Most people mess this up.
They either bulk too early and get fat, or they cut too hard and lose whatever muscle they had.
Recomposition — building muscle while losing fat — requires a calculated balance. Chapter 1 covered training stimulus. This chapter covers creating the environment for that stimulus to actually work.
What Body Fat Actually Is
Body fat is stored energy. Your body keeps it around because it doesn't trust you. It's preparing for famine.
To lose fat, you have to convince your body it's safe to burn it. That means:
- Enough protein to preserve muscle
- Enough micronutrients to stay healthy
- Just enough energy deficit to pull from stored fat, not muscle
Cutting harder doesn't equal faster results. You want to repartition energy — teaching your body to store it in muscle, not fat. That's what recomposition actually means.
Find Your Maintenance First
Before you do anything, find your maintenance calories — the amount you eat to stay the same weight.
Without that baseline, everything else is a guess.
How to find it:
1. Track everything you eat for 7 days. No judgment, just data.
2. Weigh yourself every morning after waking up and using the bathroom.
3. If your weight stays roughly the same, you just found maintenance.
That number becomes your anchor. From there, you can manipulate it — down for fat loss, up for building muscle — without losing control.
The Recomp Sweet Spot
Recomposition happens when you're close to maintenance calories — slightly below, training hard, eating enough protein.
You're not trying to starve yourself. You're shifting the ratio of fat-to-muscle change.
Practical breakdown:
- Calories: 200–400 below maintenance (10–15% deficit)
- Protein: 0.8–1.2g per pound of bodyweight daily
- Carbs and fats: Fill the rest based on preference and energy levels
This setup keeps strength stable, recovery solid, and hormones functioning while body fat slowly drops.
If you're overweight (20%+ body fat), you can go slightly more aggressive. If you're leaner, stay closer to maintenance or you'll spin your wheels and feel flat.
What Happens When You Cut Too Hard
Big mistake: dropping calories way too low, thinking it'll speed things up.
All that does is tank your performance, slow recovery, and kill training quality. You'll lose scale weight, yeah — but you'll look smaller, not leaner.
The process should feel like this:
- Slightly hungry sometimes, but not starving
- Workouts stay strong
- Slowly tightening up week by week
If your lifts are dropping and you feel flat or foggy, you're cutting too hard. Your training drives the body you build. Training requires fuel.
Protein: Non-Negotiable
You cannot recomp without protein.
Protein does three things:
1. Preserves muscle in a deficit
2. Drives recovery from training
3. Boosts metabolism slightly (it takes more energy to digest)
Guidelines:
- 1g per pound of bodyweight (or goal weight)
- Spread it across 3–4 meals per day
- Prioritize lean sources: chicken, beef, eggs, fish, Greek yogurt, whey protein
If you only fix one thing in your diet — fix this.
How to Actually Drop Body Fat
When you're in a deficit, your body starts choosing where to pull energy from. Your job is to make it pull from fat instead of muscle.
The combination:
- Resistance training (signals "keep the muscle")
- Adequate protein (provides raw material)
- Small calorie deficit (forces energy use)
That's it. You don't need two hours of cardio or starvation diets.
What to expect:
- 0.5–1% of bodyweight lost per week
- Slight visual change every 2–3 weeks
- Big difference after 8–12 weeks if consistent
You'll know you're doing it right when your scale weight doesn't drop dramatically but your physique tightens up. That's recomp in motion.
The Reality of Bulking and Cutting
Most guys bulk too early because they're impatient. They want quick changes and think eating more will speed things up. But if your body fat is high, a bulk just makes you puffier.
Always earn your bulk by first getting lean enough to see definition. That's when insulin sensitivity improves, nutrient partitioning gets better, and food actually starts building muscle instead of fat.
When to cut: You're above ~15% body fat.
When to bulk: You're lean (~10–12%) and progress in the gym has stalled despite eating enough.
When to recomp: You're somewhere in the middle, and you care more about refining than chasing extremes.
Cardio's Role in Fat Loss
Cardio isn't mandatory, but it helps. Think of it as a tool to expand your calorie budget.
You burn more, so you can eat a bit more while staying in a deficit. Your heart and recovery both benefit.
Best approach:
- Start with 2–3 LISS sessions per week (30–45 minutes walking, incline treadmill, cycling)
- Add one HIIT session if you like intensity, but don't overdo it
Cardio is a supplement to fat loss, not the foundation. The foundation is still diet and lifting.
Tracking & Adjusting
If you're not tracking, you're guessing. Your body doesn't care about your effort — it responds to consistency and numbers.
Track your calories and protein. Weigh yourself every morning. Take progress pictures weekly.
Adjust only when progress stalls for two consecutive weeks.
If weight isn't moving: Drop 150–200 calories per day or add one cardio session.
If performance tanks: Add 150–200 calories and reassess.
Simple. You're building a feedback loop with your body.
Common Recomp Mistakes
1. Too big a deficit. You'll lose muscle, not fat.
2. Not enough protein. Everything else becomes pointless.
3. Not training hard enough. Recomp relies on stimulus — the gym drives change.
4. Constant program hopping. Your body needs time to adapt.
5. No tracking. You can't fix what you can't measure.
Avoid those five mistakes and you'll make progress every single month.
The Goal: Visible Leanness
Everyone's obsessed with the number on the scale. Your goal is to look visibly lean, not light.
The moment your abs start peeking through and your face sharpens up, that's your signal. You've hit the recomposition zone.
Don't panic and start bulking. Hold that condition. Keep training hard. Milk it. That's when you build your best shape.
Recomposition requires control, not perfection. You're controlling calories, macros, and training variables with precision, not emotion.
You'll get leaner, stronger, and tighter simultaneously — just slower than people chasing one extreme.
But slow is stable. And stable builds the kind of body that stays.
Action Items
**This Week:**
1. Find your maintenance calories. Track everything you eat for 7 days. Weigh yourself every morning. Calculate your average daily intake. If your weight stayed roughly the same, that's your maintenance. Write it down.
2. Calculate your protein target. Multiply your bodyweight (or goal weight) by 1g. That's your daily protein minimum. Track it for 3 days and see if you're hitting it. Most people aren't even close.
3. Set up your tracking system. Download MyFitnessPal or use a notes app. Create a simple template: Date, Weight, Calories, Protein. If you're not tracking, you're guessing.
**Quick Win (Do This Today):**
Take a progress picture in the mirror. Front, side, back. Save it with today's date. You'll need this baseline when you're eight weeks in and wondering if anything's changing. Your eyes lie. Pictures don't.
Next Chapter Preview:
We'll cover recovery and energy systems — how sleep, stress, and fatigue management tie into this whole structure. That's where most people lose progress without realizing it.