Body recomposition: Could you do it?

Gaining muscle and losing fat simultaneously is known as body recomposition and is a fairly controversial topic.

When it comes to body recomposition, some say it is impossible, while others believe it is the best way to achieve their goals. What do you think?

Impossible? A key misconception that leads people to dismiss the possibility of body recomposition is the misinterpretation of the laws of thermodynamics.

According to this law of thermodynamics:

• To build muscle, you must store energy or increase muscle proteins.
• To lose fat, you must burn energy or reduce stored body fat.

The error lies in assuming that you must have an energy surplus to build muscle and that you must have an energy deficit to lose fat.

These assumptions are not so clear because the musculoskeletal system and fat tissue are two different functional compartments in your body.

These mechanisms indicate different metabolic processes that require different amounts of energy, completely independent of one another.

Now, body recomposition would be possible in the following five circumstances:

• If you are a beginner.
• If you took a long break from training.
• When you finally start training properly.
• If you have been training properly, but your diet was inadequate and you improve it drastically.
• If you take performance-enhancing drugs.

However, outside these conditions, this process is extremely difficult to achieve, but… are you ready for the challenge?… assess your chances, right?

Assess your body recomposition potential

Body recomposition is difficult but not impossible, so you can assess how difficult it is for you using this sliding scale based on three factors:

Training age

This describes how long you have been training. For example, if you are a beginner, you have a greater chance of recomposing than someone who has been training for a decade.

Training status

This factor describes the quality and effectiveness of the training you have completed throughout your athletic career or experience. Now, a good measure of training status is how strong you are:

If you are a bodybuilder who posts elite powerlifting records, then you can consider your chances of body recomposition to be slim.

Body fat percentage

The leaner you are, the less likely you are to recomposition your body to a noticeable degree.

The chances of body recomposition

Based on these three factors, you can determine how likely body recomposition is for you:

• With a low training age, a low training status, and a high body fat percentage, you have a good chance of achieving body recomposition, since the window of opportunity to gain muscle and lose fat is wide.
• But if you have a high training age, a high training status, and are very lean, your chances of achieving body recomposition are slim or nonexistent. The best thing you can do is follow a cyclical approach with dedicated bulking and cutting phases to continue building muscle and losing fat over the long term.

Additionally, other lifestyle factors such as sleep, diet, recovery methods, and stress levels influence your ability to achieve the effect you want.

Adaptogens should undoubtedly be included among the supplements to support body recomposition.

So instead of measuring superfluous metrics, take an honest look in the mirror to assess your training age, training status, and body fat primarily, but don’t overlook the secondary factors.

The fact that you can doesn’t always mean that you should, and if you’re a dedicated athlete, you’re probably stronger, more muscular, leaner, and more dedicated than the typical gym-goer, but don’t try to recomposition your body, because it may not be the most effective method.

Body recomposition: what does the science say?

The scientific literature provides compelling evidence for the possibility of achieving body recomposition:

For example;

• Researchers from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences had 24 elite male and female athletes lift weights four days a week and lose weight either slowly or quickly.
• Those who lost weight slowly maintained a moderate 500-calorie deficit, while those aiming to lose weight quickly maintained an 800-calorie deficit.
• On average, the slow weight loss group lost approximately 0.7% of their body weight per week, while the rapid weight loss group lost approximately 1% of their body weight per week.

But here’s the interesting part:

• The slow weight loss group reduced its body fat by 8% and increased its overall muscle mass by 2%.
• The rapid-weight-loss group did not fare as well: they reduced their body fat by only 4% and, in fact, lost muscle mass.

There were other studies with different variables, but what is exciting about all these studies is that the participants did not adjust their nutrition and continued with their normal diets.

In summary, if these results are possible without nutritional intervention aimed at optimizing outcomes, imagine what could be achieved if you optimize your nutrition and make your training and diet work synergistically.

On the other hand, another study conducted by the renowned Dr. Bill Campbell provides an excellent example of what is possible when diet is taken into account:

• Their study, conducted with female athletes, investigated the difference in protein intake on body composition: high (2.1 grams of protein per kg) versus low (1.1 grams of protein per kg).

Despite eating an average of 423 MORE calories per day than the low-protein group, those who consumed a higher protein density while following the same training protocol achieved their desired body recomposition, demonstrating the power of sports nutrition.

Body recomposition: is everything easy?

Although research on recomposition is interesting, remember that you are not the typical participant in these studies.

Scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern conducted a study with participants who were (probably) more similar to you.

• Advocates of body recomposition may sell unrealistic results, because body recomposition can be effective, but it is a relatively short-term strategy, since you cannot recompose indefinitely and gain 10 kg of muscle while losing weight.
• This happens with intermediate and advanced athletes, who cannot achieve substantial gains while losing fat. And although every body is different, only a substantial surplus during a bulking phase can produce greater size.

In short, if you think of it as a long-term strategy, you will probably end up “gaining mass” rather than gradually recomposing: (losing fat and gaining muscle)… you will achieve neither…

Of course, that doesn’t mean you should give up on recomposition entirely; you simply need to be realistic. For example, one of our best proponents of the hybrid protocol explains it in some videos prepared for MASmusculo.

The key point of body recomposition

For advanced athletes, body recomposition is actually just a good dieting phase, or alternatively, a well-executed dieting phase will have a small effect on this process—that is the key point.

This means that body recomposition is an opportunity to lose fat and gain a tiny amount of muscle, not an opportunity to gain muscle and lose fat; here, priority is the key.

• You can build a little muscle during a calorie deficit if your training and diet are appropriate.
• But to build a large amount of muscle, you need a significant calorie surplus, and if you do that, you will not lose fat.

If you think of this method as an approach to losing a noticeable amount of weight while gaining a fraction of muscle mass, you could do it.

But if you want to diet temporarily to very low body-fat levels while striving to gain a little muscle mass, you can do so, but you will need to be strategic to achieve it. What kind of strategies? Take a look.

A short-term strategy

Even for the most dedicated bodybuilders, there is a limit to how long they can maintain the discipline needed to check all the boxes required to achieve body recomposition.

In the long term, the attention to detail required for every element of training, diet, recovery, and supplementation is exhausting.

Furthermore, it is not just a mental battle but a physical one, and eventually, the body adapts to any stimulus you throw at it; to overcome this, you need a strong signal to force yourself to keep progressing.

Effective body recomposition is based on a calorie intake and training volume that are moderate enough to allow a slow (more or less) rate of fat loss, because if you lose weight too quickly, your chances of gaining muscle evaporate.

Furthermore, the method is moderate in terms of caloric restriction, as it is not a sufficiently complete stimulus to overcome adaptive resistance. There will come a point when you will have to reduce calories to lose weight or increase them to gain muscle.

Therefore, it would be ideal to:

• An 8–12-week phase for effective recomposition; in most cases, 12 weeks is the maximum time during which you can continue seeing good results.
• This period is long enough to allow you to lose a noticeable amount of fat at a slow enough rate that you can also gain some muscle.

To achieve this, you need a great plan and flawless execution, so you must commit to making the most of your training and diet for 12 weeks and then move on to a dedicated bulking, cutting, or strength phase.

Focus and make results-based decisions

Keep your eyes on the prize to achieve what you want. The best way? Do it when you have a clearly defined event or goal, such as a trade show or even an event—a photo shoot, etc.—where you want to look your very best.

With a goal on the horizon and the additional accountability it provides, you can find another level of commitment, dedication, and drive.

For effective body recomposition , you become more focused, but on the other hand, your life becomes unbalanced and burnout will begin to appear. In this context, you should carry out this phase for short periods, as it does not work in the long term.

You should also focus on making results-based decisions: losing fat and gaining muscle. Therefore, you should adjust your diet and training based on the results you are pursuing, not your emotions.

It is tempting to want to train more and eat less because that feels effective, but you know it is a mistake, since when emotion takes control, logic disappears.

Calculate your ideal fat-loss rate

Ideally, fat loss should be 0.25% to 0.5% of your body weight per week, which for a 90 kg man means 200 to 450 grams per week.

The leaner you are, the greater your risk of muscle loss; therefore, you can start at the higher end of the target loss rate (0.5%) during the first few weeks and then reduce the rate to 0.25% per week. This approach is extremely effective.

DO NOT forget to consume high-quality protein, which will be essential for making this process effective.

Find your bulking-phase zone

This is also known as your maximum adaptive volume (MAV), which is the amount of work that allows you to progress optimally without affecting your recovery threshold.

Remember that your calorie intake will be relatively low when trying to achieve body recomposition. Fewer calories mean less energy and a lower tolerance for overall training volume.

If you train too much, you risk losing muscle, overtraining, injury, and driving cortisol levels so high that muscle gain and fat loss will be reduced.

To calculate your MAV, take the number of sets you do for a body part at peak volume and reduce it by approximately 10%.

If you are not sure of your maximum volumes for each muscle group, use published data as a starting point, such as performing 8 to 12 effective sets per muscle group per week as a good general rule.

Try to work each muscle group twice a week for better results, which means training each muscle group with 4–6 sets per session.

Don't forget to take total-recovery supplements that will stimulate your mind, muscles, and nervous system.

Increase your protein intake

Consuming 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is reasonable, but for body recomposition, you need to eat more than what is reasonable; you need to optimize your intake from various sources, including both whole foods and dietary supplements such as powders, bars, or snacks.

When your calorie intake is reduced, a higher protein intake helps you retain muscle mass.

One recommendation would be 2 grams per kilogram of fat-free mass, which would enhance your performance and overall physical condition.

Prioritize peri-workout nutrition

Effective body recomposition is about attention to detail: adding marginal gains, since these small gains can add up to have a profound effect.

One example is taking care of your nutrition around your workout, as you already know and so do we. If you follow an effective strategy, doing this and everything we have outlined here, you could probably achieve success.

Even if you have been training for years, you probably have room to improve your training program, intensity, effort, nutrition, and nutritional protocols.

If you pay meticulous attention to all of this over the next 12 weeks, progressing at an appropriate pace (with slow, sustained fat loss, although unlike during a cutting phase, you could allow yourself to gain muscle)… remember that your patience will be rewarded…

Now, if you want to achieve a perfect bulking phase, follow this video developed by MASmusculo on this fascinating topic.