Hi friends! I’m back after a 4 year break from blogging. Looking at the fitness content currently online, you’ll see that the trend has slowly been shifting towards using a recomposition strategy while eating at maintenance to fix a skinny fat physique. But is that really the best approach for you to take? In this article, I’ll share my opinion on this topic (which goes against the grain) and tell you why I think you should not be recomping at maintenance if you want to get rid of your skinny fat physique instantly.

What Is Recomping At Maintenance?

In the simplest terms, your body composition is primarily determined by the proportion of body fat and lean mass (muscle) you carry. Recomping (a.k.a. recomposition) simply means changing the proportion of body fat and muscle your body carries, and this, in turn, brings about a change in your appearance. So yes, in a way, everyone who trains (whether they want to lose fat, build muscle or do both), has the end goal of recomping over time.  

But keep in mind that there are different approaches to recomping. Person A can recomp by losing fat first and then building muscle. Person B can recomp by building muscle first and losing fat later. Person C can recomp by staying at the same weight and hoping for both, fat loss and muscle gain, to occur simultaneously.

What we are talking about in this article is the last scenario. Recomping at maintenance means consistently eating the amount of calories that your body needs to maintain weight (or just very slightly lower) while focusing on building muscle. This sounds like a great idea in theory, especially because bringing skinny fat to an end requires both fat loss and muscle gain in most cases.

The argument for recomping at maintenance or at a very slight calorie deficit is that your weight remains almost the same or goes down very gradually while helping you get stronger and put on some muscle. This, in turn, reduces your body-fat percentage as your weight stays the same but now you carry more muscle and less fat (i.e. you have recomped). This is a pretty strong argument, but I think there’s a better way to go about things if you want to get the faster results you want because of a few key reasons.

The Problem With Recomping At Maintenance As A Skinny Fat 

1. It Is A Very Slow Process

Slow isn’t always a good thing. Most experts think slow equals to sustainable equals to better results. But as I mentioned, this isn’t always the case. If the goal is changing how you look, there are more effective ways to go about things.

Recomping at maintenance doesn’t bring a fast visible change when compared to approaches like cutting and bulking. While you can justify this by saying you’re in it for the “long game”, most people forget that motivation plays a very important role, especially in the earlier stages of someone’s transformation. 

Since assessing progress by recomping at maintenance isn’t as straightforward as watching your waist shrink every week on a cut, it can oftentimes leave you feeling demotivated. This might not seem like a big deal at first, but is often one of the root causes of why people get stuck in the dreaded loop of skinny fat. They effectively end up at the same place they were at, making no (or very minuscule) progress in terms of strength, size or body-fat.

2. It Requires More Precision With Nutrition

Tossing around the perfect macros is very easy on the Internet. In reality, when you actually have a life to live, it can be difficult to consistently eat at maintenance, especially if you are skinny fat and don’t have much experience.

People often slip up, and then end up playing catch up with their calories and macros to average at maintenance through the week. In some cases, they might just net the week in a surplus, but with a slightly worse relationship with food. Do this multiple times and you end up gaining weight without the intent of doing so, in most cases.

3. Most People Who Promote Recomping Built Their Physiques By Taking A Different Approach

If anyone plays the “recomping at maintenance” card on you, do a little background check and see how they themselves built their physique. Now, this isn’t to say that people can’t give advice that is different from what they have done, as science evolves and we keep getting new information from time to time. But this does allow you to understand that the periods in which people have made the best progress have always been either in a fat loss phase or in a gaining phase, whatever were their goals at that time. 

4. Most People Who Are Successful With Recomping Have Already Developed The Skill Set Of Being Patient 

It amazes me how not a single person brings this up. The longer you are in this sport, the better you get at developing qualities that help you go further. Simply put, the patience and adherence an experienced individual has are, in the majority of cases, more than what someone starting out has.

Expecting someone to be as patient as an experienced athlete is just ignorance. This isn’t to say that you don’t need to be patient. It is just to make you understand that recomping at maintenance requires a lot more patience than you think, and most skinny fat individuals end up feeling frustrated and just quit.

Also, there are a lot of skinny fat people who just want to get lean and don’t care about building size right away. Expecting them to significantly slow down the process just because they can build strength is a tradeoff most wouldn’t be willing to make.

5. It Is More Sustainable, In Theory

Well, let me remind you, sustainable doesn’t always mean better. Sustaining the process of being skinny fat just reinforces the fact that you’re skinny fat in your head.

Imagine starting your transformation and then having only minor changes in the next 8 weeks (so minor that you can barely notice them. Ouch!). You start believing that you have some of the worst skinny fat genetics and that there is something definitely wrong with you. In reality, if you took an approach that actually took you from Point A  (you currently) to Point B (your goal) in the quickest way possible, you would feel a lot better about yourself and would beinclined towards working harder and making more progress down the road. 

A Better Solution To Get Faster Results

Firstly, Let me tell you that using the words “faster results” is often looked down upon in the fitness industry. This is because they are primarily associated with the scammy products that promise you unbelievable transformations in “just 30 days” (that too without any effort, LOL). But using this as a blanket statement to say that faster results cannot or should not ever be achieved is ignorant.

If you are currently skinny fat and you primarily care about changing how you look, I suggest you take the faster approach. There are two options from here:

• Fat loss 

• Muscle gain

Basically, if you want to get ripped and that is your primary goal, I recommend you enter a fat loss phase and stick to it till you get lean. On the other hand, if your primary goal is to pack on some size, I recommend you enter a long gaining phase.

While this might seem like the longer process, it will actually get you faster results, that too results that are in line with your goal. This will also prevent you from being stuck in one place as you will get to see your body change much faster.

For example, a well set-up cutting phase can allow you to lose fat fast and see your waist shrink. Will it allow you to build muscle like a recomping at maintenance strategy? While it can still allow you to build muscle, the rate of muscle growth will differ. Simply put, the larger the calorie deficit, the slower the muscle gain. But if you’re starting out skinny fat and you follow a well set-up program, you will be able to recomp even in a deficit.

People often fear taking the faster route of cutting since they won’t have any muscle to show. But the truth is that recomping isn’t a magic pill and it isn’t going to get you jacked overnight either. You might as well get ripped and then focus on spending the following years in a calorie surplus with a focus on adding on muscle, if that’s something you want to do. 

Conclusion

The key takeaway for you from this post is that recomping at maintenance isn’t the best approach if you want to get from skinny fat to ripped. If you’re satisfied with where you are at, then, by all means, execute at recomp at maintenance calories. But if you want to bring a change in how you look as fast as possible, focusing on a well set-up fat loss phase or gaining phase will yield superior results to just hanging around maintenance in terms of body composition.

Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments section below. What do you think is better? 

Also, don’t forget to share it with someone stuck in the dreaded skinny fat loop. =)

Until next time,

Vinay Kodnani

New reader? You can learn more about me here.