Body
Recomposition

"Recomp" describes a shift in what your body is made of, rather than only how much it weighs. In practice, it usually means building or keeping muscle while slowly losing fat. It isn't a special diet or program. It's an outcome that can happen when training, food intake and recovery line up.

The scale measures everything at once: muscle, fat, water, glycogen, food in your gut and more. Two people at the same weight can look and perform very differently.

So if your weight barely moves while your training improves and your measurements change, it doesn't mean nothing is happening. The scale alone doesn't tell the full story.

Recomposition tends to be more noticeable in some situations. These are tendencies, not rules:

• Newer resistance trainees
• People returning after time away from training
• People who previously trained inconsistently
• Individuals with greater available body-fat stores

Experienced, lean trainees can still improve composition, but changes are usually slower and harder to detect.

To gain or keep muscle, your body needs a reason to. A meaningful resistance-training stimulus, with hard sets and challenging loads repeated over time, provides that reason. Without it, reducing body fat may come with more muscle loss than you'd like.

Recomposition does not automatically require a traditional "bulk." Consider three broad energy states:

• Calorie deficit: eating less than you expend. It favours fat loss, and muscle can often be preserved with training and enough protein.
• Maintenance: eating about what you expend. Weight stays roughly stable, and composition may still shift.
• Calorie surplus: eating more than you expend. It can support muscle gain, usually along with some fat gain.

The right choice depends on your starting point, goals and preferences. There isn't one correct answer.

Adequate protein supports building and retaining muscle, which matters even more when you're not eating in a surplus. The practical range used across this site is a guide, not a universal prescription. Needs can vary with body size, training and context.

Training should keep giving your body a reason to keep or build muscle. Gradually adding reps, load or quality sets over time, while keeping technique consistent, is the core idea behind progressive overload.

Because scale weight may barely change, use several signals. Each has limitations:

• Body-weight trends: weekly averages are more useful than single days.
• Training performance: strength and rep progress on repeatable exercises.
• Body measurements: waist and limbs, measured the same way each time.
• Progress photos, if you want them. Keep the lighting and pose consistent.
• How clothing fits. It's subjective, but often useful.

Recomposition is generally gradual. Meaningful changes usually take months of consistent training, not weeks. Expect slow, uneven progress rather than dramatic simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss.

Set a starting energy target, turn it into macros, and train with a plan you can progress. The links below take you there.