What is Body Recomposition?
The term “body composition” refers to the proportions of lean body mass and fat in the body. Lean body mass simply refers to everything in the body that isn’t body fat, including muscle mass, organs, and bone.
Generally speaking, a healthy body composition tends to possess higher percentages of lean body mass, and lower percentages of body fat. The better your body composition, the leaner and more ripped you are.
The trick to building a strong, fit, athletic body is pretty simple: for most people, that means burning fat and building lean muscle. Some people say that it’s possible to do both at the same time while others say it’s not. So what’s the truth?
The Truth About Body Recomposition
Let me begin by saying this... Most people cannot EFFICIENTLY shred fat and build lean muscle at the same time. But it is possible to do both at the same time if you know exactly what to eat and how to train based on your body composition and your goals.
And here's proof that it is possible…
Agata
For example, a client of ours got a DEXA scan on March 17th of this year right before beginning our program, and then got another DEXA scan on June 19th right after finishing our 90-day Vegan Superhero Academy coaching program.
And her results were pretty phenomenal! She shredded 24.7 pounds (11.2 kg) of body fat in 90 days. Pretty awesome, right? That is amazing in and of itself, but here’s the kicker…
Her body weight only dropped by a total of 13.5 pounds (6.1 kg). So how could her body weight only drop by 13.5 pounds if she lost 24.7 pounds? Because in that same 90-day period she gained 11.2 pounds (5.1 kg) of lean muscle mass.
Todd
Another client of ours, Todd, recently accomplished similar results. He got down to 9% body fat and got ripped abs at 48 years old. According to his body composition tests, he shredded 23.5 pounds of body fat while gaining about 6 pounds of lean mass in 79 days.
To get results like these, it really comes down to nailing your nutrition. When you are trying to accomplish a body recomposition goal, then nutrition is the most important part. Of course, you also have to progressively overload your muscles and give your body a reason to build muscle mass through resistance training. With the right nutrition plan and training program, you can burn fat and build muscle at the same time.
The Math of Body Recomposition
The First Law of Thermodynamics
If you are in a caloric surplus, you will be storing net energy. If you are in a caloric deficit, you will be losing net energy. Because fat and muscle tissue are separate systems, it is possible to lose fat due to the caloric deficit while building muscle due to the progressive training and sufficient protein.
But when analyzing body recomposition, the most important factor is the amount of calories you are consuming.
So how many calories do you need to burn to lose fat? Well, one pound of body fat weighs 454 grams. Approximately 85 to 90% of this weight can be attributed to stored triglycerides that can be burned for energy (the rest is water and cellular machinery) (1).
This means that you have roughly 400 grams of stored triglycerides in each pound of body fat that you must burn to lose one pound of fat. Since each gram of pure fat contains nine calories, this means that it takes about 3,600 calories of cumulative burned energy to lose one pound of fat.
And how many calories do you need to consume to gain lean muscle mass? An estimated 2,500 to 2,800 excess calories is needed to gain one pound of lean mass, though there is not any hard scientific evidence to determine an exact number. This has the effect of actually increasing your perceived deficit without having a significant impact on one's hunger levels.
So to lose body fat you need to be in a caloric deficit of 3,600 calories over time to lose 1 pound of body fat. And if you are also building lean muscle mass at the same time because your fitness and nutrition are really dialed in, that will increase your perceived deficit because your body needs to take excess calories from the food you’re eating to synthesize more muscle tissue. So you can potentially increase your rate of fat loss while also building muscle tissue.
The 3 main things that you MUST do to shred fat and build lean muscle
Vegan Body Recomposition Secret #1
To lose fat and build muscle, you must focus on fat loss.
In other words, you must maintain a caloric deficit to shred fat as it is not possible to shred fat while maintaining a caloric surplus. However, your body CAN build muscle in a caloric deficit (2).
At the same time, it is possible to be too aggressive with your caloric deficit, which will slow your metabolism and result in lost muscle mass (3). There’s a sweet spot that you need to maintain between burning fat and building muscle.
I’d recommend about a 15-20% caloric deficit, which will help you shred fat rapidly, but also put you in a position to build lean muscle at the same time. You just need to be sure that you are following the exact right diet and training routine.
Vegan Body Recomposition Secret #2
You must maintain a high protein diet.
Now there is nothing wrong with consuming a low protein diet, but if you want to shred body fat while gaining lean muscle, then you need to follow a high-protein diet. In a 2016 study, researchers at McMaster University split up 40 subjects into two groups (4):
Group 1 (the low-protein diet group): Researchers randomly assigned 20 subjects to a low-protein control diet (1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day).
Group 2 (the high-protein diet group): Researchers randomly assigned the other 20 subjects to consume twice as much protein as the low-protein group (2.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day).
All subjects from both groups performed resistance exercise training combined with high-intensity interval training for 6 days per week. The researchers also provided all meals and beverages for the participants to consume throughout the intervention period (with the exception of water). They all followed a caloric deficit of 40%. In other words, they ate 40% less calories than they burned every day.
Over the course of the 4-week trial, the low-protein group shredded 3.7 kilograms (8.2 pounds) of fat while the high-protein group shredded 4.8 kilograms (10.6 pounds) of fat. So the high-protein group had a slight edge in fat loss, but there wasn’t a huge difference. This isn’t surprising as a high-protein diet has been shown to increase fat loss, preserve lean body mass, and maintain your metabolism.
But here’s the true power of a high-protein diet when it comes to body recomposition. The high-protein group gained 1.2 kilograms of muscle (2.6 pounds) while the low-protein group only managed to maintain their lean muscle mass. Again, there is nothing wrong with consuming a low protein diet, but if you want to shred body fat while gaining lean muscle, then you need to follow a high-protein diet.
So how much protein should you consume?
A 2014 meta-analysis conducted by researchers at AUT University in New Zealand provided a systematic review of 6 studies with energy-restricted, resistance-trained adult subjects (5). They found that people maintaining a caloric deficit while trying to build lean muscle must consume between 1.05 to 1.41 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass (2.3 to 3.1 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body mass).
Your intake should be scaled upwards with the severity of your caloric deficit and leanness. In other words, the larger your caloric deficit and the leaner you are, the higher your protein intake should be. Lean body mass is everything in your body that isn’t fat (i.e., organs, skeletal muscle, water, and bone).
Vegan Body Recomposition Secret #3
When it comes to building muscle, there is one scientific principle that matters more than any other. It’s called progressive overload.
Your muscles must be given a reason to grow bigger and stronger. They don’t just grow because you want them to. They grow because they NEED to grow to handle the stresses that you are placing them under. In other words, you have to lift heavier and heavier weights over time. That’s how you progressively overload your muscles, which is the fastest way to build muscle.
The way I like to do this is with heavy weights at the gym. And I like to focus on exercises like the squat, deadlift, and bench press. But you can do this at home with resistance bands or sandbags too.
In fact, Todd and Agata accomplished most of their results while working out at home with minimal equipment. I should also add that you want to keep cardio to a minimum because too much cardio affects your body's ability to grow muscle.
factors that will determine whether you are able to build muscle in a caloric deficit
There are 4 main factors that will determine how efficiently your body is able to build muscle mass in a caloric deficit, while also shredding body fat.
Your level of proper training experience. Meaning, the less proper training experience you have, the more likely you are to be able to build lean muscle. For people with more than 2 years of proper training experience, I recommend that you focus on cycling between periods of cutting and bulking because trying to build muscle in a deficit may result in you just spinning your wheels and making little progress.
The higher your starting body fat percentage, the more likely you will be able to build muscle in a caloric deficit because you’ll have lots of body fat to lose.
You maintain a moderate caloric deficit, about 15-20%. So no crash dieting where you’re in a caloric deficit of 50+% as this will make it very difficult to build muscle while you are shredding body fat.
You maintain a high protein diet, somewhere between 0.7-1.0 g/lb of bodyweight depending on your body fat percentage.
How do you know if you are burning fat and building muscle at the same time?
The only way to know for sure is to track your weight and body fat percentage. In other words, you need to know exactly how your lean mass and fat mass are changing over time. The only way to know this for certain is to take regular body composition tests. The best one of these is DEXA.
However, as we’ve mentioned before, you can also get an idea of how things are going with more accessible measurement methods: taking progress pictures, weighing yourself, and taking body measurements regularly.
If you are already relatively lean, increases in your arms and calves and decreases in your waist and hip measurements are a good indication that you are building muscle. If the scale is dropping at the same time and your midsection (particularly your abs) is becoming more defined, then it’s likely that you are building muscle at the same time. But that’s not a very scientific approach, so there’s a lot of gray area there.
I would highly recommend getting regular body composition tests if you are really serious about body recomposition.
Summary
You CAN shred fat and build muscle at the same time
Your body recomposition results largely depend on your level of training experience. How much of your natural potential have you already accomplished?
You MUST maintain a caloric deficit to achieve body recomposition. It doesn’t have to be an aggressive deficit and should be scaled upwards with your body fat percentage. The more body fat you have, the higher your deficit can be.
You MUST maintain a high protein intake to support muscle growth.
You MUST focus on progressive overload with your training. Focus on lifting heavier weights over time - really push yourself!
THAT'S A WRAP! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS ARTICLE!
Do you have any questions about body recomposition? Please post them in the comment section below and I'll answer them! 👇
Your vegan fitness trainer,
Leif