Oftentimes, we focus on one specific fitness goal. It’s either losing weight or gaining muscle. But it’s possible to do both simultaneously with body recomposition. What makes this approach challenging is that it’s different to simply wanting to lose weight.
What is body composition?
Your body composition is the ratio of fat mass to lean mass in your body. Sometimes, body composition is used interchangeably with body fat percentage, but body fat percentage is just one part of your overall body composition.
Lean mass includes muscle, bones, ligaments, tendons, organs, other tissues and water — in other words, everything that’s not body fat. Depending on what method you use to measure your body composition, you may see water as its own percentage.
What about body recomposition?
Body recomposition refers to the process of changing your ratio of fat mass to lean mass — that is, losing body fat and gaining muscle mass. The goal of body recomposition is to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously, unlike the traditional approach of “bulking and cutting” in which you intentionally put on a lot of weight first (muscle and fat) and then go through an intense calorie deficit to lose the fat and reveal the muscle underneath.
Forget about weight loss
Body recomposition isn’t about weight loss; it’s about fat loss. On a body recomposition plan, you may maintain your current weight or even gain weight — remember hearing “muscle weighs more than fat”? This is semi-true. Muscle is denser than fat.
During body recomposition, what changes, instead of weight, is your physique. As you progress through body recomposition, you may notice changes in your body, such as an overall firmer look or that your clothes fit differently. You may even gain weight, but have a smaller physique, at the end of your body recomposition program.
For example, I weigh exactly the same now as I did before I started exercising and eating healthy. I wear smaller clothes, however, and my body has more muscle tone than it did before. I also feel much stronger than before I began a strength training program (a nonaesthetic benefit to body recomposition). So you can ditch the scale, because it doesn’t differentiate between fat loss and muscle loss, and weight loss isn’t the primary goal with body recomposition.
There’s one caveat to consider, though: If you want to lose a large amount of body fat and don’t intend to put on much muscle mass, you may lose weight in the long run.
Body recomposition is a long game
Because you’re trying to do two things at once — lose fat and gain muscle — you can’t treat a body recomposition plan like a fad diet. Healthy weight loss and healthy muscle gain both take a long time on their own: Put them together and you’re in it for the long haul. The slow, steady process of body recomposition offers sustainable results, though, so you’ll enjoy your new physique for as long as you maintain those habits.
How to lose fat
Fat loss ultimately comes down to your calorie maintenance. To lose fat, you must eat fewer calories than you burn. Cardiovascular exercise, or combined cardio and resistance exercise, alongside a healthy diet still stands as the best technique for fat loss — there’s just no way around the science. Losing fat in a safe, sustainable way also means having realistic goals and not depriving your body of the nutrients it needs — disordered eating habits are never worth the risk.
How to build muscle
To build muscle, focus on two main factors: weight training and protein consumption. Strength training is essential to changing your body composition — your muscles won’t grow if you don’t challenge them.
Additionally, you can’t build muscle without being in a caloric surplus, so you must eat more calories than you burn to promote muscle growth. While all macronutrients are important, protein is especially important for building muscle. Without enough protein, your body will struggle to repair the muscle tissues that get broken down during weight training.
Plus, studies show that a high-protein diet can help with losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. Research shows that, while in a calorie deficit, consuming more protein than you normally might can help preserve your lean body mass (a.k.a. muscle mass) than being in a calorie deficit without changing your protein intake.