To lose weight, you need to cut down on your calorie intake; but to gain muscle, you have to increase your calorie intake. Thus, the concept of losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time can be quite inconceivable. Though you may still not be convinced that you can lose weight and gain muscle at the same time, it’s possible through a process known as body recomposition. This approach emphasizes on losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time.
Besides promoting weight loss and muscle gain, body recomposition helps you strengthen your immune system and boost your health. It’s a healthy and sustainable approach that focuses on fitness and nutrition. To optimize your results and achieve a healthy, lean look, this process should be paired with a body recomposition supplement.
In this article, you’ll learn about body recomposition, how it works, and what can you do to lose weight and gain muscle.
What Is Body Recomposition?
Body recomposition is a process that changes body fat into lean mass. Body recomposition means to form something again, so following body recomposition techniques of nutrition and fitness can change the structure of your body. Since body recomposition is about fat loss, not weight loss, you may lose weight slowly or not lose weight at all. Since muscle tissues are denser than fat tissues and weigh more, you will gain weight even if you lose fat. However, the changes can be seen in your physique. You will have a lean, firm look and your clothes may fit differently.
How Does Body Recomposition Work?
Body recomposition requires a lifestyle change. It’s about altering your diet and your fitness regime to facilitate body recomposition. While traditional weight loss focuses on a calorie deficit that results in fat and muscle loss, body recomposition build muscle and reduce fat at the same time. For this to happen, the body has to convert the stored fat to muscle mass. What you consume as calories are often used up as fuel while the rest of it is stored as fat. Everyone has fat stored in cells that can be used to rebuild muscle mass.
If you have large amounts of fat stored, you don’t need a calorie surplus to build muscle mass, instead, your body uses up the stored fat build muscle mass. This means, you can have lower calories and still gain muscle. To meet your body recomposition goals, you can use fitness techniques like integrating high-intensity cardio workouts with strength training and increasing your protein intake while cutting down on carbs.
Tips To Lose Weight And Gain Muscle
Here are some crucial tips to keep in mind if you want to lose weight and gain muscles:
Focus On Muscle Gain, Not Fat Loss
To change your body composition, design your workout to include cardio exercises for fat loss, and resistance training for muscle gain. HIIT is one of the most efficient ways to lose body fat. 15-minutes of HIIT will burn more calories than 1 hour of jogging. For muscle gain, introduce strength training to your workout routine. You can introduce compound movements like squats, presses, and deadlifts to gain muscle.
Though strength training stimulates most of the muscles of your body, to ensure that you benefit optimally from it, gradually increase the weights and reps of your training. Since muscle growth is stimulated by challenging the muscles, progressive overload is great for muscle growth.
Reduce Your Cardio Workout
Hour-long steady-state cardio burns calories instead of body fat and can put you on a calorie deficit, causing muscle loss instead of fat loss. Instead, opt for exercises like walking or HIIT. Walking, being a low-intensity workout uses fat as its primary fuel source. On the other hand, HIIT enhances the process of breaking down muscle and rebuilding it. It also enhances the use of fat as fuel and preserves muscle mass.
Increase Your Protein Consumption
Since protein is the key component for muscle building, having adequate amounts of it is essential to maintain muscle mass and increase muscle growth. If you’re strength training, increasing your protein intake by 1.5 to 2 grams per pound of your body weight will protect your muscle tissues from breakdown.
Make sure to spread your protein intake throughout the day. Since a high-protein diet also leads to more calorie burnout through the process of digestion, absorption, and distribution of nutrients, it’s ideal for sustaining your metabolism, even when you’re on a calorie deficit. A protein-rich diet is ideal for reducing fat, supporting muscle gain, and increasing satiety.
Maintain A Moderate Calorie Deficit
The only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn. If you’re thinking of weight loss alongside muscle gain, this is crucial. Your body can gain muscle and lose weight when it’s on a calorie deficit. However, if you’re having more calories than you can burn, your body will be able to gain muscle but won’t be able to lose weight. That’s why it’s important to maintain a moderate calorie deficit. Experts suggest that a 25% calorie deficit is ideal for losing fat while also preventing muscle loss and other symptoms of extreme calorie deficit.
Take The Right Supplements
Though the market is flooded with fitness supplements, to reach your goal of body recomposition, finding the right one is essential. To accelerate the process of your body recomposition, choose supplements like creatine, protein powder, and formulas containing caffeine, green tea, forskolin, and theanine. Ensure the supplements you take don’t have artificial sweeteners or added flavors.
Conclusion
Body recomposition isn’t just about fat loss, it also focuses on muscle gain. It’s a healthy and sustainable lifestyle that focuses on fitness and nutrition. The key foundations of body recomposition include techniques for simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain.
To create an effective body recomposition routine, focus on increasing your daily protein intake, increase strength training, cut down on cardio, and shift to HIIT exercises. To lose weight, it’s important to maintain a moderate calorie deficit. You can optimize your body recomposition results by including supplements to your routine. A well-thought-out routine of healthy meals, regular work-outs, and proper supplements will also ensure that you reach your body recomposition goals successfully.
Tags: lifestyle, recomposition
