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Alright fellas, this is a quick something I wrote up. It's not all inclusive and doesn't have all the tips and tricks I use for success with my clients, but it will give you a place to start.
Helios Nutrition guide to recomp
The recomp is often considered the holy grail of any bodybuilding achievement. In short it is the ability to both burn fat and gain muscle at the same time. While this is often considered impossible without the use of AAS, my experimentations with my own body and with my clients leads me to believe that a proper diet and training program make this supposed impossibility a reality. As such you will see that the majority of diets Helios Nutrition writes have an element of recomposition to them.
Think of it this way, why would you risk losing all your gains just to drop fat? Why would you allow yourself to pack on fat just to gain a few measly pounds of muscle? The era of traditional bulking and cutting is quickly coming to an end and I couldn’t be happier.
What are the “pros” of a recomp?
1) Healthier lifestyle. The massive quantities of food consumption required for a traditional bulk is very taxing on the body. Follow this with the cutting of calories and the lethargy of cutting and you are setting your body up for disaster down the road. This is yo-yo dieting at its finest and is not safe for long term health.
2) Hold onto your gains. By bypassing the yo-yo of tradition cut and bulk you can actually maintain more muscle mass throughout the year. This means that the gains you do make are true gains as opposed to false gains caused by an influx of glycogen. You also don’t have to worry about losing those gains due to cutting calories too low. My observation is that competitors who practice recomps or modified recomps tend to go into competitions looking leaner and fuller than those practicing traditional cycles of cutting and bulking. Yes, this is purely observation and may be considered Broscience, but it’s apparent.
3) Control insulin sensitivity. Packing away massive quantities of food over a short period of time wreaks havoc on your insulin levels. It takes time to recover from this and can ultimately reduce your insulin sensitivity. This is a bad thing because insulin, whether endogenous or exogenous, is one of the best tools we have in our arsenal for building muscle. If we are constantly messing with this system it leads to inefficiencies within our body and doesn’t allow us to utilize this powerful weapon to its maximum potential.
4) Feel better. While this is a qualitative observation it holds a lot of truth. Cutting calories leads to lethargy and sluggishness, so does an overabundance of calories. Your workouts will suffer, your sex life will suffer, your life will suffer.
5) Look better. You will keep a generally fit physique year round as opposed to bloating up and cutting down. No more “oh crap it’s beach season, I’d better cut calories.” Cut when you want to, when it’s really important (shows, etc).
So how do you plan a perfect recomp? A lot goes into it and it depends on the individual. There are some tricks that Helios Nutrition uses when planning diets that I won’t divulge, but below is a general guideline that can be used to write out your own recomp diet.
1) Figure out your goal. While a true recomp is generally defined is maintaining a static weight while dropping body fat and gaining muscle, there are times when your goals may be to lean out or bulk up. What makes a recomp cut or recomp bulk different from their tradition predecessors is that the focus isn’t on weight, but rather results. So yes, it is possible to do a recomp bulk, but instead of gaining 30lbs over the course of a few months, you may only gain 15. The difference is that those 15lbs will be muscle with minimal fat. Just as with a recomp cut you will lose weight, but the weight lost will ultimately be almost all fat. So for our example the client wants to do a TRUE recomp, meaning staying static in terms of weight while gaining muscle and losing fat.
2) Figure out what your average daily caloric intake should be. To do this take your BMR and multiply it by a factor that corresponds to your daily activity levels (NOT including workouts). So if your BMR is 2000 (just as an example) and you work a desk job, you may have a TDEE of just 2300. If you are a construction worker your TDEE may be upwards of 3000. There are many calculators online you can use to figure out your TDEE, or you can shoot me a PM and I will be more than happy to figure it out for you. Once you find your TDEE you need to figure out your AVERAGE caloric expenditure due to workouts, etc. Once again, this can be annoying but crucial. Should you need help, send me a PM. So for our example let’s say that the client, after including workouts, has a need for 3200 calories to maintain.
3) Take your maintenance calorie amount and multiply it by 1.2 (to start). So our client wants to shoot for a caloric level of approximately 3840 per day.
4) Plan your workouts. For a recomp I recommend lifting 5 days a week and doing cardio 4 days per week. I recommend the following split.
Monday: Chest, Cardio
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Arms (Biceps and Triceps), Cardio
Saturday: Shoulders, Cardio
Sunday: Off
5) Plan your macros around your routine. So this is quite simple, heavy muscle days mean heavy carb days. Calories will fluctuate slightly as a result, but should average out to be close to your goal intake
High Carbs = Back, Legs
Medium Carbs = Chest, Shoulders
Low Carbs = Arms,
Lower Carbs = Cardio day
No Carbs = Off day
As you can see this is carb cycling. Carb cycling is a very important aspect of the recomp. On days you need carbs, they are there, on days you don’t, they are not.
6) Never mix carbs with excess fats. The reason for this comes full circle back to insulin. Insulin shuttles nutrients around the body and does not care if those nutrients are fats or proteins. If we have a high carb, high fat, high protein meal insulin is going to shuttle both the fat and the protein around. This is not a good thing because it will lead to rapid weight gain of the bad kind. It’s the same reason it is important to eat low fat meals after injecting exogenous insulin. The goal here is to make insulin work FOR us in our quest to gain muscle.
7) Proper post-workout nutrition is a must. Insulin sensitivity is typically at its highest post workout so this gives us an ideal opportunity to take advantage of this powerful tool. There have been multiple debates about this supposed “post-workout window” and whether you think it holds much weight is irrelevant. Post-workout nutrition, regardless of whether it is a high carb or low carb day, should consist of only two macros, carbs and proteins. Once again, this is because of insulin. The following meal should be low in fat as well because of the residual insulin.
8) Plan your meals a week in advance. We’ve all heard the saying “failing to plan is planning to fail.” This statement holds a lot of weight with dieting in general and even more when running a recomp diet. It is best to choose one day per week that you can sit down for 30 minutes or so and plan your meals. To make this easier make yourself a list of foods that fall into each category along with portion sizes and macronutrient contents. I divide it like this…
Protein:
Very Lean Protein
Lean Protein
Medium Fat Protein
High Fat Protein
Starches/Breads
Fruits
Fats:
Monounsaturated Fats
Polyunsaturated Fats
Saturated Fats
By separating all these categories we can easily plan meals.
9) Commit to success and make changes as needed. Every person is different and bodies respond differently so don’t hesitate to make changes as needed. If you are gaining too much fat, reduce calories and keep an eye on your carb intake. If you are staying static with no gains or losses, check your cardio levels and up calories as needed. A classic recomp was once described to me as this… Eat like a bulk, cardio like a cut. While this is overly simplistic it holds true.
Sample diet for our client
Monday: Chest – 3839 Calories, 320g of carbohydrates, 363g of protein, 123g of fat
Tuesday: Back – 3804 Calories, 410g of carbohydrates, 388g of protein, 68g of fat
Wednesday: Cardio – 3790 Calories, 80g of carbohydrates, 350g of protein, 230g of fat
Thursday: Legs – 3804 Calories, 410g of carbohydrates, 388g of protein, 68g of fat
Friday: Arms – 3803 Calories, 200g of carbohydrates, 339g of protein, 183g of fat
Saturday: Shoulders – 3839 Calories, 320g of carbohydrates, 363g of protein, 123g of fat
Sunday: Off – 3833 Calories, 0g of carbohydrates, 371g of protein, 261g of fat
Now, keep in mind that this is for someone recomping at a very high caloric intake so this is NOT for the typical client. Also keep in mind that adding AAS, slin, HGH, etc will change the approach and that is something I will delve into in another post in the future.
Once again, any questions PLEASE PM me and I will get back to you when I get a chance.
Helios Nutrition guide to recomp
The recomp is often considered the holy grail of any bodybuilding achievement. In short it is the ability to both burn fat and gain muscle at the same time. While this is often considered impossible without the use of AAS, my experimentations with my own body and with my clients leads me to believe that a proper diet and training program make this supposed impossibility a reality. As such you will see that the majority of diets Helios Nutrition writes have an element of recomposition to them.
Think of it this way, why would you risk losing all your gains just to drop fat? Why would you allow yourself to pack on fat just to gain a few measly pounds of muscle? The era of traditional bulking and cutting is quickly coming to an end and I couldn’t be happier.
What are the “pros” of a recomp?
1) Healthier lifestyle. The massive quantities of food consumption required for a traditional bulk is very taxing on the body. Follow this with the cutting of calories and the lethargy of cutting and you are setting your body up for disaster down the road. This is yo-yo dieting at its finest and is not safe for long term health.
2) Hold onto your gains. By bypassing the yo-yo of tradition cut and bulk you can actually maintain more muscle mass throughout the year. This means that the gains you do make are true gains as opposed to false gains caused by an influx of glycogen. You also don’t have to worry about losing those gains due to cutting calories too low. My observation is that competitors who practice recomps or modified recomps tend to go into competitions looking leaner and fuller than those practicing traditional cycles of cutting and bulking. Yes, this is purely observation and may be considered Broscience, but it’s apparent.
3) Control insulin sensitivity. Packing away massive quantities of food over a short period of time wreaks havoc on your insulin levels. It takes time to recover from this and can ultimately reduce your insulin sensitivity. This is a bad thing because insulin, whether endogenous or exogenous, is one of the best tools we have in our arsenal for building muscle. If we are constantly messing with this system it leads to inefficiencies within our body and doesn’t allow us to utilize this powerful weapon to its maximum potential.
4) Feel better. While this is a qualitative observation it holds a lot of truth. Cutting calories leads to lethargy and sluggishness, so does an overabundance of calories. Your workouts will suffer, your sex life will suffer, your life will suffer.
5) Look better. You will keep a generally fit physique year round as opposed to bloating up and cutting down. No more “oh crap it’s beach season, I’d better cut calories.” Cut when you want to, when it’s really important (shows, etc).
So how do you plan a perfect recomp? A lot goes into it and it depends on the individual. There are some tricks that Helios Nutrition uses when planning diets that I won’t divulge, but below is a general guideline that can be used to write out your own recomp diet.
1) Figure out your goal. While a true recomp is generally defined is maintaining a static weight while dropping body fat and gaining muscle, there are times when your goals may be to lean out or bulk up. What makes a recomp cut or recomp bulk different from their tradition predecessors is that the focus isn’t on weight, but rather results. So yes, it is possible to do a recomp bulk, but instead of gaining 30lbs over the course of a few months, you may only gain 15. The difference is that those 15lbs will be muscle with minimal fat. Just as with a recomp cut you will lose weight, but the weight lost will ultimately be almost all fat. So for our example the client wants to do a TRUE recomp, meaning staying static in terms of weight while gaining muscle and losing fat.
2) Figure out what your average daily caloric intake should be. To do this take your BMR and multiply it by a factor that corresponds to your daily activity levels (NOT including workouts). So if your BMR is 2000 (just as an example) and you work a desk job, you may have a TDEE of just 2300. If you are a construction worker your TDEE may be upwards of 3000. There are many calculators online you can use to figure out your TDEE, or you can shoot me a PM and I will be more than happy to figure it out for you. Once you find your TDEE you need to figure out your AVERAGE caloric expenditure due to workouts, etc. Once again, this can be annoying but crucial. Should you need help, send me a PM. So for our example let’s say that the client, after including workouts, has a need for 3200 calories to maintain.
3) Take your maintenance calorie amount and multiply it by 1.2 (to start). So our client wants to shoot for a caloric level of approximately 3840 per day.
4) Plan your workouts. For a recomp I recommend lifting 5 days a week and doing cardio 4 days per week. I recommend the following split.
Monday: Chest, Cardio
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Arms (Biceps and Triceps), Cardio
Saturday: Shoulders, Cardio
Sunday: Off
5) Plan your macros around your routine. So this is quite simple, heavy muscle days mean heavy carb days. Calories will fluctuate slightly as a result, but should average out to be close to your goal intake
High Carbs = Back, Legs
Medium Carbs = Chest, Shoulders
Low Carbs = Arms,
Lower Carbs = Cardio day
No Carbs = Off day
As you can see this is carb cycling. Carb cycling is a very important aspect of the recomp. On days you need carbs, they are there, on days you don’t, they are not.
6) Never mix carbs with excess fats. The reason for this comes full circle back to insulin. Insulin shuttles nutrients around the body and does not care if those nutrients are fats or proteins. If we have a high carb, high fat, high protein meal insulin is going to shuttle both the fat and the protein around. This is not a good thing because it will lead to rapid weight gain of the bad kind. It’s the same reason it is important to eat low fat meals after injecting exogenous insulin. The goal here is to make insulin work FOR us in our quest to gain muscle.
7) Proper post-workout nutrition is a must. Insulin sensitivity is typically at its highest post workout so this gives us an ideal opportunity to take advantage of this powerful tool. There have been multiple debates about this supposed “post-workout window” and whether you think it holds much weight is irrelevant. Post-workout nutrition, regardless of whether it is a high carb or low carb day, should consist of only two macros, carbs and proteins. Once again, this is because of insulin. The following meal should be low in fat as well because of the residual insulin.
8) Plan your meals a week in advance. We’ve all heard the saying “failing to plan is planning to fail.” This statement holds a lot of weight with dieting in general and even more when running a recomp diet. It is best to choose one day per week that you can sit down for 30 minutes or so and plan your meals. To make this easier make yourself a list of foods that fall into each category along with portion sizes and macronutrient contents. I divide it like this…
Protein:
Very Lean Protein
Lean Protein
Medium Fat Protein
High Fat Protein
Starches/Breads
Fruits
Fats:
Monounsaturated Fats
Polyunsaturated Fats
Saturated Fats
By separating all these categories we can easily plan meals.
9) Commit to success and make changes as needed. Every person is different and bodies respond differently so don’t hesitate to make changes as needed. If you are gaining too much fat, reduce calories and keep an eye on your carb intake. If you are staying static with no gains or losses, check your cardio levels and up calories as needed. A classic recomp was once described to me as this… Eat like a bulk, cardio like a cut. While this is overly simplistic it holds true.
Sample diet for our client
Monday: Chest – 3839 Calories, 320g of carbohydrates, 363g of protein, 123g of fat
Tuesday: Back – 3804 Calories, 410g of carbohydrates, 388g of protein, 68g of fat
Wednesday: Cardio – 3790 Calories, 80g of carbohydrates, 350g of protein, 230g of fat
Thursday: Legs – 3804 Calories, 410g of carbohydrates, 388g of protein, 68g of fat
Friday: Arms – 3803 Calories, 200g of carbohydrates, 339g of protein, 183g of fat
Saturday: Shoulders – 3839 Calories, 320g of carbohydrates, 363g of protein, 123g of fat
Sunday: Off – 3833 Calories, 0g of carbohydrates, 371g of protein, 261g of fat
Now, keep in mind that this is for someone recomping at a very high caloric intake so this is NOT for the typical client. Also keep in mind that adding AAS, slin, HGH, etc will change the approach and that is something I will delve into in another post in the future.
Once again, any questions PLEASE PM me and I will get back to you when I get a chance.
