Body Recomp 101: What is it and why use it?

You may have heard the buzz word 'recomp' popping up in the fitness industry lately. But what is a recomp exactly? Body recomposition is a 'body transformation' approach which allows you to drop fat (adipose tissue) and build muscle (lean body mass) at the same time. Sounds impossible - right? Well it's not!

'What should I do first? Build or cut?' Is a VERY popular question amongst clients. The cool thing is - you don't have to choose! BUT - your goals will ultimately dictate whether or not a body recomp approach is the best one for you. Let's use a few 'case study scenarios' to show if and when this approach is ideal:

You are a client who wants to focus on fat-loss. You want to lose 5kg leading into a Summer holiday and have 12 weeks MAX to get to your goal. You'd also like to build muscle in your glutes and legs. BUT, when your coach asks what the priority is - you want the fat-loss first. As a coach, the first step when working when any client is understanding the goal, the priority and then creating an ACHIEVABLE and ideally HEALTHY plan to achieve that goal. In this circumstance, we know we need to lose 5 kg in 12 weeks... a HEALTHY and sustainable rate of fat loss is a MAXIMUM of 0.5kg or 1 pound per week. So, we need a MINIMUM of 10 weeks to achieve our goal. Allow for 'human' moments along the way (sickness, high-stress or emotional days where we may accidentally overeat, injuries or tiredness taking away training, social events etc) and we know we need those extra 2 weeks JUST to make sure we come in on time. For this goal - we prioritise fat loss, achieve the 5kg drop for the holiday, and then look at building the muscle after the holiday. Next scenario. You are wanting to prep for a competition, in the bikini category, in 6 months time. You don't know where to begin but know you need to build muscle and need to lose fat.

As a coach, the first thing you do is determine the PRIORITY goal with your client. So, they want to compete. GREAT! But, do they JUST want to step on stage? Do they want to place? Win? Do they want to go pro? You need to understand what the client wants, to help them create the shape they want/need. If your client just wants their dream body and to experience a comp, you will work with them on their vision. If they want to WIN - then they will also be dictated to by the judging standards of their chosen category. In this case, the client wants to win. So, they need to build muscle to create hourglass curves. Next step, is the plan. As a coach, I will determine a client's bodyfat by guestimation. In this case, the client is around 22-24%. We want them sitting around 18% at the highest before building to mitigate unnecessary bodyfat gain which will have to be lost later in the prep and could also lead to more lean mass drop than we want. SO, we want to drop around 4-5% body fat to start. There's two ways to go about this. Cut a little harder to start, then reverse diet and get into building. This would mean we lose the time cutting, as we won't be in an optimal place for lean mass gain. It may also mean restriction for a little while if calories are lower. We will then need time to build calories back up in a reverse diet before bulking. Or. We recomp. A conservative cut (around 5% below maintenance is fine) will allow enough calories and nutrients to still be in an ideal place for muscle building, but we will also be SLOWLY chipping away at bodyfat over time. Let's compare the two approaches: Our client is 60kg - let's say they need to drop around 4kg to put them in an ideal body fat range. I would never diet a client down in a way that would negatively impact their health. So, the fat loss rate we will aim for is 500g per week. We would need to 'diet' for 8 weeks at least (if everything goes to plan). Then, allow time (another 6-8 weeks) to reverse diet calories back up. This process will take us around 16 weeks - or around 4 months, to get to the ideal body fat and then back to a great place with calories to build! With a 6 month prep, we now have 2 months until stage! So, not much time to build. If we recomp, let's day we create a conservative deficit which allows for a 200g drop in body fat per week. We would need around 20 weeks to drop the same amount of weight (4kg) to bring us to the same bodyfat. The SAME time as the cut and reverse process. It will take us longer to get to the lower body fat - BUT we have been building muscle this whole time. Now, we are sitting around 18% body fat with 2 months until stage, but we also have more muscle - so we will focus on cutting harder to stage to get to stage condition. Let's say we had a longer prep - so an additional 3 months - we now have MORE time to build further, do not need to reverse diet and will likely not have experienced the negative adaptations that can come with more aggressive dieting. If you do not have to drop too much body fat, if you have time, and if you do not want to go through an aggressive or restrictive dieting phase - body recomposition can be a great tool! BUT, you need patience and it will require you to be on point with your calorie tracking, training and steps to ENSURE that the very conservative deficit your coach has given you, is on point.