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Body Recomposition: How to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time

By Ethan Boldt

June 26, 2025

The term “body recomposition” is trending in fitness circles and beyond because it promises the best of both worlds: less fat and more muscle.

Typically, you develop an eating and exercise program with either a fat loss or a muscle gain goal, not both at the same time. This is usually a good strategy, for if you want to put on a lot of muscle or lose plenty of fat, then certain diets, including supplements, as well as training protocols are often tailored for those goals.

However, body recomposition — literally transforming your body by reducing body fat while building lean muscle — is an inviting goal for many because you can make progress on both goals simultaneously. While the process of losing fat, for example, is likely to take longer, it may prove to be more sustainable than more extreme routines. How so? Less strict dietary rules, a greater number of applicable forms of exercise, less of a daily mental challenge and so on.

Whether you’re a beginner, are usually only focused on one goal like weight loss or are looking to break through a plateau (aka no gains in any of your fitness goals), body recomposition may be your ticket to a stronger, leaner physique.

Let’s discuss what body recomposition is, how exactly it works, the benefits you can expect, then how to follow a body recomposition plan, including dietary, supplemental and exercise suggestions.

To avoid risk of injury, please seek advice directly from your healthcare professional, especially if you have existing medical issues, before beginning any exercise or nutritional program.

What is body recomposition?

First, it’s important to know what body composition refers to. It’s essentially the amount of fat (body fat) and fat-free mass (muscle, bone and water) your body contains. While other health screening methods like your weight measurement and body mass index (BMI) only take weight and height (for BMI) into account, body recomposition can be a better indicator of overall health and fitness.

Body recomposition focuses on changing your body composition, aka improving your ratio of fat to lean muscle, rather than just a number on a scale. It’s the strategy, usually by employing dietary methods like eating more protein and exercise protocols like strength training, to help lose fat and gain muscle mass at the same time.

Many consider this approach healthier than focusing on weight alone. Because more lean muscle is acquired, significant weight loss may not occur, but the body will look leaner, including more balanced and toned, and will be stronger.

How does body recomposition work?

Body recomposition requires specific types of exercise, nutrition strategies and adequate muscle recovery to promote fat loss while also building muscle.

Here’s a quick glimpse of how it’s done:

• Fat loss: Need to create a slight caloric deficit; boost the metabolism through strength training; do cardiovascular exercise for adequate time periods to create fat loss.

• Muscle growth (hypertrophy): Need to resistance train routinely and consume enough protein daily.

• Nutrient partitioning: With enough strength training and a balanced macronutrient diet (proteins, carbohydrates and fats), your body can learn to use nutrients more efficiently, such as shuttling calories to muscles rather than fat stores.

Key mechanisms to activate for body recomposition:

• Progressive overload when strength training: Lifting heavier weights or more intensely over time

• Adequate protein intake and enough rest: Needed to support muscle growth and repair

• Caloric control: Maintain a slight calorie deficit to lower body fat without interfering with muscle development.

Benefits of body recomposition

• Less body fat and more muscle mass

• A more sustainable approach to fat loss because only a slight caloric deficit is necessary

• Boosted metabolism

• Improved levels of strength and physical performance

• You can enjoy all forms of exercise; if you were just trying to lose weight, for example, strength training may not be emphasized.

• Promotes bone health

• Increased self-confidence and self-esteem

• Lower levels of stress

• Improved sleep quality

• Healthy blood sugar (already in the normal range), cholesterol and inflammation levels

How to do body recomposition

1. Leverage fat loss tips

To lose fat during body recomposition, you’ll need to use some (not all) of the following techniques:

• Create a slight caloric deficit: Aim for 100-300 calories below maintenance.

• Eat whole foods (especially low-calorie, high-protein foods): Emphasize vegetables, lean protein, whole grains and healthy fats.

• Drink enough water: We often confuse thirst for hunger.

• Limit added sugars and ultra-processed foods: These can make fat loss difficult.

• Do long cardio: To achieve genuine fat loss during a workout, 40 to 60 minutes of lower- to moderate-intensity exercise is advised.

• Increase non-exercise activity: Walk and stand more, take stairs and overall stay active.

• Get enough sleep: Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep per night.

• Manage your stress levels: High cortisol levels can get in the way of fat loss efforts.

2. Use multiple muscle-building techniques

Muscle, especially as you age, can only be gained by doing certain types of exercise and following particular nutrition advice:

• Strength train consistently: Do weights for 3 to 4 days a week in 20-to-40-minute sessions.

• Do 8 to 12 reps of each exercise with enough weight and go to muscle failure: Avoid doing high-rep sets with light weight; instead, lift heavy weight (for you) and make your last rep literally the last one you can do, using good form (track your lifts, as you should be increasing the amount you lift over time).

• Consume enough protein: Eat 0.8–1.2 grams per pound of body weight daily, spacing out your protein feeds instead of just eating 1 to 2 big protein meals.

• Practice pre-workout nutrition: Rather than exercise fasted, have a complete meal 2 to 3 hours before your training or a pre-workout snack (like a smoothie) at least 30 minutes before.

• Eat after your workout: To help repair and rebuild muscle tissue that has been taxed during your workout, have a post-workout snack or a meal soon after your finish; you'll also help achieve satiety when you don't wait too long after training.

• Don’t overtrain: Overtrained muscles won’t grow; your body needs to be and feel recovered before your next workout.

3. Consider certain supplements

What type of supplements? Those that can help you lose weight or manage a healthy weight (in addition to a reduced-calorie, healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise).

Many of us take multiple supplements for our general health, but is protein powder one of them? Protein powders help us hit our protein goals, increase thermogenesis (energy expenditure from digesting foods that supports a healthy metabolism), help keep us full and even assist in preservation of lean mass during weight loss (in addition to a healthy reduced-calorie diet and lifestyle, including regular exercise).

Whey protein is particularly effective in this regard (and it’s also considered one of the best protein powders for women).

Ancient Nutrition has two protein powders with a fat loss component:

• Multi Collagen Advanced Lean powder (cinnamon flavor): This collagen powder from 10 food-based sources is a healthy weight management supplement designed to help you burn calories and boost your metabolism.

• Whey Protein + Fat Loss powder (vanilla cinnamon flavored): This whey protein powder is formulated with 23 grams of grass-fed whey protein and has added organic regenerative A2/A2 milk protein. Claims include less body fat, more strength and increasing your metabolism, but also recovering more quickly, feeling less stressed, more energized and on top of your cravings.

Both feature a proprietary and clinically studied superfood Fat Loss Blend that includes organic ashwagandha root extract and organic Ceylon cinnamon. This unique combination simultaneously promotes fat loss, burns calories and increases your metabolism, making it an ideal choice for those aiming to achieve and maintain a lean body composition.

Use either protein powder in these four protein shake recipes, which include vanilla, chocolate, banana and coffee varieties.

Not into protein powders and want a capsule instead? Consider Multi Collagen Advanced Lean Capsules, which is a weight loss supplement that helps you burn calories and boost your metabolism. It can burn up to 15 percent more calories at rest and helps block, break down and burn fat.

Sample body recomposition diet

Follow these steps to develop your own body recomposition diet. Using calorie and food apps can greatly assist your ability to be accurate and consistent with this idea.

1. Choose your macronutrient split

For body recomposition, a common macronutrient split is 30-35 percent protein, 30-40 percent carbohydrates and 30-35 percent fat. In other words, eating roughly the same number of calories for all three macronutrients. (Note: A gram of carbohydrate and a gram of protein each contain 4 calories, while a gram of fat contains 9 calories.)

Some who follow a body recomp diet go higher in carbohydrates (45-50 percent) and lower in fat (20-25 percent).

2. Know your daily calorie expenditure

With that in mind, figure out how many calories you should be consuming each day. Note that resting energy is 60-75 percent, food digestion is around 10 percent, and physical activity, including exercise, is 20-30 percent of your daily calorie expenditure. In general, women require 1,600 to 2,400 calories per day while men need 2,000 to 3,000.

Of course, weight, height, activity level and age also impact how many calories you need per day. You can use an online calorie calculator that includes all of these factors.

3. Create a deficit

Because you’re hoping to gain muscle while losing fat, you then want to create a deficit — consuming fewer calories than you expend each day — but not too large of one. So rather than reducing your daily calorie intake by 500, go with 100 to 300 calories.

4. Lock in your daily calorie intake and macro breakdown

So, let’s say you’re a 5’8”, 150-pound, 45-year-old woman who is moderately active and your daily calorie expenditure is 2,000. To create a 200-calorie deficit, your daily intake would then be 1,800 calories.

To consume 1,800 calories per day, your macronutrient breakdown can look like this:

• Protein (30-35%): 540-630 calories (135-157 grams)

• Carbohydrates (30-40%): 540-720 calories (135-180 grams)

• Fats (30-35%): 540-630 calories (60-70 grams)

5. Know what a sample day looks like

Here’s a sample day of eating for a 150-pound female targeting 1,800 calories:

Breakfast:

• Overnight oats with ½ cup oats, 1 cup of blueberries, ½ cup Greek yogurt, ½ cup unsweetened almond milk

• Calories: 328

• Macros: 15 grams of protein, 54 grams of carbohydrates, 9 grams of fat

Lunch:

• Grilled chicken bowl with half a chicken breast, ½ cup cooked quinoa, 2 cups of mixed vegetables, 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

• Calories: 587

• Macros: 48 grams of protein, 50 grams of carbohydrates, 20 grams of fat

Snack:

• Protein shake with 1 cup of water, ½ frozen banana, ½ cup frozen cherries, 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal and 1 scoop whey protein

• Calories: 246

• Macros: 25 grams of protein, 33 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fat

Dinner:

• Grilled salmon meal with 6 ounces of wild-caught salmon, ½ sweet potato, 1 tablespoon butter and 2 cups broccoli

• Calories: 461

• Macros: 40 grams of protein, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 22 grams of fat

Dessert:

• ½ cup cottage cheese with 1 cup watermelon

• Calories: 149

• Macros: 13 grams of protein, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fat

Total:

• Calories: 1781

• Macros: 141 grams of protein, 177 grams of carbohydrates, 61 grams of fat

Sample body recomposition workout plan

This weekly plan focuses on building muscle as well as fat loss efforts. It encompasses 4 strength training sessions and ideally 4 cardio sessions as well.

Note that a beginner workout is given below, along with a more advanced version. If you choose the beginner plan, do it for at least two months before graduating to the more advanced plan.

These workouts can be done at home as long as you have a workout bench, but a gym setting will make each routine easier to follow.

Keys:

• Warm up your muscles before each workout, such as marching in place or getting on the elliptical machine for 5 to 10 minutes.

• Increase weight after each set, even by a little, while lowering number of reps.

• Push to muscle failure on each set.

• Rest 30 to 45 seconds after each set.

• You can choose to do cardio after each strength training workout, as you will tap your fat stores earlier in the cardio routine than when you do cardio only or do it separately. Aim for 4 total cardio sessions per week. For example, you may choose to not do your cardio after your Friday workout, but instead do it on Friday.

Monday and Thursday

Muscle groups: chest, back, shoulders

Beginner routine:

1. Dumbbell (DB) bench press or chest press machine: 3 sets x 8-12 reps

2. DB row or machine row: 3 x 8-12

3. DB shoulder press or shoulder press machine: 3 x 8-12

4. Bird dog exercise: 3 x 10-15

5. 20 to 30 minutes of cardio (or do at different time in day)

Advanced routine:

1. Dumbbell (DB) bench press or chest press machine: 3 sets x 8-12 reps

2. DB row or machine row: 3 x 8-12

3. DB shoulder press or shoulder press machine: 3 x 8-12

4. Dumbbell one-arm DB fly or chest fly machine: 3 x 8-12

5. Pull-up or lat pulldown machine: 3 x 8-12

6. DB lateral fly or shoulder fly machine: 3 x 8-12

7. Lower back hyperextension: 3 x 10-15

8. Bird dog exercise: 3 x 10-15

9. 30 to 45 minutes of cardio (or do at different time in day)

Tuesday and Friday (or Tuesday and Saturday)

Muscle groups: legs (quadriceps, hamstrings and calves), arms (biceps and triceps), and abs

Beginner routine:

1. DB lunge or leg press machine: 3 x 8-12

2. DB stiff-legged deadlift or leg curl machine: 3 x 8-12

3. Calf raise machine or DB calf raise on a step: 3 x 10-15

4. DB biceps curl or cable biceps curl: 3 x 8-12

5. Lying DB triceps press or cable triceps pushdown: 3 x 8-12

6. Seated knee-up: 3 x 10-15

7. Crossover ab crunch: 3 x 15-20

8. 30 to 45 minutes of cardio (or do at different time in day)

Advanced routine:

1. DB lunge: 3 x 8-12

2. DB stiff-legged deadlift: 3 x 8-12

3. Leg press machine: 3 x 8-12

4. Leg curl machine: 3 x 8-12

5. Calf raise machine or DB calf raise on a step: 3 x 10-15

6. DB biceps curl: 3 x 8-12

7. Lying DB triceps press: 3 x 8-12

8. Cable biceps curl: 3 x 8-12

9. Cable triceps pushdown: 3 x 8-12

10. Seated knee-up: 3 x 10-15

11. Crossover ab crunch: 3 x 15-20

12. 30 to 45 minutes of cardio (or do at different time in day)

Frequently asked questions

Can beginners do body recomposition?

Yes, beginners may see the fastest and most dramatic results because their bodies are often more responsive to training. See the beginner’s workout above.

How long does it take for body recomposition?

You can expect to see noticeable changes in three to four months, but attempting to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time may take up to a year to see significant results. Of course, sticking with the program will improve the results, plus factors like beginning fitness level and age also matter.

Should I track both calories and macros?

It’s highly recommenced, particularly in the beginning because it improves adherence and optimizes results.

Can I recomp without lifting weights or doing cardio?

Both are necessary, particularly strength training which is essential for muscle growth. Meanwhile, without cardio can make it more challenging to lose body fat, though it can still occur through resistance training and a strict diet.

Besides the mirror, how can I tell the body recomposition plan is working?

Track your progress by taking body measurements in the beginning, such as measuring the waist, hips, chest, biceps, thighs and calves. Also keep track of your strength improvements.

Note that you may not lose that much weight, as you will be gaining more muscle as you continue with the program. Reminder: Muscle weighs more than fat.