Body Recomposition: Full Workout Plan & Diet

If you want a simple body recomposition workout plan, one that doesn’t involve weird exercises you’ve never heard of, counting rep tempos, or endless hours of boring cardio, this page will show you how it’s done.

What Is Body Recomposition?

Body recomposition is a term used to describe fat loss and muscle growth that happens simultaneously.

Instead of focusing purely on weight loss, the goal is to change your body composition by losing fat mass, and replacing some of that lost fat with muscle.

How Long Does Body Recomposition Take?

There’s no fixed length of time that body recomposition will take. Everyone is starting from a different place, and will lose fat and build muscle at different rates.

In my experience, recomping is a slow process. Your progress in either direction is going to be slower than it would on a dedicated bulking or cutting cycle.

The speed at which it’s possible to change your physique also depends on whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or advanced trainee. Beginners tend to see faster gains than intermediate lifters, who in turn will build muscle faster than advanced trainees.

Body Recomposition vs Weight Loss

In an ideal world, your body weight would stay the same, with every pound of fat lost replaced with a pound of new muscle.

Outside of a small number of scenarios, this is highly likely not going to happen. For most people, fat loss is going to mean weight loss.

That’s because losing fat tends to happen a lot faster than gaining muscle.

Most people can lose 1 or 2 pounds of fat over the course of a week without too much trouble.

But gaining the same amount of muscle can take anywhere from 3-4 weeks to 3-4 months (and eventually a lot longer), depending on your training status (beginner, intermediate or advanced) and what your muscle-building genetics are like.

For your weight to stay the same on a body recomp workout plan, you’d have to lose fat while gaining an equivalent amount of muscle mass.

In general, people who can gain a substantial amount of muscle while losing fat at the same time tend to be untrained beginners, especially those with a large amount of fat to lose, people returning to training after an extended layoff, and individuals taking anabolic drugs.

In my view, those are the people who have a realistic chance of seeing their weight stay the same on a body recomposition plan. But anyone outside of those three categories is likely to lose weight.

It is possible (in theory at least, depending on how much fat you have to lose and how genetically gifted you are in the muscle-building department), to end up at the same weight you are right now, having replaced all of the lost fat with muscle.

But changing your body composition in such a dramatic way is going to require multiple training cycles, some of which are focused on building muscle and some of which are focused on losing fat.

In my experience, it’s a process that’s likely going to take years, rather than weeks or months.

How to Do Body Recomposition

In many cases, a body recomposition program is nothing more than a cutting phase done properly. Executed properly, a cut will lead to some degree of body recomposition, in that muscle will be gained while fat is lost.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Put yourself in a calorie deficit. This means eating fewer calories than your body burns each day.
2. Set your protein intake at around 0.7 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day.
3. Lift weights 3-4 days a week, with each workout lasting 30-90 minutes.

You can expect to see big changes to your physique with that type of approach, just as long as you work hard and stay consistent.

I’ll expand on the diet side of things in a moment. First, let’s take a look at the workout plan I suggest you follow.

Body Recomposition Workout Plan

This body recomposition plan involves training the major muscle groups in two different workouts, a push workout and a pull workout.

The push workout revolves around pushing movements for the upper body, which involve the chest, shoulders and triceps. 

The pull workout centers on pulling movements for the upper body, which mainly involve the back and biceps.

In addition, the push workouts also involve exercises that focus on your quads, while the pull day workouts include some work for your hamstrings.

It’s a workout routine that’s ideal if you don’t like leg days. Rather than devote an entire training session to your lower body, you do a little bit of leg work every time you train.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Monday: Push Workout A
• Tuesday: Pull Workout A
• Wednesday: Off
• Thursday: Push Workout 2
• Friday: Pull Workout 2
• Saturday: Off
• Sunday: Off

The workout routine is flexible, and you can move the training days around if you miss a workout.

If, for example, you’re not able to make it to the gym on Friday, you can just push that workout back to Saturday.

And there’s no rule that says you have to stick to the same training frequency from week to week either. 

You might start out with the intention of training four days a week, but life gets in the way and you only do three.

Maybe you manage four workouts this week, two workouts next week, and five the week after. 

That’s fine.

Just keep on rotating through the workouts, from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, with the goal of averaging 3-4 training sessions each week.

What are the benefits of this type of workout routine?

Dividing your body into pushing and pulling exercises means that your energy and focus is distributed across fewer muscle groups, which should translate into faster gains.

Full-body workout routines can be an effective way to train, especially if you’re a beginner who’s just getting started.

However, one of the downsides is that you’re working your entire body – chest, back, legs, shoulders and arms – in every workout.

Some people will run out of steam towards the end of a full-body workout routine. The muscles being trained towards the end of a workout receive less work than the ones trained at the start.

As a result, they’re not going to grow as fast.

The four weekly workouts will also burn off extra calories. This increase in calorie expenditure comes not just during the workout itself, but also in the hours after it’s finished [5, 6]. 

That’s because your body is busy repairing damaged muscle tissue, as well as laying down the new muscle protein that makes each fiber bigger than it was before, all of which requires energy.

In short, lifting weights makes a direct contribution to the calorie deficit required to lose fat. And if you’re doing exercises that work large muscle groups, lifting heavy weights and working hard, that contribution will end up being substantial.

Workout 1

• A1 Barbell Squat 3 sets x 5-8
• A2 Barbell Bench Press 3 sets x 5-8
• B1 Leg Press 3 sets x 10-15
• B2 Incline Dumbbell Press 3 sets x 10-15
• Overhead Press (Barbell or Dumbbell) 3 sets x 8-12
• Lying EZ Bar Triceps Extension 3 sets x 10-15

Workout 2

• A1 Lying/Seated Leg Curl 3 sets x 10-15
• A2 Wide Grip Front Lat Pulldown 3 sets x 8-12
• B1 Romanian Deadlift 3 sets x 10-15
• B2 Seated Cable Row 3 sets x 8-12
• Face Pull 3 sets x 15-20
• Incline Dumbbell Curl 3 sets x 8-12

Workout 3

• A1 Leg Extension 3 sets x 15-20
• A2 Push-ups 3 sets x As Many Good Reps As Possible
• B1 Bulgarian Split Squat 3 sets x 8-12
• B2 Cable Crossover 3 sets x 10-15
• C1 Lateral Raise 3 sets x 10-15
• C2 Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extension 3 sets x 10-15

Workout 4

• A1 Romanian Deadlift 3 sets x 8-12
• A2 Single-Arm Dumbbell Row 3 sets x 5-8
• B1 Lying/Seated Leg Curl 3 sets x 10-15
• B2 Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown 3 sets x 8-12
• C1 Seated Bent-Over Lateral Raise 3 sets x 10-15
• C2 Dumbbell Preacher Curl 3 sets x 10-15

You’ll notice that some of the exercises are labeled with A1 and A2. 

That means you have the option of pairing those exercises, which in turn can save you time in the gym.

What does that mean exactly?

Normally when you’re lifting weights, you do a set… rest for a couple of minutes or so… do the next set… rest for a couple of minutes… do the next set…. rest… and so on.

But with paired sets, also known as supersets, instead of resting between sets, you do an exercise for another set of muscles.

For example, you’d do an exercise for your upper body, rest long enough to catch your breath, do an exercise for your lower body, rest for long enough to catch your breath, then go back to upper body again, and so on.

You don’t need to rush from one exercise to the other. Give yourself a bit of time to catch your breath and set yourself up properly.

If you end up resting longer between sets than the prescribed amount, that’s fine. In most cases, you’re better off with longer rest periods between sets, rather than not getting enough.

On some lower body exercises, such as the leg press or squat, you may want to stick to regular straight sets. 

When you’re training the large lower body muscle groups, and pushing yourself hard in each set, it can take several minutes just to recover from the previous set and get yourself ready for the next one.

In other words, use supersets at your discretion. You might use them on some exercise pairs but not others. Not doing them isn’t going to make much of a difference to the speed at which you build muscle, they just help you save time more than anything else.

Body Recomposition Workout Plan At Home

If you train at home, or travel a lot and don’t always have access to a well-equipped gym, here’s a body recomposition workout plan you can do with a couple of adjustable dumbbells and a bench.

Home Workout 1

• Low Incline Dumbbell Press 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Bulgarian Split Squat or Dumbbell Hack Squat 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Flat Dumbbell Bench Press 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Dumbbell Leg Extension 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Lateral Raise 4 sets x 15-20 reps
• Overhead Triceps Extension 3 sets x 10-15 reps

Home Workout 2

• Incline High Row 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Dumbbell Pullover 3 sets x 12-15 reps
• Sliding Leg Curl 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Dumbbell Preacher Curl 3 sets x 12-15 reps
• Weighted Crunch 3 sets x 20-25 reps

Home Workout 3

• Push Ups 3 sets x As Many Good Reps As Possible
• Goblet Squat 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Dumbbell Flyes 3 sets x 12-15 reps
• Deficit Reverse Lunge 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Lateral Raise 4 sets x 15-20 reps
• Overhead Triceps Extension 3 sets x 10-15 reps

Home Workout 4

• Single-Arm Dumbbell Row 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Rear Delt Row 3 sets x 12-15 reps
• Dumbbell Leg Curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Reverse Crunch 3 sets x 15-20 reps

Body Recomp Workout Plan: How to Progress

You’ll notice that the workouts use rep ranges, such as 5-8 or 8-12, rather than a fixed number of reps in each set.

For example, in the first push workout, the prescription for the bench press is 3 sets of 5-8 reps.

The idea is that you select a weight that allows you to perform at least 5 reps in each set, but no more than 8.

Every time you go to the gym, you try to do more reps than you did the workout before. Once you’re able to do 8 reps in every set, increase the weight for the following workout.

It’s a form of progression known as the double progression method. Here’s an example of how it might look in practice:

Workout 1

• Set 1: 100 pounds x 8
• Set 2: 100 pounds x 7
• Set 3: 100 pounds x 5

Workout 2

• Set 1: 100 pounds x 8
• Set 2: 100 pounds x 7
• Set 3: 100 pounds x 7

Workout 3

• Set 1: 100 pounds x 8
• Set 2: 100 pounds x 8
• Set 3: 100 pounds x 7

Workout 4

• Set 1: 100 pounds x 8
• Set 2: 100 pounds x 8
• Set 3: 100 pounds x 8

Workout 5

• Set 1: 105 pounds x 7
• Set 2: 105 pounds x 6
• Set 3: 105 pounds x 5

As you can see, in workout four, once you’re able to do 8 reps in all 3 sets, you add weight in the fifth workout and repeat the cycle. 

This simple double progression method can work well for most exercises, and will produce decent gains in muscle mass over several months, just as long as you stay consistent and work hard.

It’s also important to make sure that your technique remains solid from one workout to the next. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that you’ve gotten stronger, when all you’re doing is cheating on those last few reps to get the weight up.

The exact number of workouts it takes to reach this point will vary from person to person, and from exercise to exercise.

It might take 10 workouts or it might take 5. But wait until you can do 3 sets of 8 reps before adding weight.

Because you’re in a calorie deficit, your rate of muscle gain is also going to happen more slowly than it would have done had you been in a caloric surplus.

So don’t get too worried if you’re not building muscle as quickly as you’d like to. If you’re making progress in some way, shape or form, that’s the most important thing.

What About Cardio?

While cardio can make a direct contribution to the energy deficit required for weight loss, I like to think of it as an optional extra. Contrary to popular belief, losing fat doesn’t have to involve any cardio at all.

Jumping on the treadmill or exercise bike is not the only way to burn calories, and isn’t necessarily the best way to lose fat. All forms of exercise burn calories, and that includes lifting weights.

It’s also important to consider the impact that cardio can have on the muscle building process.

Just like weight training, cardiovascular exercise (particularly high-intensity interval training) needs to be recovered from and adapted to. This can eat into your body’s limited resources without making any meaningful contribution to muscle growth. 

OPTION 1: No Cardio

The first option on a body recomposition program is to forget about cardio, and focus solely on lifting weights and eating right.

The combination of resistance training and diet has been shown in numerous studies to work just as well as cardio for weight loss. But you get the added bonus of retaining (or even gaining) muscle mass.

In one trial, two groups of obese subjects were put on identical low calorie diets [7].

One group jogged, walked, or cycled four times each week. The other group lifted weights three times a week and did no cardiovascular exercise.

After 12 weeks, both groups lost weight. The cardio group lost 27 pounds (12 kilograms) of fat and 9 pounds (4.1 kilograms) of lean body mass. The strength-training group lost 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms) of fat and almost no lean body mass.

In an almost identical study, subjects who combined diet and resistance training lost the same amount of fat as those who dieted and did cardio [8]. But the cardio group lost twice as much lean body mass.

OPTION 2: Low-Intensity Steady-State Cardio (LISS)

The second option is to carry on lifting weights 4 days a week, but do some form of low-intensity steady-state cardio (LISS), such as brisk walking or riding a bike, at a different time of day.

For example, first thing in the morning you might go for a brisk walk. Then, in the late afternoon or early evening, you lift weights.

Here’s how it might look:

• Monday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Push
• Tuesday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Pull
• Wednesday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) 
• Thursday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Push
• Friday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes) PM – Pull
• Saturday: AM – Brisk Walk (30-40 minutes)
• Sunday: Off

You could also switch it around and lift weights in the morning, then go for a walk in the afternoon or evening.

One of the benefits of LISS is that it’s less likely to interfere with post-training repair and recovery than high-intensity cardio.

OPTION 3: Bike Sprints

The third option is to use cardio, specifically sprint interval training (SIT)  on a bike, to supplement your push workouts.

Doing SIT after training your quads can help to improve your cardiovascular fitness without putting the brakes on (and potentially even contributing to) muscle growth. Think of it like a finisher for your quads.

Cycling is also the ideal companion to resistance training, mainly because it’s a lot easier on your joints than running or sprinting.

• Monday: Push + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Tuesday: Pull
• Wednesday: Off 
• Thursday: Push + SIT (10-15 minutes)
• Friday: Pull
• Saturday: Legs
• Sunday: Off

You can read more about the potential benefits of combining bike sprints and resistance training here.

OPTION 4: Moderate-Intensity Steady-State Cardio (MISS)

Option four is to do some moderate-intensity, steady-state cardio (MISS), which is typically done at somewhere between 60-70% of your maximum heart rate, on the days you’re not doing any weight training. 

Here’s what it looks like:

• Monday: Upper Body
• Tuesday: Lower Body
• Wednesday: Bike (30-45 minutes)
• Thursday: Upper Body
• Friday: Lower Body
• Saturday: Bike (30-45 minutes)
• Sunday: Off

Body Recomposition Diet

The first and most important thing on a body recomposition plan is to focus on is creating an energy deficit.

When you’re in an energy deficit, there is a mismatch between the amount of energy your body needs and the amount it gets from your diet. So, it starts looking for something to make up the deficit.

As long as your diet and workout routine are set up right, that “something” will be the fat you want to get rid of.

Body Recomposition Calories

The quick and simple way to calculate the number of calories you should eat for body recomposition is to take your current body weight in pounds and multiply it by a number between 10 and 12.

Many people will find that the number of calories they need to lose weight will fall somewhere between those two figures.

For example, if you currently weigh 185 pounds, your estimated calorie intake for fat loss is somewhere between 1850 calories (185 x 10 = 1850) and 2220 calories (185 x 12 = 2220) per day.

You also need to make sure you’re eating enough protein. A high-protein diet helps to fill you up as well as giving your muscles the raw material they need to recover and grow.

How much protein should you be eating when body recomposition is the goal?

Go for 0.7 grams per pound, or 1.6 grams per kilogram, of body weight per day. 

For someone weighing 180 pounds (82 kilograms), that gives you a daily protein intake of around 126 grams per day.

That protein can come from whole foods, such as chicken, eggs, fish beef, turkey, or protein supplements like whey protein.

Going higher still isn’t going to do you any harm, but I don’t think you’re going to see much of a benefit either. Eating large amounts of protein can be expensive, as well as impractical, so you don’t want to eat more than is strictly necessary.

You’re also better off spreading your protein intake across 3-4 smaller meals, rather than one or two big ones.

Distributing protein intake evenly throughout the day does a better job at increasing muscle protein synthesis – a key driving force behind muscle growth – compared to the same amount of protein squeezed into a smaller number of larger meals [9, 10].

Ideally, you’ll eat some protein within the first few hours after getting out of bed, before a workout, after a workout, and before going to bed.

Once your protein intake is taken care of, the rest of the calories will come from carbohydrate and fat.

For most people, carbohydrate intake should average somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of daily calorie intake.

There’s no rule that says it has to stay the same from one day to the next. Some days you might eat a little more, others a little less. But on average, it should be around 30-50 percent of total calories.

Signs Of Body Recomposition

What are the signs of body recomposition? How can you tell if you’re losing fat while gaining muscle at the same time?

Stepping on the bathroom scales, the way that most people measure progress, gives you a limited picture about how your body composition is changing.

If you lose 10 pounds of fat while gaining 5 pounds of muscle, your weight will change by just 5 pounds. But your body composition has changed by 15 pounds.

Instead, I suggest keeping track of your waist size, your weight on the scales, and your performance in the gym. 

And by performance in the gym, I’m talking about the amount of weight you can lift for a given number of reps, or the number of reps you’re able to do with a given amount of weight.

If your weight on the scales is going down, your waist size is shrinking, but your numbers in the gym are going up, those are all signs of body recomposition (i.e. fat is being lost while muscle is being gained).