Body Recomposition: Tips for Targeted Fat Loss, Muscle Building, and Maintenance
Body Recomposition: Tips for Targeted Fat Loss, Muscle Building, and Maintenance
Author: Emily Grochowski, Certified Functional & Integrative Registered Dietitian Nutritionist
When it comes to weight loss, the conversation often gets lost in extremes: crash diets, punishing workouts, or trendy quick fixes. But, sustainable change is never about extremes. It’s about understanding how your body works, tuning in to the data, and, most importantly, developing thoughtful goals for lasting results.
In this article, we’ll discuss ways to swap the goal of “weight loss” for the more balanced goal of “body recomposition” — reducing body fat (especially visceral fat, which is most linked to negative health outcomes) while building or maintaining muscles.
We’ll break down tips that go beyond the scale, helping you understand what really moves the needle when it comes to fat loss, muscle gain, and lasting wellbeing at the weight that works best for your body.
Leverage data and monitor progress
While stepping on a scale might offer a snapshot of your progress, it doesn’t tell the full story, especially if your goal is to reduce visceral and total body fat while maintaining or building lean tissue. To truly understand the changes in your body composition, it's worth turning to tools designed to track these specific metrics. Regularly incorporating DEXA scans or bioimpedance measurements every 4-6 weeks can provide deeper insights into your progress. Beyond that, many people find it eye-opening to use tools like continuous glucose monitors, step counters, or habit and biofeedback apps. These technologies can reveal how different foods, activities, sleep patterns, and relaxation techniques uniquely support your body, allowing you to fine-tune your approach.
Stay aware of calorie intake
Various factors influence our metabolic rate (how much energy we generally burn), but most scientific evidence suggests that to promote fat burning, we need to consume fewer calories than we use for energy.¹ This doesn't mean a daily calorie deficit is necessary, but aiming for a 10-20% deficit (i.e. 300-500 calories/day or 2,100-3,500 calories/week) over time can be a good starting point.* While long-term tracking isn't always needed, using apps and tracking tools for the first couple of weeks can help you gauge your energy intake and desired deficit.
Adopt a whole foods focus
Do most of your meals pass the would this be recognizable as food by your grandmother test? Eating a diet mostly (ideally at least two thirds) composed of unprocessed/minimally processed foods is an excellent strategy for reducing the risk of over consuming calories as complex whole foods tend to be significantly lower in energy but also because they tend to be more satiating, provide more body recomposition supporting protein, fiber, water, vital micronutrients, and synergistic bioactives.
Due to the fact that most ultra-processed foods, especially those rich in refined carbohydrates and/or fats (e.g.commercially produced cookies, donuts, chips, soda, candy, etc.) are specifically designed to be hyper palatable, convenient, fast and easy (most require minimal chewing) to consume, exercising moderation with these items presents a major challenge for most people. Instead, making efforts to limit our access to these items is often worthwhile.
All this said, not all processed items are created equal and are unsupportive. For example, a sweetened, but high-quality protein powder can actually be extremely helpful in meeting a person’s nutritional needs and be useful in achieving and maintaining body composition goals.
Prioritize protein
It is a common misconception that Americans consume too much protein, when in fact the latest research has shown that roughly 40% of people eat less than the minimum amount required just to avoid frank protein deficiency! Research on protein has repeatedly revealed it to be the most satiating of all the macronutrients and it is of course critical for preserving (and building) skeletal muscle and all other lean body tissues. While individual needs vary based on age, health status, activity level, specific goals,etc., a decent general suggestion for supporting body composition balance is to aim to consume ~1 gram of protein per pound of desired body weight.
Fill up on fiber
Another nutrient to focus on which can be especially helpful in supporting satiety, blood sugar balance, and body recomposition (and health in general) is fiber. Increasing your intake of fresh and frozen vegetables and lower sugar fruits like berries is an excellent strategy to boost fiber (not to mention the intake of many other key nutrients and bioactives). If you are a data person and want to do some tracking, aiming for at least 30 grams is a solid goal, however, aiming for 6-10 cups raw/3-5 cooked/frozen produce per day may also be useful benchmark.
Stay hydrated
It is important to keep in mind that not only can dehydration sap motivation for physical activity and other movement (and thus reduce energy output) and that thirst cues be misinterpreted as hunger (and lead to overeating), but fat burning itself is a water dependent process. To help you stay on top of your hydration, aim to down at least half your body weight in fluid ounces of decaffeinated, sugar-free beverages. Stashing metal and glass water bottles all over your work and home environments is often useful, as is including beverages with varied temperatures (e.g. ice vs. hot teas), textures (smoothies vs. sparkling water), and sugar-free flavors (e.g. water with electrolytes vs. savory, soothing bone broth).
Become a breakfast person
Research routinely shows that eating earlier, especially during daylight hours tends to be correlated with greater whole day satiety, blood sugar regulation, energy and mood, and long-term body weight maintenance.² Given this, whenever possible aim to enjoy a protein- and fiber-rich breakfast (e.g. whey protein smoothie with spinach, blueberries, avocado, and almond milk) as early as is feasible in your schedule and try to wrap up eating before or soon after the sun goes down. Starting your day with food may feel like an adjustment for some at first, but shifting your meal timing is an excellent strategy to set you up for success.
Embrace exercise
While research shows that nutrition plays a bigger role than exercise in initial weight and fat loss, exercise is essential for building and maintaining muscle, sustaining fat loss, and regulating appetite. Aiming for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio and two weekly resistance training sessions is a great target, but if that feels overwhelming, start by focusing on increasing your daily step count. There are plenty of apps and tools to help you track your steps, and even if you're not ready for a full exercise routine, aiming for 8,000 steps a day is an excellent and achievable goal to get started!
Remember to rest and relax
Lack of sleep and high stress can make us crave sugary, energy-dense foods. By sticking to a regular sleep schedule and adding at least one relaxation practice that doesn’t involve food, you’ll find it much easier to stay on track with your nutrition, exercise, and other healthy habits.
Plan a phased approach
While intensity, persistence, and consistency are essential for body recomposition, it’s equally important to recognize the value of strategically adjusting the intensity of our efforts over time. For instance, alternating 2-3 months of high focus with a month of maintenance can offer both physical and mental benefits. Lowering intensity during maintenance phases not only helps prevent burnout and can actually boost muscle gains, but it also provides crucial mental relief from the constant pressure of “diet fatigue.” Many of us tend to approach health and nutrition with an 'all or nothing' mindset, but this mindset often undermines long-term success. True, sustainable body recomposition requires balance, flexibility, and the wisdom to know when to push harder and when to pull back.
Sources
1 Heymsfield SB, Peterson CM, Thomas DM, Hirezi M, Zhang B, Smith S, Bray G, Redman L. (2017). Establishing energy requirements for body weight maintenance: validation of an intake-balance method. Retrieved March 13, 2025, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5485536/
2 Hatanaka M, Hatamoto Y, Tajiri E, Matsumoto N, Tanaka S, Yoshimura E. (2022). An Earlier First Meal Timing Associates with Weight Loss Effectiveness in A 12-Week Weight Loss Support Program. Retrieved March 13, 2025, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8778071/
Emily Grochowski (MSN, RDN, CD (WA), CLT, CFIN) is a Certified Functional & Integrative Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from UW-Madison and Master of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University. She practices evidence-based, personalized, holistic medical nutrition therapy at the Institute of Complementary Medicine.
*Please note that while larger energy deficits can work well for some people in certain, short-term circumstances, be mindful to avoid overly aggressive calories restriction to minimize the risk of side effects like excessive hunger, hyper fixation and/or binging, fatigue, trouble sleeping, nutrient deficiencies, and generally stressing out your body to the point of unsustainability and/or regression. Importantly, excessive energy restriction is also counterproductive for sustainable body recomposition because it tends to increase losses in muscle mass and other lean tissues, which are critical in determining metabolic rate and supporting overall long-term wellbeing.
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