The main things you need to change your body composition are:

• a flexible high-protein nutrition plan that is in alignment with your goals

• a training plan (resistance training and steps/cardio)

• adequate recovery to maximize your gains.

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The biggest driver of your results will be your nutrition, you can have an "okay" training plan and still see amazing results if your nutrition is on point. If you are eating in a surplus, you are eating in alignment with the goal of building muscle. If you are eating in a deficit, you are eating in alignment with the goal of losing fat. If you are eating at maintenance level, you may still be able to re-compose your body by adding muscle and losing fat while maintaining the same weight. Re-comping is most likely to work if you are new to lifting/eating a high-protein plan. The more advanced you get, the more likely you will need to do a light "cut" or "bulk" to lose fat or build muscle respectively. 

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If you don't know where to start nutrition wise, start with your maintenance calories. This will allow you to get familiar with tracking your food and implementing a high-protein diet while incorporating training into your life. After you feel comfortable tracking for a while, you can pick a primary nutrition goal and start moving in that direction. Or, if you are seeing gains with just eating at maintenance, keep up the good work!

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Step 1: Calculate your maintenance calories. Use THIS LINK to go to a free Macro calculator. Input your stats like age, sex, weight, ect. Set your goal with the dropdown option of  "Maintain Weight" and click calculate. The results will populate and you will see an option for "High Protein" to click.​ This will give you your starting point of your maintenance calories.

 

If you are trying to re-comp, you will want to hang out at these macros for two or three months. I really wouldn't be too concerned about light fluctuations in weight. If after 4 weeks you are gaining weight at more than 1lb a week, I would reduce your daily intake by 250 calories and re-evaluate in 4 weeks. If after your initial 4 weeks you are losing weight at more than 1lb a week, I would increase your daily intake by 250 calories and re-evaluate in 4 weeks. Those guidelines are considering you aren't liking the rapid weight gain or the rapid weight loss. I generally recommend cutting or bulking slowly. My reasoning is that when you cut at a slower rate per week you are more likely to retain muscle mass and when you bulk at a slower rate you are likely to put on less fat.

 

If you are wanting to do a lean bulk, take your maintenance calories and add 250 calories to your total. So, if your maintenance calories are 2000, your lean bulk calories would be 2250. If you don't want to do the math on it, you can use the same macro calculator from above and set your goal to "Mild weight gain of .5 lb." The two calculations should be close, so start with either. Stick to these macros daily for four weeks and see how your body responds. If the scale isn't moving then add an additional 250 calories to your daily intake and repeat for another 4 weeks. Repeat until you see movement on the scale. I wouldn't aim to gain more than .5lb to 1lb a week, a more aggressive gaining strategy will lead to unnecessary fat being put on. So, when you re-evaluate at 4 weeks, if you've gained 2-4lbs, you are on track.

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If you are wanting to do a light cut, take your maintenance calories and subtract 250 calories from your total. So, if your maintenance calories are 2000, your lean cut calories would be 1750. If you don't want to do the math on it, you can use the same macro calculator from above and set your goal to "Mild weight loss of .5 lb." The two calculations should be close, so start with either. Stick to these macros daily for four weeks and see how your body responds. If the scale isn't moving then drop an additional 250 calories to your daily intake and repeat for another 4 weeks. I wouldn't aim to lose more than .5lb to 1lb a week. A more aggressive cutting strategy will potentially lead to more muscle loss than a less aggressive strategy. So, when you re-evaluate at 4 weeks, if you've lost 2-4lbs, you are on track.

 

As a personal request, please do not go below 1500 calories, I do not want you starving and even if you feel like you need to...it is counter productive to body transformation goals. If for some reason the macro calculator puts you below 1500, I would recommend upping your activity level so you can eat more food, or operating at maintenance for a while to attempt to recomp.

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Weight is a terribly volatile tracking measurement due to water, food volume in the digestive track, ect., but it is the most accessible tool for a lot of people. Weigh daily and calculate your average weight weekly based off these measurements. Use the weekly average as your comparison from week to week. At the four week mark, compare the weekly averages of the past four weeks to understand your trend. Also, I highly recommend taking progress picks weekly. Wear the same minimal clothing and take a pick at the same time on the same day weekly, if possible. Take the pics directly after waking up and going to the bathroom, before drinking or eating anything. You don't need to share these with anyone, but it is good to see how your body is trending over time. You can strength train for three months while getting your protein up, and have a completely different physique at the same weight. Progress pics will help show how you are re-comping.

 

Step 2: Pick a program. I will be providing downloadable programs below for a 3 and 4 day split. More is not necessarily better, so pick the one that fits your schedule and lifestyle the best. I recommend starting with Push, Pull, Legs and getting used to incorporating lifting into your life. 

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A goal for each set when lifting, outside of warmup sets, is to get close to failure. I recommend going until you have 1 or 2 reps in reserve. This means that when you are done with your set, you might have been able to do only 1 or 2 more reps of that exercise at that weight.

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A secondary part of training is cardio. From a physique standpoint, low intensity cardio seems to be preferred because it causes less system fatigue than HITT training, so you can bring more to your lifts. That being said, if you enjoy a certain type of cardio, go for it! I recommend aiming for 8-10k steps a day. If you don't have a step tracker, you can aim for 30 minutes to an hour of dedicated walking daily. This can be split out in to 10 or 15 minute increments throughout the day, it will be up to you to figure out how to integrate it into your schedule. No one knows your life like you do.

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Step 3: This part is boring to me, but essential for optimal recovery.

• Get 7-9 hours of sleep a night

• Drink 3-4 liters of water a day. I'm admittedly terrible at this piece but do the best you can.

• Stick to your macros and try to incorporate nutrient dense food into your diet​​

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This is fairly simple but it doesn't make it easy. Consistency will make or break your results. Please, be willing to put the work in for a long enough timeline with faith that the results will come. You also might be thinking, these are only three steps and I have a lot more questions. Don't overcomplicate it, if you nail these three steps and are consistent, you can learn the rest as you go while you are seeing progress.