What’s body re composition?
Body recomposition refers to the idea of building muscle while simultaneously losing fat. Also known as building muscle and reducing your caloric intake, body recomposition is also called “building muscle”
This is one of the most controversial topics in fitness and bodybuilding history.
Talk about the topic and you will be surrounded by angry mobs.
I mean, after all:
Fitness experts and influencers will often share the following advice:
To lose weight, you must be in a caloric surplus – i.e. To lose weight, eat less calories than your body needs to keep it at the same weight.
To gain muscle mass, you must be in a caloric excess – i.e. To maintain your weight, eat more calories that your body needs.
Breon Ansley was a two-time Mr. Olympia classic physique champion and famously stated in a video that you cannot build muscle while on a caloric deficit.
Do you mean, if you want muscle but also want to lose weight, you have to first cut and then bulk? Or do you bulk first, then you can cut?
It is important to remember that asking whether body recomposition can be achieved is asking whether bulking or cutting phases are required. This also touches on maingaining, but let’s not get into that.
The short answer to your question is yes, body recomposition is possible.
But, why listen to me when so many others are telling you the opposite?
Let me take a scientific approach. First, let me explain what muscle building is.
The science behind muscle growth
what-is-body-recomposition
I will try to be more boring and less technical.
Muscle growth is a dependent signaling process.
Signaling can be divided into two types: nutritional signaling and physical exercise signaling.
Let’s start with the physical.
You lift enough weight to cause active mechanical tension in your muscle. This is known as a stimulus.
Sensors sense the stimulus and send that signal to a molecule called MTOR. mTOR is the key to controlling the growth of cells within the body.
The mTOR then goes to the nucleus and instructs the DNA machinery (sort of like a blueprint to build new muscles) to create an mRNA strand.
These blueprints are sent by email to the Ribosome. This is a type of muscle-building factory that produces a string amino acids based upon the blueprint. It’s also known as translation.
Translation is commonly referred to as muscle protein synthesis.
Protein synthesis that is higher than protein breakdown (i.e. If protein synthesis is greater than protein breakdown (i.e., synthesis > break down), then new muscle fibers will be created which leads to increased muscle size.
Amino acids found in protein are what trigger nutritional signaling.
These amino acids are then transported into the cell, where Leucine (one of the essential amino acids) activates.
The 8 remaining essential amino acids then make their way into the worrisome, where they are used to build muscle.
It’s not the most exciting. Understanding how muscle growth works is crucial to understanding why body re composition works.
Exercising is the key to muscle growth, while protein supports the process and provides the building blocks needed for muscle repair and development.
This is nothing new. This is something we already know.
The main word here is “caloric excess” or “caloric shortage”. What role does calories play in this whole thing?
Let’s take a closer look at what calories are.
What is a Calories?
calories body re composition
Calories refer to the unit of energy found in food.
However, not all calories can be considered equal.
Three main caloric sources are carbs (1g = four calories), protein (1g= 4 calories), fat (1g = 9 calories).
These are often referred to as macro nutrients, or macros.
These macros provide energy that is used in a different way by the body.
Carbs are your primary source of energy – they power everything, from walking to brain function.
Protein calories are needed to build and rebuild tissue, from organs to muscles to hair.
The body uses calories from fats to support cell growth, energy, when fatty acids are broken down into fatty acid, to protect your organs and promote the production important hormones.
These macros have different purposes.
They can all technically be used to generate energy for daily activities. However, the body has a structure which makes it more efficient and reduces waste.
Does that mean you get all the calories from protein when you are in a caloric excess? Are all those extra protein calories the reason for muscle growth?
This would not be possible if you were in a 500-calorie surplus. That means you would have to consume 125g more protein than you are currently eating.
Bulking is when you consume the most calories from carbohydrates and fats. Both of these have nothing to do with muscle growth.
Bulking is basically introducing more energy into your body than it needs to maintain your weight.
What happens to all that extra energy?
It is stored as body fat.
The study shows that participants can achieve a caloric surplus (600 calories) by simply eating 600 calories. What did you see?
They lost three times as much fat, and they also gained…
Wait for it.
The control group that was not in a caloric surplus had 0.5% more muscle.
Body recomposition study
I will repeat it again: 3x more body fat, 0.5% less muscle than those who were not in a caloric surplus.
You can even be bold.
The researchers also concluded that this was the case in this study:
“…The energy surplus does not seem to have any functional or metabolic benefits”
This is the worst part.
Even if your bulking phase was more successful, you will likely lose all of your muscle mass during your cutting phase.
Bulking does not create the illusion of strength and size, but it can be a temporary solution. You’ll lose all the muscle you gained by bulking up if you have a low caloric intake.
Let’s get into some muscle math.
Let’s take an example: You’ve been working out for three months.
Let’s suppose you have gained 2kg (4.4lbs) muscle and lost 1kg (2.2lbs) fat.
We know that 1kg of muscle equals 1,800 calories.
1kg of fat equals 9,400 calories
Because muscle is mainly made of water, it stores a lot more energy than fat.
That means you’d have gained 3,600 calories in those three months.
And lost 9,400 calories.
Even though you gained 1kg (2.2lbs), there was still a net energy deficit totalling 5,800 calories spread over those three months.
Or, a deficit of 65 calories/day.
This is just the beginning. There is plenty of scientific literature to prove that body recomposition can be achieved.
According to this 2016 study, subjects lost an average of 5kg (11lbs) in fat mass and gained about 1kg in lean muscle mass.
However, most of the participants in these studies are novice trainees. A high-protein diet of 1g/lb was recommended for people who just started exercising. Progressive overload was a way of putting a lot of work into their workouts. Gradually increasing the weight, frequency or number of repetitions, sets, when you exercise a muscle.
Does someone who has been working out for a while have body re-composition options?
Is body re-composition a good idea for everyone?
People believed that only untrained, overweight people could recompose their bodies.
It makes sense that new lifters tend to gain muscle quickly, while overweight people store large amounts of energy as body fat.
Recent data has shown that even experienced athletes can build muscle and lose fat, as this study shows.
What about those with low body fat?
People with low body fat (say 6-10%) are most likely the ones who can’t benefit from body re composition.
However, you don’t have to be starving.
You’ll lose muscle mass if you keep dieting. Your body will try to reduce your body fat as it drops. It will also break down muscle tissue to help decrease calories.
You will also burn more calories if you have more muscle. Your BMR will increase.
You will not be able to lift heavy weights or maintain your training intensity.
It would be a good idea to eat more if you find yourself in this situation.
Bottom line
Conclusion: You can build muscle even if you are on a low caloric diet.
This is not for beginners or overweight people. Anyone can do it.
If you have low body fat, body re composition may not be desired. You’ll be putting at risk your strength and muscle mass.
You should eat a high-protein diet, 0.8g to 1g per pound. For example, if your body weight is 170 lbs (77kg), you should consume 136g-170g of protein.
