If your current health goal just isn’t lose weightBut to lose fat instead gain muscleThen body reconstruction is the technique for you. With consistency, the right diet and workout plan, as well as recovery, you can change your body composition over time. To get started on this journey, here’s everything you need to know about reengineering your body and achieving your goals.
Body composition refers to your body fat percentage and lean mass percentage.
What is meant by body composition?
Your body composition is the ratio of fat mass and lean mass in your body. Sometimes, body composition is used interchangeably with body fat percentage, but body fat percentage is just one part of your overall body composition.
Lean mass includes muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, organs, other tissues, and water – in other words, everything that is not body fat. Depending on what method you use to measure your body composition, you may see water as a percentage of it.
Why try body reconstruction?
Body recombination refers to the process of changing the ratio of your fat mass to lean mass – that is, losing body fat and gaining muscle mass. The goal of body recombination is to simultaneously lose fat and gain muscle, as opposed to the traditional approach of “bulking and cutting”, in which you deliberately put on too much weight (muscle and fat) first and then go through an intense calorie deficit to reduce the fat and reveal the muscle underneath.
When your goal is body recomposition, remove the scale and use a tape measure to get a better idea of your progress.
It’s not weight loss, it’s fat loss
Body recombination is not about weight loss; It’s about fat loss. On a body recomposition plan, you can maintain your current weight or even gain weight – do you remember hearing that “muscle weighs more than fat”? This is a half-truth. Muscle is denser than fat.
During body remodeling, it’s your physique, not weight, that changes. As you progress through body reengineering, you may notice changes in your body, such as looking stronger overall or your clothes fitting differently. At the end of your body reconstruction program you may also gain weight, but your body may become smaller.
For example, my weight is now exactly the same as it was before I started exercising and eating healthy. However, I wear smaller clothes, and my body has more muscle tone than before. I feel much stronger than before I started the strength-training program (a non-aesthetic benefit of body remodeling). so you can dig the scaleBecause it does not distinguish between fat loss and muscle loss, and weight loss with body recombination is not the primary goal.
However, there is one caveat to consider: If you want to lose a large amount of body fat and don’t intend to gain a lot of muscle, you may lose weight in the long run.
When will body recombination start working?
Because you’re trying to do two things at once – build muscle and lose fat at the same time – you can’t treat a body recomposition plan like a short-term one. fad diet. Healthy weight loss and healthy muscle gain take a lot of time on their own: put them together, and you’ll be in it for the long haul. However, the slow, steady process of body remodeling provides lasting results, so you’ll enjoy your new physique as long as you maintain those habits.
Body recombination is a fine balance between muscle building and fat loss.
How does body recombination work?
Body recombination really depends on your specific health and fitness goals. As opposed to traditional methods of weight loss – such as very low-calorie diets or really intense periods cardio exercise – There is no real protocol for body recomposition.
There are basic guidelines to follow. To successfully change your body composition, you must:
reduce obesity
Fat loss ultimately depends on your calorie maintenance. To lose fat, you must eat fewer calories than you burn. cardiovascular exercise, or combined cardio and resistance exerciseThe best techniques for fat loss, along with a healthy diet, remain the same – the science has no way of convincing. Losing fat in a safe, sustainable way means having realistic goals and not depriving your body of essential nutrients – disordered eating habits are never worth the risk.
Building muscle requires resistance training.
build muscles
Focus on two main factors for building muscle: weight training And protein consumption. Strength training is essential for changing your body composition – your muscles won’t grow if you don’t challenge them.
Additionally, you can’t build muscle without a calorie surplus, so you must eat more calories than you burn to promote muscle growth. while all macronutrients are important, protein is especially important for building muscles. Without enough protein, your body will struggle to repair muscle tissue that breaks down during weight training.
Also, studies show that a High-protein diet may help reduce fat and increase muscle At the same time. research shows That, during a calorie deficit, consuming more protein than normal can help maintain your lean body mass (muscle mass) without causing a calorie deficit without changing your protein intake.
In people who are already following a strength training program, increasing protein intake and following a heavy weight lifting routine improves body composition.
Bodybuilders are known for their ability to achieve incredibly lean and muscular bodies. This is obviously not everyone’s goal, but it is a good example of what is possible with body reengineering.
calorie cycling
It seems confusing that to lose fat you have to eat fewer calories than you burn, but to build muscle you have to eat more calories than you burn. It’s actually very simple when you learn about the concept of calorie cycling: modifying your calorie and macronutrient intake to match your goal for the day.
The first thing you need to do is figure out your maintenance calories, or how many calories you burn on days you don’t exercise. You can meet with a certified personal trainer, dietitian, or other health professional to figure out this number, or you can use an online calorie calculator. Mayo Clinic Calculator Uses up Mifflin-St. geor equationWhat professionals consider the gold standard.
On days you do cardio exercise, you should consume enough calories to meet your maintenance numbers. Consuming maintenance calories on a cardio day ensures that you’re in a slight deficit to promote fat loss, but not in such a large deficit that your body starts using muscle tissue as fuel. Remember we want muscle!
on the days you do this strength training Workout for 30 minutes or longer, eating more calories than your maintenance number, with a focus on protein. Depending on how much muscle you want to build and how quickly you want to gain it, add 5% to 15% to your maintenance calories.
On days you don’t exercise at all, eat slightly less than your maintenance calories — reduce that number by 5% to 10%. This number is called your “rest day calories.”
A weekly plan to meet your body recomposition goals.
Think of it this way: Every day, you consume new calories and your body must decide what to do with those calories. Your body essentially has three basic options: burn calories immediately for fuel, use them to repair and build muscle tissue, or store them as fat.
If you’re looking for physical changes, you won’t want to store calories as fat. But you want your body to use the new calories to repair the muscles you’ve broken down during weight-lifting workouts.
So, you’ll eat more calories (and protein) on weight-training days so that your body can use those calories and nutrients for muscle repair and thus muscle growth. And you’ll eat fewer calories on those cardio days and days when you don’t workout because you want your body to use pre-existing fat as fuel – not use new calories as fuel.
By combining these two tips, you can successfully achieve body reconstruction.
recovery
Recovery days are an essential part of your weekly training plan. Sneaking in extra workouts may seem like it will advance your progress, but it may be hurting you. Rest days aren’t just about feeling less pain. Recovery helps your body Build muscle, reduce inflammation and increase your energy levels.
In addition to eating the right things during recovery, like lean meats, fruits, and hydration electrolytes, you should prioritize sleep. Sleep is arguably the most important recovery tool we have. It supports muscle repair and hormone balance at the cellular level. experts recommend 7 to 9 hours of sleepHowever, high-performance athletes may require approximately 10 hours.
Rest is necessary for recovery.
If you’re burning fat and building muscle at the same time, you won’t notice visible changes right away. However, there are other signs you can look for that will indicate that you are going in the right direction:
- better energy
- Difference in fit of clothes
- feeling strong
- healing fast
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Not getting enough sleep or not allowing adequate recovery. You’ll want to make sure you get the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. As you plan your workout, make sure you are training different muscles from day to day to rest your previously worked areas.
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