Want muscle definition? It's not about weight loss -- you need to know how to recomp your body. Whether they realize it or not, these people are referring to body recomposition, the act of altering your physique by burning fat and gaining muscle at the same time.
These people know what they want -- less fat and more muscle -- but they often don't know what it takes to get there. Body recomposition requires a different approach to health and fitness than the typical weight-loss mindset.
Many people think that true body recomposition is impossible because of this conundrum: To reduce your body fat, you have to eat fewer calories than you burn. But to build muscle , you have to eat more calories than you burn.
However, your body is smarter than you may give it credit for, and by keeping a close eye on your diet specifically when you eat what and your training, you can absolutely lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
Read more: Does lifting weights make women bulky? 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. Read more: The best body composition scales for 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.
When your goal is body recomposition, ditch the scale and use a tape measure for a better idea of your progress. 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"? Effects of high-protein diets on fat-free mass and muscle protein synthesis following weight loss: a randomized controlled trial.
Body composition changes after very-low-calorie ketogenic diet in obesity evaluated by 3 standardized methods. Effect of a high-protein diet on kidney function in healthy adults: results from the OmniHeart Trial. Am J Kidney Dis. A high whey protein-, leucine-, and vitamin D-enriched supplement preserves muscle mass during intentional weight loss in obese older adults: a double-blind randomized controlled trial.
Am J Clin Nutr. Substantial skeletal muscle loss occurs during only 5 days of disuse. Acta Physiologica. Effects of a short-term pre-season training programme on the body composition and anaerobic performance of professional rugby union players. J Sports Sci. Dietary protein and exercise have additive effects on body composition during weight loss in adult women.
J Nutr. Regional body composition changes in women after 6 months of periodized physical training. J Appl Physiol. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellFit. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.
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Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Related Articles. Why You Aren't Losing Weight. Not to mention drinking the carbs in the form of soda or juice. Or even cut them out completely. If you eat mostly fat and protein, you feel full quickly.
Carbohydrates are the preferred fuel for intense physical work and exercise. You can adapt to a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet if you stay on it long enough, forcing your body to learn how to use fats from the food you eat and from your stores of body fat more efficiently. But if you eat an average diet with both carbs and fat, eating too few carbs or running out of carbs stored in your muscles might limit your performance.
As we discussed earlier in the guide, protein is the most important nutrient for maintaining or gaining muscle. You need to keep your protein intake high. Your fat intake is more malleable, but fat is an essential nutrient. If you have followed the guide up this point, you already know this. If you have set your target caloric intake, you also know how many calories you have left to spend.
Any kind of diet that creates an energy deficit makes you lose weight and body fat. Once you have determined your calories and your protein intake, it matters little how you distribute your fat and carbohydrates.
Practical observations confirm this reasoning. If you look at different eras of bodybuilding, for example, you find various diets popular amongst top competitors. From extreme low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets to high-carb, low-fat diets, they all result in ripped competitors on stage come contest day. The type of cutting diet you like the best, or maybe dislike the least, is also the best, at least for you.
The diet you can stay on is the diet that works. As long as your protein intake is high, let personal preferences guide you when deciding whether to cut fat or carbohydrates.
Both methods work equally fine, as does cutting some of both, meeting somewhere in the middle. A review of nutritional guidelines for bodybuilders and strength athletes recommends 4—7 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight and day. For example, 7 grams per kilogram of body weight for someone weighing 90 kilos means grams of carbohydrate. That is more than 2, calories from carbohydrates alone. It is unlikely that an energy intake that high leaves enough room for protein and fat as well when trying to create an energy deficit.
The lower end of the 4—7 grams per kilogram of body weight and day recommendation might be applicable, but probably not the higher. Do you remember our friend Toby? He has 1, calories left to spend on carbs.
Each gram of carbs gives him 4 calories, which equals grams a day or 3. Since strength training is an anaerobic type of exercise, fat is less useful as fuel. Keeping your carbohydrate intake reasonably high at the expense of your fat intake might be a useful strategy. That way, you will more likely be able to perform your best in the gym. Either way, determine your caloric intake, your protein intake, and your fat intake first. The calories you have left should come from carbohydrates, preferably quality carbohydrates.
On a cutting diet, carbohydrate quality, not just quantity, becomes an important consideration. Try to get most of your carbs from quality sources like legumes, whole grains, and natural fruit and vegetables. Those are foods that provide you with quality nutrients, not just calories. Rather than constantly undereating, day after day, week after week, you can utilize a strategy called refeeding.
A refeed is a short break from your diet, where you increase your caloric intake, preferably in the form of more carbohydrates, up to or slightly above energy balance. This strategy is psychologically beneficial and has some potential positive effects on your metabolism as well. Once you increase your caloric intake and your diet is over, most, if not all of these negative effects disappear and things go back to normal.
Refeeds lasting several days might help prevent some of the expected decreases in your resting metabolic rate. This could help mitigate or stop muscle loss during a prolonged diet. One day is too short a time for any dramatic hormonal effects.
Having a day now and then when you fill your plate can be a real morale boost. In addition, even a short-term increase in your carbohydrate intake fills your muscles up with glycogen, stored energy you can then use for a few productive sessions in the gym. The leaner you get, the more often you benefit from refeeds. At the start of a diet, if you have a significant amount of body fat, a refeed day every other week is enough.
As you get leaner and leaner, increase the frequency of your refeed days: first to once every 10 days, then to once a week. If you are naturally lean, you can increase your caloric intake to a bit above maintenance levels. The extra calories you eat on your refeed days should come mainly from carbohydrates. If you are at a point in your cutting diet where you still have plenty of body fat, stick to the lower end of that interval.
Research shows that a diet with refeeds is as successful as a diet without refeeds. There does not seem to be any negative effects from including refeed days. If you plan on taking several refeed days in a row, be prepared for a longer diet. You might decrease the risk of losing muscle by doing so, though.
But if you find being able to eat more regularly without any negative effects appealing, then go for it. You might even get something positive, like maintaining your metabolic rate and your muscle mass, out of it. An incredibly common belief is that eating many smaller meals during the day increases your metabolic rate compared to eating fewer but larger meals. This is a myth. For fat loss, you can pick the meal frequency you like the best, as long as your total caloric intake is the same.
If eating often makes you feel fuller and allows you to stay on your diet, go with that. You can only use so much protein from each meal to build muscle. If you cram all your food into a short window of time, you might miss out on some of the anabolic effects of your protein-rich meals.
According to current recommendations, it might be a good idea to spread your protein intake out over your waking day. Evenly distributed protein-rich meals, every 3—4 hours, each providing 30—40 grams of protein, is probably ideal. This strategy allows you to get all the muscle-building effect you can from each meal and optimizes your total protein intake to maintain or build muscle.
At least your protein intake. Not at all. Even intermittent fasting works fine during a diet. It is a good idea to get the majority of your calories from solid foods. Also, when you eat solid foods, you normally reduce your caloric intake from your other meals without even thinking about it. If you track your calories meticulously and prefer to get a large part of your energy intake and your nutrients from nutritious drinks, feel free to do so.
Expect to feel less satisfied and hungrier if you do, though. One type of drink you should stay away from entirely is sugar-sweetened soft drinks and soda. They provide you with nothing except pure energy in the form of sugar. When you are on a diet, you probably want your calories to give you the most bang for your buck.
If you want soda in your diet, make it the sugar-free diet kind. You get less whole fiber, which makes you feel less full. Protein shakes and dairy products like milk and yogurt can certainly be a part of your cutting diet. They provide you with high-quality protein and plenty of nutrients.
Getting the majority of your calories and protein from nutritious, solid food is usually the better option, at least for keeping hunger and cravings in check. Here are some examples of great foods to get the protein, fats, and carbs you need.
Also, these choices give you plenty of healthy micronutrients as well. Fatty fish contain quite a bit more calories than lean. Just be aware of the higher caloric content, and adjust your other fat intake accordingly, if needed. There are, of course, many, many other examples that fit into these three lists. They are just examples to kick-start your imagination. An occasional bowl of ice cream or a junk food meal will not hurt your diet. As long as you have a foundation of healthy, nutritious foods, feel free to have an occasional cheat meal.
The exception could be during the last few weeks of something like a contest prep. While you should base your nutritional strategy on nutritious, whole foods, there are a few supplements that can help train harder, keep muscle, and lose fat.
Ditch those 2-pound dumbbells. Lifting heavy is key, says Upton, as increasing the weight better stimulates the muscle growth needed to improve body composition. For those who are new to weightlifting, Upton recommends starting out by performing full-body workouts three times a week and following the core training principle of progressive overload. If you do not constantly challenge the body and give it fresh stimuli to adapt to, then it will never grow or improve.
She recommends seeking help from a personal trainer or physical therapist if possible, or even just following a free or low cost online program and app created by real experts. Upton says that getting enough sleep is vital to the recovery process, noting the link between poor sleep and weight gain.
A balanced diet that consists of three meals and two or three satisfying snacks is key. At the same time, you do have to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat. Protein-rich foods will fill you up and keep you full for a longer amount of time as well. Bazilian recommends focusing on lean proteins like seafood, poultry, milk, yogurt, beans, nuts, and seeds. Repeat after us: Carbs are not the enemy. He recommends eating carbs after a workout, when your body is most likely to use the glucose properly and refuel the muscle, and as the last meal of the day to aid in relaxation.
Vegetables are one of the healthiest ways to meet your vitamin and mineral needs, and according to Upton, they also suppress inflammation and aid in healthy digestion. Just monitor your intake and make the right choices. Nuts, seeds, olive oil, and avocados are great options. Intermittent fasting IF is basically only eating for a certain period of time during the day.
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