How do you guys recomp?

[JoeySon]

Ahh the infamous word "recomp". Well to give you a quick backround, I've pretty much constantly been eating over maintenance now for quite some time and have put on some nice mass. However, I'd like to slow down the all out bulk now and do more of a recomp.

My question was how exactly do you guys lay out your cals and diet? I was thinking +500 on training days and eat on maintenance on off/cardio days? I eat clean already so that's no issue and I'm good about tracking my macros but not sure how to approach the next couple months. I would like to continue to add size but burn off a little stubborn bf. Any help is appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[jswain34]

Id probably go +300 lifting days and -400-500 nonlift days. use your off day to burn a done more fat than eating just at maintenance.

 

[JoeySon]

Yea that seems to be the more common approach after I've flipped through some stuff. Is it too drastic to go +500 and -500?

 

[jswain34]

Not at all man. That's totally fine IMO.

 

[AntM1564]

I like to carb cycle and think it is great while recomping. Personally, I would go a little below maintenance on off days, a little above on the other days. I would have three days of low carb, two days of moderate, and two days of high carbs. I would also do HIIT cardio twice a week. This is not all set in stone of course, but this is the approach I have found has worked for me.

 

[jswain34]

^Looks like a pretty good setup. Carb cycling like that seems to be working for a lot of people, myself included.

 

[AntM1564]

^Looks like a pretty good setup. Carb cycling like that seems to be working for a lot of people, myself included.

I always reference to the article below. I think it serves as a great tool. It is easy to understand, follow, and modify

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_carb_cycling_codex

 

[threeFs]

To say +500 or -500 treats all calories equally. A better approach is to adjust carbs like many above have mentioned. I like carb back-loading which is a form of carb modification as well.

 

[ChefJoey]

To say +500 or -500 treats all calories equally. A better approach is to adjust carbs like many above have mentioned. I like carb back-loading which is a form of carb modification as well.

That's a valid point. Isn't carb back loading essentially eating most of your carbs post workout?

 

[blacklac]

Can someone help me understand the point of +/- calorie days? I guess I'm a little confused if digestion can take up to ~20hrs how exactly it becomes beneficial. I Google digestion time, so if I'm wrong... Lol

 

[hvactech]

That's a valid point. Isn't carb back loading essentially eating most of your carbs post workout?

more so evening hours but preferably post during evening hours

 

[hvactech]

Can someone help me understand the point of +/- calorie days? I guess I'm a little confused if digestion can take up to ~20hrs how exactly it becomes beneficial. I Google digestion time, so if I'm wrong... Lol

the idea is to consume higher calories on training days for growth and less on off/cardio days for fat loss. i dont personally use this method

 

[blacklac]

the idea is to consume higher calories on training days for growth and less on off/cardio days for fat loss. i dont personally use this method

That's why it confuses me a little. If your still digesting larger meals on off days, how can you really benefit? Also, it seems like a low cal day leading up to a gym session wouldn't be optimal, but I suppose that depends on the person or what your able to eat preworkout.

 

[ChefJoey]

Yea I haven't even really done any research on the benefit of the +\- days I just see this approach often. I'm just not really a fan of the super strict carb diets where you have high, low, and medium days. If I'm being honest with myself, I'm not sure how closely I could follow that