Confused on how to recomp

There's a great, long, thread on recomp running by usmcp. It should give you all the info you need. It's basically eat at maintenance and exercise, especially lifting or strength training. It's a long process, but looking at the photos on the thread very worth it.

Your maintenance calories should include the your exercise levels as well. Rough guess based on the information you have provided would Say 400 calories burned *2, +200(estimate of calories burned from weight training) *3/7 =200+1400 =1600. I would aim for 1600 calories daily and monitor weight over a 1-2 month time to track whether it is increasing or decreasing and adjust from there. Women who still maintain their cycles need at least a full cycle usually in order to monitor small fluctuations. Recomp takes time so plan to revaluate your lifting program after several months to determine if you are moving in the right direction.

Is a deficit of 400-500 calories (30-35% of my maintenance) too big a deficit and could make me lose muscle? Or will I be burning fat? Should I eat more to make up the calories?


You do not want to be in a deficit to recomp. You want to be eating at maintenance. If you trust your garmin, for calorie counts then go by what it says. I find mine over estimates by a bit so I know a fe hundred calories off that. For recomp, which is a long term thing TDEE method of calorie counting where you eat the same calorie level daily will likely be more helpful.

You should be eating your exercise calories back.

You are almost the exact same place I was when I started here. 1600 is a great place to start and others mentioned, monitor your weight for a few weeks or even months and see if it is dropping, rising or staying the same. You are doing everything right. Just give it plenty of time.

Zara_Pi wrote: »

Hi everyone

I’m 33yrs old, 5 1”, currently weigh 108lbs.
My goal is to lose some body fat and gain muscle.

I’m looking to do a recomp as I’m at a good weight but still have quite a bit of fat on me and very minimal muscle mass due to lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle over the last 8 years. (And also a very, very bad diet consisting mostly of junk carbs and low protein).

I have started weight lifting last month and do 1 hour strength training on Mon, Wed and Fri. And 60 mins cardio on Tue & Wed (mostly treadmill & rowing machine). Sat and Sun are rest days.

My maintenance calories (without any exercise) is between 1350-1500. So I have taken 1400 cals as my maintenance level.

I’m confused on how much calories I should have when I am working out and whether to eat back my exercise calories or not.

So my question is if I am working out, say doing cardio for 1 hour, I burn about 400 calories.
Do I then eat that back the exercise calories to stay at the 1400 so would eat 1400+ 400? Or do I stick to 1400?

And how much protein should I be having? I usually have about 80-90g a day.

For re-comp (ie getting in shape) you eat at maintenance....obviously maintenance would have to include your exercise. If you eat non exercise maintenance (NEAT) you would be creating a calorie deficit by exercising and not accounting for that activity as you would obviously be burning more calories than your NEAT maintenance. Exercise calories aren't some kind of special or different calorie...they're the same as any calories you are burning through being alive and going about your day to day. You have to account for them in maintenance.

You can build muscle in a slight deficit. There is a difference between weight loss and fat loss. On my training days I eat above maintenance level by around 250(ish) calories. On non training days i eat below maintenance, but only slightly because my days are less active so I don't need the extra food (I reduce the carbs and keep the protein high) Look on google at carb cycling, you need the carbs on training days as this is where your body gets the energy from to power through your sessions. My advice, which others will disagree with (and that's fine), is to scale back to cardio to a max of 45 mins per session. You don't have to do cardio, if you enjoy it then keep it in but if it feel as though you hate it but think you have to do it then you really don't. Too much cardio will eat into the muscle gains. I lift weights Monday, Wednesday and Friday for around 45 minutes then on the weekend I do a kettlebell work out (following a Joe Wicks video i saw on YouTube). I have a desk job so i spend a lot of time sat down but i try and keep my step count to 5500 a day, i go for a 20 minute walk on my lunch break weather permitting.

Zara_Pi wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I worry that if I have too big a deficit due to exercise, I will be burning muscle which I don’t want to do.
For example I did my strength training yesterday which according to my Garmin watch I burnt 250 calories. And I did some cardio in the morning which according to Garmin I burnt 400 calories, and rowing for 20mins where I burnt 100cals. So that’s 750cals burnt in total yesterday.

Is a deficit of 400-500 calories (30-35% of my maintenance) too big a deficit and could make me lose muscle? Or will I be burning fat? Should I eat more to make up the calories?

I’ve looked at the recomp thread but couldn’t see anything about exercise calories and whether to eat them back or not in order to be at maintenance calories overall.

Studies have shown that with a reasonable deficit, enough protein, and resistance training - there doesn't need to be any muscle loss.

Too big a deficit doesn't matter if from exercise, or no exercise and too big a deficit when not doing the other 2 things.

But you are talking recomp - so why talk about a deficit?

And you aren't strictly burning muscle - some muscle is broken down daily - in the face of too big a deficit and not enough protein and no usage - the body decides nutrients are needed for other more required things and the muscle is just not built back up.

Reread the first page of the recomp thread - you likely missed some other important points.
You have a misunderstanding what maintenance means so the principle didn't come across.

@Zara_Pi Bret Contreras is a great resource if you're looking to learn more about body recomposition.

This is a good article to start with https://bretcontreras.com/strength-training-is-fat-loss-training/

I would recommend also browsing through his other articles on his website and his instagram to learn more.