Body Recomposition: The Complete Guide to Workouts, Diet and Supplements
Body recomposition is one of the most sought-after goals in bodybuilding and fitness: building lean muscle while reducing body fat at the same time.
Unlike a traditional bulk, where the primary goal is gaining weight and muscle, or a cutting phase, where the focus is losing body fat, body recomposition attempts to improve your ratio of muscle to fat without necessarily making major changes to your scale weight.
The process requires the right combination of resistance training, nutrition, cardio, recovery and supplementation. This complete body recomposition guide explains how to put those pieces together.
What Is Body Recomposition?
Body recomposition is the process of increasing or maintaining lean muscle mass while decreasing body fat.
Your body weight may stay relatively stable during recomposition because you can lose fat while gaining muscle. This is why the scale isn’t always the best way to measure progress.
For example, someone could remain at 180 pounds while losing 10 pounds of body fat and gaining several pounds of lean tissue. Their body composition—and usually their appearance, measurements and strength—could change considerably even though their body weight changes very little.
Body recomposition tends to be more achievable for:
- Beginners who are new to resistance training
- People returning to training after a layoff
- Individuals carrying a higher level of body fat
- Lifters who have previously trained but have room to improve their nutrition and programming
- People who follow a well-structured resistance-training program and consume adequate protein
For advanced lifters who are already very lean and highly muscular, gaining substantial muscle while simultaneously losing significant fat is generally more difficult.
Body Recomposition Workout Routine
Training for body recomposition should have one primary objective: give your muscles a reason to grow while helping you maintain strength as you reduce body fat.
Resistance training should be the foundation of your program.
A combination of progressive resistance training and cardiovascular exercise can help you build or preserve muscle while increasing your overall energy expenditure.
Weight Training for Body Recomposition
Weight training provides the stimulus your body needs to maintain and build muscle.
Your workout doesn’t have to be complicated. Focus on exercises that train the major muscle groups and gradually improve your performance over time.
Useful exercises include:
- Squats and leg presses
- Deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts
- Bench presses
- Incline presses
- Overhead presses
- Rows
- Pull-ups and pulldowns
- Lunges
- Leg curls
- Calf raises
- Biceps curls
- Triceps extensions
The exact exercises are less important than consistently training the muscles with sufficient effort and progressively challenging them.
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload means gradually increasing the training stimulus over time.
That might mean:
- Adding weight
- Performing more repetitions
- Improving exercise technique
- Increasing training volume when appropriate
- Improving control and range of motion
You don’t necessarily need to add weight every workout. The goal is to make measurable progress over weeks and months.
High-Intensity Training 3 Times Per Week
A three-day-per-week high-intensity resistance-training schedule can be an effective approach for body recomposition, particularly for people who prefer shorter workouts and need sufficient recovery between sessions.
One possible schedule is:
Monday — Chest, Back and Abs
- Bench press — 2 working sets
- Incline dumbbell press — 2 working sets
- Pulldown or pull-up — 2 working sets
- Row — 2 working sets
- Abdominal exercise — 2 working sets
Wednesday — Legs
- Squat or leg press — 2 working sets
- Romanian deadlift — 2 working sets
- Leg curl — 2 working sets
- Calf raise — 2 working sets
- Optional abdominal exercise — 2 working sets
Friday — Shoulders and Arms
- Overhead press — 2 working sets
- Lateral raise — 2 working sets
- Barbell or dumbbell curl — 2 working sets
- Triceps extension or pressdown — 2 working sets
For high-intensity training, the working sets should be performed with controlled technique and significant effort. Beginners should learn proper exercise technique before regularly taking sets close to muscular failure.
More training is not automatically better. Recovery is an important part of body recomposition, particularly when you’re eating fewer calories than you would during a mass-gaining phase.
Cardio for Body Recomposition
Cardio can increase calorie expenditure and improve cardiovascular fitness without requiring you to dramatically reduce food intake.
However, cardio should complement your weight training rather than interfere with it.
Steady-State Cardio for Fat Loss
Steady-state cardio is particularly useful because it is relatively easy to control and recover from.
Examples include:
- Walking
- Incline treadmill walking
- Cycling
- Elliptical training
- Swimming
- Stair machines
A practical starting point could be 20–40 minutes of steady-state cardio several times per week, depending on your fitness level, calorie intake and recovery.
Walking is especially useful because it provides additional activity without necessarily creating the same recovery demands as frequent high-intensity cardio sessions.
The goal isn’t to perform as much cardio as possible. The goal is to find an amount that helps you create the energy deficit needed for fat loss while allowing you to continue training hard and preserving muscle.
Body Recomposition Diet Plan
Nutrition is arguably the most important part of successful body recomposition.
You need enough nutrients and protein to support muscle while controlling your overall calorie intake so that body fat can decrease.
How Many Calories Should You Eat?
There isn’t one calorie target that works for everyone.
Your calorie needs depend on factors including:
- Body weight
- Height
- Age
- Sex
- Activity level
- Training frequency
- Current body composition
- Metabolic rate
A reasonable starting point for someone trying to lose body fat while preserving muscle is often a modest calorie deficit rather than an aggressive crash diet.
An excessively large deficit can make training harder and increase the risk of losing lean mass.
Monitor your body weight, waist measurement, gym performance and progress photos and adjust your calorie intake based on your results.
Protein for Body Recomposition
Protein is extremely important during a recomposition phase.
Adequate protein provides the amino acids your body needs for muscle repair and remodeling.
Good protein sources include:
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Lean beef
- Fish
- Eggs
- Greek yogurt
- Cottage cheese
- Milk
- Protein powder
- Beans and legumes
- Other high-protein foods
A commonly used target for active individuals is approximately 1.6–2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.
For someone weighing 180 pounds (about 82 kg), that works out to approximately 130–180 grams of protein per day.
Protein intake should be distributed across the day rather than relying on one enormous meal.
Carbohydrates and Fats
Carbohydrates provide energy for resistance training and can be especially useful around workouts.
Good carbohydrate sources include:
- Rice
- Oatmeal
- Potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
- Fruit
- Whole grains
- Beans
- Vegetables
Dietary fats are also important and can come from foods such as:
- Eggs
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Avocados
- Olive oil
- Fatty fish
Rather than eliminating carbohydrates or fats, focus on controlling total calories while consuming adequate protein and choosing mostly nutrient-dense foods.
The Zig-Zag Diet for Muscle Gain and Fat Loss
A zig-zag diet, sometimes called calorie cycling, involves eating different numbers of calories on different days instead of consuming exactly the same number every day.
For example, you might consume somewhat more calories on resistance-training days and somewhat fewer calories on rest days.
Example
Training days:
- Higher calorie intake
- Higher carbohydrate intake
- High protein
Rest days:
- Lower calorie intake
- Slightly lower carbohydrate intake
- High protein
The important point is that calorie cycling doesn’t override energy balance. The overall calorie intake across the week still matters.
A zig-zag approach may be useful for people who prefer to eat more on training days while maintaining an appropriate weekly calorie intake.
For example:
| Day | Training | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Weights | 2,300 |
| Tuesday | Cardio/rest | 2,000 |
| Wednesday | Weights | 2,300 |
| Thursday | Rest | 2,000 |
| Friday | Weights | 2,300 |
| Saturday | Cardio | 2,000 |
| Sunday | Rest | 2,000 |
These numbers are only an example. Your actual calorie requirements will depend on your individual circumstances.
Body Recomposition Supplements
Supplements should be viewed as an addition to a good training and nutrition program—not a replacement for either one.
The following supplements can fit into a body recomposition strategy.
Herbal Fat Melter
Truly Huge Herbal Fat Melter is formulated to support a fat-loss program.
The product is intended to help support metabolism and appetite control, which can make it easier for some people to stick with a calorie-controlled diet.
It should be used alongside a sensible nutrition and exercise program rather than as a substitute for creating an appropriate calorie deficit.
Nitrobol Amino Acid Complex
Truly Huge Nitrobol Amino Acid Complex can be used as part of a muscle-preservation and recovery strategy during a calorie deficit.
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and play important roles in muscle protein metabolism.
When you’re dieting, maintaining adequate total protein and resistance training should remain the priorities. An amino acid supplement can then be used to complement that foundation.
Ecdy-Bolin Ecdysterone
Truly Huge Ecdy-Bolin Ecdysterone contains ecdysterone and is marketed to support lean muscle development and body composition.
Research into ecdysterone and resistance training is still developing, so it should be viewed as an optional supplement rather than something required for successful recomposition.
The fundamentals—progressive resistance training, adequate protein, appropriate calorie intake and recovery—remain considerably more important.
Pumped Extreme Kre-Alkalyn Creatine
Creatine is one of the most extensively studied sports supplements available.
Truly Huge Pumped Extreme Kre-Alkalyn Creatine is designed to provide creatine to support strength and training performance.
Creatine supplementation can increase muscle creatine stores, which can help support high-intensity exercise performance. Increased intracellular water can also contribute to greater muscle fullness and body weight.
For body recomposition, creatine can be particularly useful because maintaining strength and training quality is important while reducing calories.
Sample Body Recomposition Week
Here’s how you could combine the different components into one weekly plan:
Monday
Weight training: Chest, back and abs
Nutrition: Higher-calorie training day
Supplements: Creatine + protein as needed
Tuesday
Cardio: 30 minutes steady-state cardio
Nutrition: Lower-calorie day
Supplements: Fat-loss/recovery supplements as appropriate
Wednesday
Weight training: Legs
Nutrition: Higher-calorie training day
Supplements: Creatine + protein as needed
Thursday
Recovery: Walking or light activity
Nutrition: Lower-calorie day
Friday
Weight training: Shoulders and arms
Nutrition: Higher-calorie training day
Supplements: Creatine + protein as needed
Saturday
Cardio: 30–40 minutes steady-state cardio
Nutrition: Lower-calorie day
Sunday
Recovery: Rest or light walking
Nutrition: Lower-calorie day
The exact schedule can be adjusted based on your training experience, recovery ability and lifestyle.
How to Track Body Recomposition Progress
Don’t rely exclusively on the bathroom scale.
Track several measurements simultaneously:
1. Body Weight
Take your weight under consistent conditions and look at the trend over several weeks rather than reacting to individual daily fluctuations.
2. Waist Measurement
A decreasing waist measurement can be a useful indicator that you’re losing body fat.
3. Progress Photos
Take front, side and rear photos under similar lighting and conditions.
4. Strength
Keep a training log and track your performance.
If your body weight is decreasing while your measurements improve and your strength remains relatively stable, your program may be working well.
5. How Your Clothes Fit
Changes in waist size, shoulders, chest and legs can sometimes become apparent in clothing before they’re obvious on the scale.
Common Body Recomposition Mistakes
Cutting Calories Too Aggressively
Crash dieting may produce rapid scale-weight loss, but it isn’t the ideal strategy for preserving muscle.
Doing Too Much Cardio
More cardio isn’t necessarily better. Excessive cardio can make recovery more difficult and potentially interfere with resistance-training performance.
Not Eating Enough Protein
Protein should be a priority when you’re trying to maintain or build muscle while losing fat.
Changing Your Workout Constantly
Give your training program enough time to produce measurable progress.
Ignoring Recovery
Muscle growth and adaptation don’t occur simply because you’re in the gym. Sleep and recovery are essential components of the process.
Focusing Only on Scale Weight
Body recomposition is specifically about changing the relationship between muscle and fat. Scale weight alone cannot tell you the whole story.
How Long Does Body Recomposition Take?
Body recomposition is a gradual process.
How quickly you see changes depends on your starting body composition, training experience, genetics, diet, sleep, stress, adherence and other factors.
Beginners may notice significant changes relatively quickly, while experienced lifters often need considerably more time to make noticeable improvements.
Instead of expecting dramatic changes in a few weeks, think in terms of months of consistent training and nutrition.
The Bottom Line on Body Recomposition
Successful body recomposition comes down to getting the fundamentals right.
Train hard. Eat enough protein. Control your calories. Perform sensible cardio. Recover properly. Give the process time.
A three-day-per-week resistance-training program combined with steady-state cardio can provide a practical foundation. A calorie-controlled diet with adequate protein can support fat loss while helping preserve lean muscle, and calorie cycling can be used if it makes your diet easier to follow.
Supplements such as Herbal Fat Melter, Nitrobol Amino Acid Complex, Ecdy-Bolin Ecdysterone and Pumped Extreme Kre-Alkalyn Creatine can complement that foundation, but they shouldn’t replace proper training and nutrition.
The ultimate goal isn’t simply to make the number on the scale go down. It’s to build a stronger, more muscular and leaner physique while maintaining the muscle you’ve worked hard to earn.