Let’s be honest ladies, at some point or another, we’ve all felt that we wouldn’t mind losing a couple of pounds and toning up our bods a little. But is it possible to do both at the same time? It is with a body recomposition!
Now, we know the name makes it sound a little daunting, but a body recomp is a healthy, natural way to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time. You don’t have to pack on muscle and get all brawny if you don’t want to, but you can certainly build up your butt and gain an impressive set of tight, strong core muscles—while feeling amazing too!
So: What is a body recomp exactly, and how can you lose fat and gain muscle at the same time?!
We’re going to cover everything you need to know on how to do body recomp in this article—you’ll be teaching all of your friends how to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously before you know it.
How to do a body recomposition
Gain muscle
It’s important to note that you won’t get large muscles unless you push for them, lift heavy weights often, and consume a lot of protein. With that in mind, don’t worry about getting an overly muscular body if you don’t want one.
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What body recomp does is replace fat with lean, toned muscle that makes you look and feel amazing.
So: as a rule, here’s how much weight in muscle you’ll be aiming to put on each week while learning how to body recomp…
- If you’re an absolute beginner, 0.5% of your body weight each week.
- If you’re intermediate, 0.2% to 0.3% of your body weight each week.
- If you’re an advanced gym-bunny, 0.1% of your body weight each week.
You’ll have noticed that the more experienced you are in the gym, your potential muscle gains slow down. But they don’t stop completely!
Lose Fat
Your fat loss goals for your body recomp are determined by your starting body fat percentage. So:
- If you have over 40% body fat, aim for a 2% body fat loss per week.
- If you have between 32% and 40% body fat, aim for a 1.25% body fat loss per week.
- If you have between 24% and 32% body fat, aim for a 0.75% body fat loss per week.
- If you have between 14% and 24% body fat, aim for a 0.5% body fat loss per week.
- If you have under 14% body fat, aim for a 0.2% body fat loss per week.
Find out your weekly calorie balance
To gain muscle, we need to consume a surplus of calories, above what we need to eat for sustenance. To burn fat, however, we need to do the opposite, creating a caloric deficit. Finding the balance between these two (seemingly opposing!) ideas is the key to a successful body recomp.
Ladies, here’s how it’s done.
Cutting 3800 calories from your diet in a week will see you lose one pound of fat. Conversely, eating an extra 1600 during a week (while lifting weights) will see you building and extra one pound of muscle. What you need to do to find your calorie balance is use the estimations above to figure out how much fat you can be losing and how much muscle you can gain each week, and how much of a caloric deficit/surplus it will take for each.
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Then you simply add these two numbers together (e.g. -3800 plus 1600) to total your weekly balance, which you then add to your standard calorie intake.
How to lose fat and gain muscle: a guide
How long does a body recomp take? That depends on you — but if you follow the advice below you’ll get there ASAP. There’s still time to get that summer bod!
Lift weights between 3 and 4 times a week
That’s 3 times a week if you’re a beginner and 4 if you’re more experienced. Don’t work out every day—your body needs time to recover, especially as you’ll be putting it into a caloric deficit by consuming less food. Hit your muscles hard during workouts, and try to incorporate full body exercises.
Don’t overdo cardio
While cardio is great and super healthy, it can mess with your body recomp and slow your progress. Burning a ton of calories rapidly through cardio can eat too far into your caloric deficit and make it much harder to achieve your goals.
We’re not saying cut out cardio totally, just follow these rules during your body recomp:
– Lift weights more often than you do cardio
– Do intense, brief cardio sessions rather than longer ones
– Don’t weight train and do cardio in the same session
Start calorie cycling
Nope, this has nothing to do with spokes and pedals. Calorie cycling involves timing your eating alongside your workouts. Because your body burns calories faster for a period following a workout, syncing your mealtimes up with this period means you can eat bulky, calorific meals at these times without throwing off your balance.
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This is the crux of your body recomp: eat a surplus of calories post workout, and maintain a deficit the rest of the time. In this way, your muscles can grow while you lose fat.
Hit snooze
Getting plenty of sleep is super important during your body recomposition. You need between eight and nine hours every night to be running at your best level. For more fulfilling sleep, try to go to bed each evening at a reasonable hour, and avoid screens for a couple of hours before bedtime. Easier said than done!
Try Phengold
If you feel like you could benefit from a helping hand during your body recomp, you’ll love Phengold. Our dietary supplement naturally increases your metabolism and suppresses your hunger, doubling down on your body’s natural ability to burn fat.
Used in tandem with the pointers above, Phengold will help to ensure your next body recomp is a huge success.
Start today—the body you want has never been closer!