles a year even with further damage. Predicting the future isn't an exact science.
You will have to listen to your body and avoid the things that cause damage while maintaining the muscles that support your knees (primarilly quads). e.g. running, especially on a hard surface, is awful to my knees but cycling is beneficial as it's shock force and twisting/lunging that really aggravates my particular injuries. Squats and deadlifts aren't good for me but I can tolerate leg presses but only up to about 200kg when my knee goes bone on bone (and squeaks!). You need to develop the awareness of pain that indicates damage as opposed to soreness that might indicate you are simply pushing your limits.13 -
@sijomial Thanks for the input, I appreciate it! I was kind of figuring I may just have to develop my own program. I was doing Strong Curves prior to my injury so I may try that again, skip the squats and lunges, maybe add some additional body weight exercises and see how that goes. I am pretty good at differentiating general soreness from when I am overdoing it. This past weekend we were taking Christmas decorations down to the basement and after about 6-7 trips up and down the stairs my knee started to hurt and make its "2 rocks rubbing together" noise so I knew it was time to take a break!3
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Hey thanks for the great info and stories.
I recently completed a 12 week challenge in the “body transformation category”
Although I didn’t realise it was called “body recomposition, this is exactly what I did.
I made a point of not weighing myself at all after the first couple of weeks of the challenge. I was finding it slightly demotivating to be putting in so much work at the gym and eating to well but not seeing a change on the scales.
Please see the results;
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Wow, dude! A clear difference. Well done.3
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Thanks! It was a really different way of doing things for me. Other 12 week challenges I’ve done have been cardio focused. I’ve always lost allot of weight in the past but it was never sustainable. With the recomp method I’ve been able to continue at maintenance since the challenge and hopefully will
continue to drop a bit more fat and gain more muscle.
Best thing is I never feel hungry.
I get heaps of protein in and keep sugar as low as possible. Usually under 40 grams a day.7 -
The spray tan helps as well 😂😂😂10
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How is everyone getting on with their recomp? I was seeing good results October to early December of last year, but had to take time out due to injury and illness. During that time I simply focused on maintaining as couldn't be active. This week I am back to recomp and loving it! This time round I am focusing more on the quality of nutrition and upping my protein levels too.9
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AdamAussie34 wrote: »Thanks! It was a really different way of doing things for me. Other 12 week challenges I’ve done have been cardio focused. I’ve always lost allot of weight in the past but it was never sustainable. With the recomp method I’ve been able to continue at maintenance since the challenge and hopefully will
continue to drop a bit more fat and gain more muscle.
Best thing is I never feel hungry.
I get heaps of protein in and keep sugar as low as possible. Usually under 40 grams a day.
Awesome! How many grams of protein a day do you aim for?0 -
I aim for between 160-200 grams daily
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How is everyone getting on with their recomp? I was seeing good results October to early December of last year, but had to take time out due to injury and illness. During that time I simply focused on maintaining as couldn't be active. This week I am back to recomp and loving it! This time round I am focusing more on the quality of nutrition and upping my protein levels too.
Good luck with your recomp! Hope the injury is okay now..1 -
@AdamAussie34 that's a fantastic transformation! Look how happy it's made you!! And in just 12 weeks? Raa!🤟
I'm particularly impressed with your triceps.
Nice job! Wow that's a lot of protein! I aim for around 120 and really struggle despite prioritising it constantly.2 -
AdamAussie34 wrote: »How is everyone getting on with their recomp? I was seeing good results October to early December of last year, but had to take time out due to injury and illness. During that time I simply focused on maintaining as couldn't be active. This week I am back to recomp and loving it! This time round I am focusing more on the quality of nutrition and upping my protein levels too.
Good luck with your recomp! Hope the injury is okay now..
Thank you. I very nearly broke my wrist so it was slow to get better, but I'd say it is 90% recovered now. Love your post upthread, congrats on the amazing progress!3
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