of course we can’t forget, by far the most important nutrition factor, the crème de
la crème of body recomposition, is your Build muscle, lose fat at the same time.
That’s the dream!
Unfortunately, of all things easier said than done, this certainly sits high up there within
the fitness atmosphere.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible nor does it mean it’s not worth attempting.
It’s just that if you do attempt to build muscle and burn fat at the same time, also
known as body recomposition, it’s best you take all the necessary steps.
Even then, achieving meaningful results with body recomposition largely depends on your
current fitness circumstances.
If you’re not familiar with said circumstances or even the concept of body recomposition,
I highly suggest you watch my video explaining it first and then come back here if you decide
it’s something worth your while.
If you do feel that this is the right thing for you, then let’s get started.
Now, the fundamentals of body recomp isn’t all that complicated and largely revolves
around two things: Your training and your daily calorie intake.
That’s it.
Of course, the approach to these two pieces is where things take a bit more thinking and
effort.
I’m gonna try to break it down and simplify it the best I can.
First, let’s look at training.
In any muscle building goal, it is without a shadow of a doubt that resistance training
is 100 percent necessary.
It is the resistance, be it calisthenics or lifting weights, that will stimulate your
muscles thus support its growth.
Now, research suggest that it’s best to target each muscle at least two to three times
weekly.
So, that means, at the very minimum, you have to train two days per week, but it’s probably
closer to three so you can better manage the training load.
Most programs are even more, five, or six days a week, allowing you to “split” muscle
groups into separate days.
In any case, your training must progress in both work volume and intensity.
Work volume is the product of reps times sets times the weight you’re lifting.
This number needs to continually progress.
In terms of intensity, you should push your workouts close to failure, but not necessarily
failure itself.
Simply, it should feel difficult.
Now, for your non-training days.
You can simply take a break at this time to recover and relax.
Or, if you’re up for it, you can do CARDIO.
Doing cardio helps you burn more calories; thus, hopefully help you burn more fat.
You can choose pretty much any cardio you enjoy, but I strongly suggest not doing taxing
cardio like high intensity interval training, as it might impact recovery thus impact performance
of your actual training days.
If you need help choosing a program for yourself, then please feel free to join our wonderful
little picturefit discord community and we’ll be more than happy to help you figure it out.
Link to that is in the description.
But that’s the gist of training.
It doesn’t really stray too far from your usual resistance training programs.
Where the magic really happens is in nutrition.
How many calories should you eat for body recomp.
More?
Less?
Or the same?
Well, it’s actually a mixture of all of them and it’s a good thing we talked about
training first.
Because how your nutrition is managed will be based on your training schedule.
Ideally, you wanna eat a bit more during your training days and a bit less or the same on
your off days.
Now I do say ideally because it’s not exactly necessary.
The main goal is to regularly eat close to your maintenance calories.
Your maintenance calories being the number of calories you burn on a daily basis, also
known as your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE.
I’ll leave a link to a TDEE calculator in the description if you need help figuring
this number out.
Anyway, the point of body recomp is to maintain your current weight while shifting more of
that weight towards muscle and away from fat.
So ideally, you wanna create situations where you will best fulfill those two goals.
On training days, having more nutrients, calories, will allow you to have a higher supply of
energy, thus support your actual training.
Plus, having more nutrients, especially protein, have shown to increase muscle growth when
paired with training.
So again, ideally, it makes sense to eat more during training days to both maximize muscle
growth and performance.
Around a 300 to 500-calorie surplus on training days, much of it from carbs, sounds like a
good idea.
Now on off days, we’ll do the opposite, eating at a deficit for fat loss.
You can opt to eat just at maintenance if you value building muscle more, but ideally,
you wanna be in a deficit similar to your surplus.
That is, a 300 to 500-calorie deficit.
If you have fewer off days than you do training days, then that deficit might be slightly
larger.
Whatever balances out the extra calories you eat during training.
Better yet, get that cardio done so you can burn more calories and not struggle so much
with eating less.
And of course we can’t forget, by far the most important nutrition factor, the crème
de la crème of body recomposition, is your protein intake.
Protein, in all its glory, is the definition of body recomp in a way.
Your body will hardly ever store protein away as fat because of its metabolic cost and of
course, protein is the main ingredient for muscle.
So, in all of your days, protein intake should remain fairly high.
I usually recommend getting 1.6 to 2.3 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight for
most goals.
With body recomp, I’d suggest you shoot closer to the upper end of the range.
Get your protein.
And before we close, one more extremely important tip is simply to be patient.
Since building muscle and burning fat at the same time is a dual approach, aka you’re
trying to achieve two conflicting goals simultaneously, results will take much longer compared to
just bulking or cutting.
It’s also why you should first understand if this is something you truly think you should
do.
Again, check out my body recomp explained video if you’re not sure.
If you are up for it, then do your absolute best to follow the necessary steps.
To summarize, that’s to resistance train regularly while progressing in volume plus
intensity, stay near calorie maintence in your nutrition, ideally with a cycling approach,
get your protein, and, be patient.
I hope this video has been helpful with your body recomping needs and feel free to share
your thoughts or questions about it in the comments below.
Please also share with your muscle loving friends and give it a fatty thumbs up.
As always, thank you for watching and GET YOUR PROTEIN!