Managing Recomposition Regression

How to balance body composition and life in the best way for you

When you hit your target body composition, you want to be able to maintain it while ideally progressing your strength, fitness and mobility over time. As we discussed over the previous weeks, there is the option to maintain or increase physical activity, which allows energy intake to be increased and often helps with adherence over time.

But it’s inevitable that you will see some regression in body composition at some stage. It might be due to injury or illness that compromises your ability to undertake physical activity, or the routine might be interrupted by family, work and other commitments. 

When this happens, you know what to do. Track the 3F’s - food, fluid and fitness - and make adjustments to align energy balance with your needs. What I want to discuss today is some of the challenges of managing body composition and share the different ways to do it.

There are broadly three ways to maintain body composition. Remember that the cumulative impact of energy balance will determine any changes. So whether you eat 2400kcal every day for a month or alternate between 2000kcal and 2400kcal per day, the outcome will be the same.

Flat Approach

This approach is highly disciplined and involves maintaining energy balance in a narrow range. It might vary across the week, such as eating less early in the week and saving more for the weekend, but it tends to be consistent over 7-14 days. 

Pros: easy to maintain and become comfortable with the routine.

Cons: can become boring and repetitive.

Hilly Appraoch

This approach has a bit more flexibility in the routine and accepts that body composition will regress at times, such as during the cooler months or busy periods. However, this is counteracted by periods of progression. It’s also important to recognise that most of the year is maintenance. 

The classic version trains hard and tracks food during spring and summer, before being more flexible during the silly season.

Pros: more flexibility while maintaining body composition.

Cons: requires high levels of discipline to transition from the energy surplus back to balance and deficit. 

Roller Coaster Approach 

This approach has less maintenance and more periods of progress and regression. This can be done successfully and used to be the standard approach for bodybuilding. However, most athletes prefer to maintain a leaner body composition year-round to reduce the time to peak levels.

Pros: mental breaks and flexibility can be beneficial; popular with those focussed on building muscle.

Cons: need to manage constant changes; transition from energy surplus to maintenance can be difficult. 

It Takes Time to Balance Energy

A significant energy surplus can be achieved very quickly, but the deficit required to balance it out can take a while to create.

For example, if I consume double my 2400kcal intake for three days over a long weekend, this will create a 7200kcal surplus. A 400kcal per day energy deficit, roughly a 20% reduction in food intake, will require 18 days to balance this out.

There are plenty of variables that go into this, and most people aren’t consuming at such high levels for the entire period. The rest of the week might be an energy match or a slight deficit. For this reason, I usually use a 1:3 ratio to help quantify the time required to get back to maintenance. 

So if you spend 60% of the year maintaining body composition, which is what the hilly approach might do, you might need to spend 30% of the year progressing to mitigate the 10% of regression. This equates to roughly 3-4 months of energy deficit to balance the six-week silly season.

This is an important concept to remember when managing expectations because a one-month holiday may require a few months of disciplined food and physical activity to get back to your target body composition.

What’s the Best?

The optimal approach depends on your personality, goals and lifestyle. The flat approach is the most common, but all can be successful for the right person. Just keep in mind that for every period of regression, there will be a longer period of progression required to balance it out, which is not for everyone.

It’s also important to consider that we are just talking about body composition progress, not necessarily physical activity or energy intake. You can maintain body composition while improving strength, fitness and mobility, which often leads to additional energy expenditure. This allows additional energy intake while maintaining body composition, which we discussed over the past few weeks.