Body Recomposition Diet: Lose Fat And Build Muscle

Losing fat and building muscle is what most of my clients want.

They don’t need to be massively muscular or as tiny as possible.

They like the look of LEAN MUSCLE.

Strong, but not bulky. In some cases, just losing some fat will give you that definition you want in your arms, your legs, or your back. That’s what gives you that toned look.

But you need to work on preserving and ideally BUILDING muscle. That’s always important for long term fat loss.

I’m going to explain why as I share how I would design a body recomposition plan.

Fat loss comes through lipolysis, the breakdown of fat, and muscle building happens through protein synthesis.

These are separate processes that can occur at the same time, as long as you have the right stimulus and nutrition.

You might have heard that body recomposition is just for beginners.

We have more and more research showing that it CAN work for people with strength training experience, especially if they have excess fat to lose or have taken a layoff from training. 

Body recomposition works best when you:

• Have a bit of fat to lose but also want to build muscle.
• Are new to strength training or coming back after a long break.

The other situation is when people just haven’t CONSISTENTLY been following an optimal workout and nutrition plan for body recomposition.

I’ve been coaching people for over 20 years and I can tell you that MOST people have NOT been doing that. 

I encourage everyone in my fat loss program THE LEAN & STRONG ACADEMY to aim for body recomposition. 

I designed the program to get that specific result.

If you have 10-20 pounds to lose and you want that look of lean muscle, you want a program that helps you lose fat AND build muscle.

Will you maximize your muscle mass completely and be able to do a bodybuilding show in a few months?

Probably not.

But I’m guessing that’s NOT what you want anyway.

Starting on a body recomposition plan means putting the focus on muscle.

My weight has gone up and down over the years for various reasons: digestive issues that affected what I ate, injuries (both acute and chronic), going through tough periods emotionally, and having my son.

So I’ve been on that body recomposition journey many times. 

I’m always able to get my leannest when I focus on building muscle. Because if you do the things it takes to build muscle (from both a workout and nutrition standpoint) you’re also going to be helping your fat loss efforts.

I’m going to explain that a little more later on…

Your body composition, or body fat level, is the ratio of fat to lean tissue like muscle/organs/fluid/bone.

Body recomposition improves the quality of your physique by increasing muscle mass and reducing fat.

This means you’ll look leaner and more defined, even if your weight doesn’t change dramatically.

It’s also more sustainable long-term because building muscle slightly increases your metabolism, helping you burn more calories even at rest. 

Incorporating Workouts

1) First you need the stimulus, which is at least 3 days of weight training per week.

Up to 5 is probably still useful, for most people, but remember that your muscles grow while you’re resting.

And if your muscles don’t recover well from session-to-session you won’t have the same training effect because you’re not able to push yourself each time.

The intensity, which is the weight that you lift related to your own abilities, is an important determinant of your ability to grow muscle.

We used to say that 8-12 reps (and sometimes 6-12 reps) was ideal for muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth), but recent research suggests that what matters more than the rep range is how close you are to what you’re able to do.

So if you use a light weight for 20 reps, but you push yourself hard enough so you couldn’t do more than 21 or 22 reps without exploding, then you’ll get the same effect as doing a heavy weight for 8 reps. 

1-3 Reps in reserve is what you should be aiming for. So if you’re picking a weight that you could only do 12 reps and you do it for 10 or 11 reps most times, that’s probably fine.

But if you use that weight that you can do for 12 reps and you only do 7 reps, you won’t get as much muscle growth. And that’s actually quite common.

In research, people tend to leave about 5 reps in reserve, definitely NOT ideal for maximizing muscle growth.

 Ideally you’re hitting major muscle groups twice a week.

10-20 sets per muscle group as a rough guideline.

Your VOLUME over the course of the week is what you want to focus on.

Each workout session adds some more volume for muscle growth.

2) You want to focus on compound exercises.

These are exercises that hit multiple muscle groups at the same time. Leg exercises like lunges, squats, and deadlifts are particularly useful because you’re hitting the larger muscle groups in the legs and back. Upper body exercises like rows and presses and bodyweight exercises like chin-ups and dips are also valuable. These exercises hit multiple muscle groups and stimulate muscle growth more effectively. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do some concentration curls for your biceps as part of your workout. It’s just slightly less effective to have a workout plan that consists solely of isolation exercises.

 That’s the way I’ve designed the workouts in The Lean & Strong Academy, 3 days a week of mainly compound body exercises with some abs thrown in for good measure.

3) You should be Training With Progressive Overload

That means gradually increasing the difficulty of your workouts over time. This can mean adding more weight, doing more reps, or increasing your total volume. Track the weights for your exercises so you can see where you’re progressing.

If you’re new to resistance training, start with lighter weights to get your technique right. As you get stronger, gradually increase the weight. 

Following those workout guidelines will optimize your muscle growth.

You’re probably curious about the role of CARDIO, because most of us associate that with fat loss.

It can be, since aerobic exercise will increase your calorie burn.

We don’t want to ignore our heart health either, although you will get some heart benefits from weight training, particularly if you’re using shorter rest periods.

While cardio isn’t ESSENTIAL to a body recomposition plan, I still recommend that you do include some aerobic exercise, preferably something that you enjoy. 

Concurrent training

The combination of strength training and cardio seems to be most effective for optimizing your body composition (maximizing muscle, minimizing fat).

But don’t overdo it with cardio.

Moderate sessions of 30 minutes a few times a week aren’t likely to interfere with your weight training - which should be the primary focus of a body recomposition plan - but if you’re doing something with higher intensity or going for 45 mins or an hour, it might.

So make sure that you’re managing your recovery for muscle growth.

That includes getting enough sleep.

Many important hormones are impacted by sleep: growth hormone, melatonin, cortisol, leptin, and ghrelin levels.

Those hormones will affect your energy levels (which correlates to how many calories you end up burning off through activity) and can affect your appetite. A body recomposition plan is also highly dependent on your food intake, which is the next piece we’re going to add.

Managing Your Nutrition Plan

Do you need to track calories for a body recomposition nutrition plan? 

That’s debatable and it depends on where you’re starting from. If someone is carrying 30 pounds of extra fat and not exercising at all, they’ll probably see fat loss and muscle growth after a couple of months from adding strength training and just minor tweaks to their diet. The leaner you are and the closer you are to your goal body fat percentage, the more precise you need to be with calories and macros.

I do initially recommend that most people track their calories and macros for at least 3 weeks. You’ll learn how to keep your calories and macros in line with ideal recommendations, which I’m going to explain now.

1) You need sufficient protein for muscle growth.

I recommend a minimum of 0.7g per lb of body weight per day. 

For leaner people, particularly those people who are over 35, trying to maintain as much muscle mass as possible while they lose fat, maybe up to around 1g per lb of body weight per day.

That’s about 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, which is where the scientific research tends to show ideal muscle growth.

Our rate of muscle protein synthesis goes down as we get older, so you need slightly more protein to get the same muscle building effect that you did in your 20s.

Some good sources of protein are:

Chicken, turkey, and lean beef, fish and seafood, eggs and egg whites. Eggs only have about 6 grams of protein each, but egg whites are pure protein.

Dairy sources like Greek yogurt or Skyr, which have more protein than regular yogurt, can bump up your protein, and cottage cheese (either the usual tub or pressed cottage cheese).

Protein powders can be an easy way to add a lot of protein at once.

I like a whey protein isolate because it’s just protein and it’s easy on my sensitive digestion.

You can also use other varieties of protein powders, soy or rice/pea can be good choices if you can’t have dairy.

Protein helps repair and build muscle while keeping you full during a calorie deficit.

Being able to manage your appetite is really important, because you don’t want to feel deprived on a body recomposition diet. You need to be feeling energetic and strong for your training sessions!

Protein also reduces muscle breakdown, especially during a calorie deficit when your body might otherwise use muscle tissue for energy.

By eating enough protein, you’ve got the right environment to build and maintain muscle while losing fat.

Figuring Out Your Calories

As far as calories are concerned, you’ll probably want to be in a slight calorie deficit.

Generally about 150-200 calories less than what you’re eating at maintenance (your current eating pattern that keeps your body as it is now).

A body recomposition plan is SLOW.

Especially compared to just starving yourself for a couple of months on very low calories.

That’s partially because muscle building is a slower process than simple weight loss. You need to look at this long term, several months at least rather than weeks, depending on where you are now.

The slower pace of the body recomposition process is worth it, because you’ll maintain your muscle as you go through fat loss.

You’ll probably still like the in-between parts when you’re starting to see a bit more muscle and some muscle definition in your arms and legs (and even your abs!) that you might not have seen before.

As far as your other macros…

Don’t fear carbs!

They support your energy during workouts.

Sufficient INTENSITY is very important for muscle growth. And if you’re tired, you’re going to move around less, in what we refer to as NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). That’s less “calories out” and that will affect your fat loss efforts.

Don’t forget your fat! 

20-35% of your daily calorie intake should be fat.

Fat supports your hormonal health. The steroid hormones, testosterone and estrogen, need fat for their production. So don’t go too low with fat!

A body recomposition program primarily comes down to two things: the stimulus from weight training and a protein-focused nutrition plan.

 Ivana Chapman