Recomposition Guide 1.

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Ive been tinkering with these protocols for quite a while, achieving what I feel like is a
great deal of success with my own physique. Everything herein will describe the
methods I have used and that I feel are optimal based on experience. Lastly, before
diving into this, Id like to give credit to Lyle McDonald (bodyrecomposition.com/), Martin
Berkhan (leangains.com) and JC Deen (jcdfitness.com) for exposing me to these ideas,
as well as all the superb info that they put out for free.
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Recomposition is the so called holy-grail of body transformation. The ideal scenario of
simultaneous fat loss & muscle gain. There are varying degrees to which you can
manipulate these variables, which will enable you to skew your results in either
direction, to suit your specific goal. Lots of folks say that attempts at recomposition
largely result in nothing but wheel spinning, but not in my case;

Thoughts on who Should / Should-Not use this Protocol
-I believe this will work best for advanced trainees. Rates of muscle gain will be slow for
these individuals anyway and Im of the opinion that bulking is unproductive for them. I
Day 1 - 190lbs
Day 55 - 185lbs
prefer slow, gradual progress in both directions (muscle gain/fat-loss). Newbies and
Intermediates; please feel free to experiment with my methods, but you may be better
served by simply focusing on strength & muscle gain.
-You must be able to track your macronutrient intake. You dont have to be OCD about
it, but be reasonably accurate. Weigh / Measure your food for at least a month to learn
your portions, then eye-ball it after that.
-You must be relatively lean (sub 15% body-fat for men). There are various factors why
this protocol will work better for lean individuals, primarily because of insulin sensitivity.
If youre fatter than my recommendation, just go with a standard calorie deficit (-20%
/day) until you de-fatten yourself.
AGAIN IF YOURE FAT, DONT TRY TO RECOMP
-You must be patient. I believe part of the reason most people cut or bulk is because
they NEED to see the number on the scale moving to assure themselves that they are
making progress. Recomposition requires a bit of patience and a big-picture point of
view, as day to day fluctuations in bodyweight will be largely irrelevant. You must
maintain an objective view. If youre one of those people who freak out if the scale
moves up a few pounds, then proceeds to eat nothing but celery all day this is not
the program for you.
Constructing the Diet
Step #1 Set maintenance calories
I would assume that most people reading this have a decent estimate of their
maintenance caloric intake (or thereabouts), if so (yay), then you already have a
number to start with.
If you dont have any idea what your maintenance is, multiply your bodyweight x 14-16
to determine your daily caloric intake. Lower on the scale if you are sedentary, higher if
you are active. I suggest most people start with bodyweight x 14 and make
adjustments based on progress. Dont obsess over the numbers, here. Your actual daily
maintenance intake is on a sliding scale from day to day. Were merely attempting to
capture a general average.
Step #2 Set caloric surplus / deficit based on goals
Generally speaking, you will have two different days;
Low day: Create a caloric deficit to lose body-fat
---------- (Maintenance 10-30%)
High day: Create a caloric surplus to gain muscle
---------- (Maintenance + 10-30%)
Now this is where things can get tricky Determining your surplus/deficit for each day,
relative to your goal. Im going keep this simple by listing a few standard set-ups, rather
than attempting to cover every possible scenario.
Vanilla Recomposition
Low Day: Maintenance 20%
High Day: Maintenance +20%
Recomp Bias toward muscle gain
Low Day: Maintenance 10%
High Day: Maintenance +20-30%
Recomp Bias toward fat-loss
Low Day: Maintenance 25-30%
High Day: Maintenance +10%
As you can see there can be many different combinations for distributing calories. I
recommend starting with one of the above and adjusting if necessary.
Matching the diet to the training;
-If you train every other day (3x/week) like most people do, make those the High days,
with non-training days being Low days.
-If you train everyday like I do, simply rotate through high/low/high/low. This is what I
believe to be optimal and has worked very well for me.
-Having 2 Low days in a row is fine, if they are non-training days.
-Having 2 High days in a row is not recommended under most circumstances.
-Do not have a High day on a non-training day.
Step #3 Calculate Macronutrient requirements
Macronutrients can be highly variable between individuals, so experimentation is
obviously necessary. With that said, these are the guidelines Id like to see most people
start with, adjusting based on results.
Low day: 1.2g/lb(bw) Protein, .4g/lb(bw) Fat, Remainder Carbohydrate
High day: 1g/lb(bw) Protein, .3g/lb(bw) Fat, Remainder Carbohydrate
Meal Pattern
Meal timing is largely irrelevant, although I do think it wise for the majority of calories to
come after the training session. Whether you want to accomplish this by using
Intermittent Fasting, the BioRhythm Diet (also see this for meal template options), or
whatever else, doesnt matter. Just do it.
In Practice
Lets say our sample lifter is 180lb with a proposed maintenance of ~2500 calories
(bodyweight x14). He is going to do a Vanilla Recomp;
Low Day: 2500 20% = 2000 calories
High Day: 2500 +20% = 3000 calories
Based on the above, his macros are calculated as;
Low Day: 215 P / 70 F / 125 C
High Day: 180 P / 55 F / 445 C
Gauging Progress
Posted by Joe at 5:05 PM
First and foremost, your performance in the gym is your primary indicator of success.
For all intents and purposes, if youre gaining strength on the compound lifts, youre
gaining muscle.
I personally do not track body measurements via calipers or measuring tape, but if that
floats your boat, go right ahead. I primarily use the mirror for feedback on body-comp.
Regarding scale weight, what Ive found to be the most helpful is to record my morning
weight 5 7 days out of the week and average them out. When comparing these
averages from week to week, you can determine what path your weight is on; generally
increasing, decreasing or staying the same.
If you decide to try out one of these protocols, please provide some feedback.