Body recomposition
Redirected from "Recomp"
Also known as: Recomp
Body recomposition, often shortened to "recomp," is a reduction in fat mass together with an increase in muscle mass over the same training period. Body weight may decrease, increase, or remain similar because the two tissue changes can partly offset each other on the scale.
Strictly speaking, preserving muscle while losing fat improves the proportion of body tissues but is not the same as gaining new muscle. Likewise, gaining muscle faster than fat during a gaining phase can improve relative composition without reducing absolute fat mass. Stating the actual outcomes avoids using "recomposition" for every favorable change.
Recomp is physiologically possible because stored energy can contribute to total energy needs while resistance training and dietary amino acids provide signals and materials for muscle remodeling. It is often more noticeable in beginners, people returning after detraining, and some people with higher starting fat mass. It may proceed more slowly in highly trained, lean lifters. These are tendencies, not eligibility rules.
The main controllable inputs are progressive strength training, an appropriate energy balance, sufficient protein, and recovery. Progressive overload helps keep the muscle-building stimulus appropriate as performance changes. A severe energy deficit can make training and lean-tissue gain harder, while a large surplus can add more fat than the goal allows. No single maintenance or deficit number works for everyone because energy expenditure and response change over time.
Evidence should be interpreted by population. A systematic review and meta-analysis in adults with overweight or obesity found that resistance-based programs reduced fat mass and increased lean mass on average. That supports the possibility of concurrent changes in that population, but it does not promise the same rate or magnitude for every trained person.
Measure over months rather than days. Scale weight alone cannot show recomposition, while body fat percentage, DXA, and BIA all have measurement error and lean-mass estimates are not identical to muscle. Use repeated measurements under similar conditions, relevant circumferences, standardized photos if wanted, and performance trends. Increasing strength is useful training information, but it is not proof by itself of hypertrophy.