The Body Recomposition Guide [Build Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time]

 

Body Recomposition - Building lean muscle, and losing fat at the same time.

A.K.A. what everyone in the gym is chasing, all the time.

But is body recomposition even possible? After all, you constantly hear people claiming…

“You can’t build muscle and lose fat at the same time! You have to choose one or the other.”

But, I’m here to tell you that body recomposition is very doable for the majority of us.

I’ve seen individuals who have been training for years (and are often coaches themselves) lose a lot of fat and build lean muscle simultaneously through the online coaching process.

A few online client examples:

This client is always one of the prime examples I use when talking body recomposition because:

1. She already had many years of training under her belt

2. Her weight barely changed across 5 months, but she got drastically leaner, while hitting constant PR's in the gym.

As a busy mom and coach herself, she committed to coaching to re-up her commitment to the process. After getting much more specific with her macros, and implementing some unique calorie cycling strategies she was able to achieve an impressive recomposition result.

Another client who had years of consistent training under his belt.

That said, we completely altered his training strategy (from following the traditional "bro split" to a 4x/week Upper/Lower training split + 2 cardio days). 

Nutritionally, a common issue we see with new male online clients like Kalen (shown) is inconsistency with both calorie & protein intake - this prevents you from both building muscle and losing fat. Simple, but getting Kalen consistent with his individualized macros made a massive difference for this impressive recomp.

He actually gained a bit of weight, but is clearly leaner and more muscular in the "after" shot.

Another coach with a ton of knowledge about training & nutrition, but missing the structure & accountability to consistently dial in all the factors like sleep, stress management, nutrient-timing, etc.

Over the course of a 6 month photoshoot prep (read every last detail of her nutrition and training throughout the process here), she consistently hit new PR’s in the gym, and clearly got much leaner.

Ok, so I think you get the point - these are all cases of what we would consider intermediate - advanced individuals going through crazy body recomposition phases. And the above are just a few examples of the many cases I’ve seen over my years of coaching. 

The thing to realize here...

In each of these cases, the magic is in the details. Meaning that each of these individuals was already training. They were already attempting to improve their nutrition, etc. 

But this was the first time they had the entire ecosystem of results

—> A smart, goal-specific training program

—> Extreme consistency with an individualized nutrition plan

—> Management of stress & sleep

—> Periodization of nutrition and training

—> Biofeedback

…all dialed in at once.

And that’s the crux of why body recomposition is possible for most everyone during their first 3-6 months of online coaching (or coaching yourself properly). Because, unless you’ve already had all of these factors dialed in for a long time (which is rare), you’re leaving fat loss & muscle gain results on the table. 

Without further ado, let’s dive into the strategies you or your clients must follow in order to lose fat and build muscle at the same time.


Rather Listen Than Read?

Click the link below to listen to this full blog, in podcast form.

—> Listen Now <—

The Body Recomposition Trinity

In my experience as a coach, we'll typically see body recomposition take on one of three forms:

#1. You lose fat and build lean muscle at the same time. 

Bodyweight stays relatively similar, but your measurements and visual appearance are drastically different. This is exactly why we take weekly body measurements & monthly progress pictures within online coaching. If the scale is our only metric of progress, you’ll feel like you’re spinning your wheels.

We most often see this in individuals that either...

—> Are newer to following a smart, well structured training program.

—> Have followed a smart training program/had more muscle in the past, but have “fallen off of the wagon”  in the last 6-12 months.

—> Are CrossFitters or avid OrangeTheory/F45 type trainees who allow us to take over their programming 2-3x/week. We program in some “functional bodybuilding” style of training, and viola... gains.

You likely wouldn't consider individuals who undergo this variation of recomposition "out of shape" before, but they also often complain of "not looking the part" of someone who trains as much as they do. 

 A great example of this is our online client Jenna:

She was doing a good amount of cardio before she started coaching (when we promptly switched her to a hypertrophy style of training), and was "eating clean", but missing goal-specific macros.

#2. You gain weight, but body fat stays the same.

This often happens to individuals who have been within the online coaching process for 3-6 months, and already completed the process of getting lean. The next step is typically entering a “lean gains phase”, where we focus on keeping fat gain to a minimum, and building lean muscle.

To understand why this is classified as body recomposition...

—> Let’s say you currently weigh 140lbs, with 30lbs of fat and 110lbs of lean mass - your body fat percentage is 22%.

—> Over the course of a 6 month lean gains phase, you add 10lbs of lean muscle.

—> You end the process weighing 150lbs, with 30lbs of fat and 120lbs of lean mass - your body fat percentage is 20%.

So despite not actually losing a single ounce of fat, your body fat percentage is lower, and you’ll look much leaner. This most often happens to individuals who have never gone through a proper "building phase" before.

A great example of this is our client Karyn:

Karyn started the coaching process postpartum, and we knew she had the ability to regain (and add new) muscle tissue quickly, as she'd lost a bit of muscle through her pregnancy, and never training specifically for building muscle. 

 So for the first part of her coaching journey, (even though her ultimate goal was to get lean) we focused on fueling her training & recovery as well as possible, without pushing calories so high that she'd gain any excess fat. Thanks to the added muscle, she appears much leaner and more defined, even though weight is very similar between these pictures.

#3. You build a smaller amount of muscle, and lose a lot of fat. 

This scenario is most common for individuals who have been following a smart training program for quite some time, but have been neglecting their nutrition, and have a decent amount of body fat to lose. 

In situations like this, we can often create better recovery and thus more muscle growth by getting your nutrition dialed in. But if you’ve already been following a smart training program for quite some time, the “ceiling” for the amount of gains you can make while also losing fat is a bit lower than someone who hasn't been following a smart training strategy.

But, realize for individuals like this, getting leaner will do wonders as far as uncovering all of the muscle you’ve worked so hard to build over the last few years. 

A great example of this is our very own Coach Julie's original photoshoot transformation:

New online clients in need of a recomposition like this will often complain of "not looking like they lift", despite following a smart training program.

The reality is, most individuals who start online coaching fit one of these bills. So the odds are, even as an intermediate to advanced trainee, you’re still very capable of body recomposition.

How To Train For Body Recomposition

Most individuals simply don’t have enough muscle on their frame to achieve the physique they want. This is true for women & men alike. Without a smart, individualized training program, you’ll always struggle to achieve your goal body composition.

More muscle mass also makes it easier to stay lean long term. Moving a heavier (more muscular) body = you burning more calories. And, when your muscles are larger, you’re able to output more force and lift heavier weights. This also leads to more calories burned. So more muscle speeds up your metabolism, and makes staying lean easier in the long-term.

Training Split

First, when setting up your training split, we want to take your experience level into consideration.

—> For beginner to intermediate trainees, I’d recommend training 4x/week with an upper/lower split.

This split allows for adequate volume to stimulate lean muscle growth across the week, hits your frequency needs, and will let you build lean muscle & strength simultaneously.

For more on how I program the upper/lower split for online clients, check out this video ↴

I'd also recommend you check out The 7 Training Program Templates All Coaches Need for a complete template for programming the upper/lower split.

—> For advanced intermediates, I’d recommend training 5x/week with either a Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper split, a Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower, or an Upper/Lower/Push/Pull/Lower split. 

Your volume (number of hard sets) needs for progression will be higher as a more experienced trainee, so these splits allow you to match that. 

Again, check out The 7 Training Program Templates All Coaches Need for programming templates.

—> For advanced trainees - the reality is, you’re just going to need the most stimulus in order to continue progressing. 

If you’ve been following a smart manner of training for quite some time and have had your nutrition (relatively) on point, the recipe for recomp is likely in a 6x/week training split, either Push/Pull/Lower/Push/Pull/Lower or Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower.

One last time, check out The 7 Training Program Templates All Coaches Need for a guide to programming these splits.

Progression

Without a smart progression scheme built into your training program, you'll find yourself doing the same sets, reps, and weight for months on end.

The reality of being an intermediate or advanced lifter is, we often need progression schemes built into our program to force us to get more uncomfortable, and keep pushing. This is especially true in the case of a body recomposition.

A simple, but super effective progression scheme I love to implement with online clients looks something like this:

1. We're decreasing Reps In Reserve (RIR) across the mesocycle (a 4-8 week block of training). For example...

—> Week 1: 3RIR on all sets. 

—> Week 2: 2RIR on all sets.

—> Week 3: 1RIR on all sets.

—> Week 4: 0-1RIR on all sets.

—> Week 5: Deload - 3-4RIR on all sets.

2. Use a rep range (e.g. 8-12).

3. Keep close track of your reps & load used for each set in your logbook (my online clients use the TrueCoach app). The goal here is to beat your previous performance on a per set basis weekly, by either adding an extra rep or increasing load slightly. 

This progression works very well for online clients. The decrease in RIR across week allows us to use Week 1 to feel out any new exercises, and "set the bar" you need to improve upon weekly. 

The RIR progression allows clients lots of productive time training, but we're not always so close to failure that fatigue outweighs recovery, which is a larger potential issue during a body recomposition phase.

The pitfall the most lifters fall into when they can no longer and 5lbs to each side or the bar weekly, is simply doing the same sets, reps, and weight for weeks on end. Or, simply doing the reps and weight that feel good on any given day... which is a good way to make very little progress for all your time in the gym.

This progression scheme gets online clients hyper-focused on improving every set from the previous weeks performance, which is the reality of what it takes to progress as an intermediate to advanced lifter.

Now, as you can tell, I'm a big fan of this progression scheme in particular, but this is far from the only progression scheme out there.

The point is, you need a smart progression scheme the manipulates volume and intensity across a mesocycle built into your program, and pushes you for progressive overload.

Cardio

Building lean muscle requires…

1. Creating an adequate stimulus to signal muscle growth within your training.

2. Your body recovering from said stimulus, and adapting by building a bigger, stronger muscle.

Basically, the formula for building lean muscle is: Stress + recovery from said stress = adaptation.

So what does this have to do with cardio?

Well, losing fat requires eating fewer calories than you burn in a day... but calories are our body’s major fuel for recovery. 

So when we’re eating less, our “recovery resources” are more limited. Meaning we can only hit our body with so much training stimulus before it becomes counterproductive. When stress starts to outweigh recovery, we actually make less progress. Not to mention we feel run down, libido, energy, and motivation are low, and a whole bevy of other issues.

So, to successfully recomp, you'll want the primary stressor on your system to be your training - that’s the stress that’s going to stimulate muscle growth.

Aside from this, the goal should want to do our best to keep other stressors to a minimum, so they don’t “steal” recovery resources from your muscles.

This means it’s smart to use low-intensity cardio as a fat loss tool (rather than high-intensity variations), as it’s much less stressful on the body (and actually can help promote recovery).

Now, like everything within online coaching, my cardio prescriptions vary depending on the individual. But generally, I’ll prescribe 2-5 cardio sessions per week, 30-40 mins each, doing something like incline walking, riding the assault bike, or rowing at a heart rate of 120-140 beats per minute.

The more active you are as an individual, the less cardio you’ll need. (Some online clients don’t need any. In a body recomposition phase, our goal is always to keep cardio to the minimum effective dose).

However, if you’re more sedentary (e.g. you work a desk job, and average 3,000 steps per day), the reality is, you’ll likely need more cardio to achieve the recomposition effect you’re chasing.

Movement Goal

Finally, it’s smart for us to track your daily movement in the form of a step goal. This allows us to factor in everything that could be affecting your body composition, and make sure you don’t accidentally decrease movement and stall fat loss.

Nutrition For Body Recomposition

I can guarantee one thing - you won't successfully recomp unless your nutrition is on point. 

If you’re serious about creating your best body ever, I would push you to commit to following an individualized nutrition strategy within online coaching. Because truly, nutrition is the most important piece of all of this.

Like always, when discussing nutrition, it all starts with calories. So we need to start by determining your specific calorie needs as an individual. 

We (or our clients) will fall into one of two camps:

1. Mostly wants to build muscle, with a bit of fat loss on the side. This is the individual who is already relatively lean, sometimes “skinny fat”, or sometimes the client who is already good with their nutrition, but just hasn’t been following a smart training program until now.

—> Since eating more calories is more conducive to muscle growth, we’ll keep this individual around maintenance, or in a slight surplus (5-10%). This will be more conducive to muscle growth, but keep fat gain minimal.

Here, we’ll look for a very slow rate of weight gain (~.25-.5% of body weight per week), and/or positive measurement shifts and improvements in strength on the compound lifts in the 5-15 rep range.

2. Mostly wants to lose fat, with a bit of muscle gain on the side. This is the individual who already has a decent amount of lean muscle, but needs to get leaner in order to “look the part” of someone who has been training for years.

—> Since we need a calorie deficit (eating fewer calories than you burn) for fat loss, here we’ll set clients up in a 10-20% calorie deficit, and aim to lose ~.5% of body weight per week, and/or see positive measurement shifts.

Either way, we’re not going too aggressive in either direction. 

—> We don’t want to take calories too high, because the goal is to avoid as much fat gain as possible. 

—> We also don’t want to take calories too low, as training performance and recovery ability will decrease to the point where you’re not capable of building lean muscle - eating in a deficit literally reduces your body’s ability to synthesize dietary protein into muscle.

So in my experience as a coach, staying relatively close to maintenance is the sweet spot. It allows us to keep training hard, and recovering, and shifting body composition over time.

Finding Maintenance Calories

You have a few options here:

—> #1: Use this calculator.

—> #2: Multiply your bodyweight by 13-17. (13 would be a sedentary office worker, 17 would be an extremely active construction worker.)

—> #3: Start tracking everything you eat in MyFitnessPal (don't change your diet from the norm), and take the average of the total calories you eat for 4-6 days.

Regardless of which method you used, you should now have a number that is roughly you maintenance calorie intake. 

Setting Calorie Intake

—> To focus primarily on fat loss - Multiply your maintenance intake x .9 (less aggressive) - .8 (more aggressive).

—> To focus primarily on building lean muscle - To be more conservative, start by eating at the maintenance number you found above. To be more aggressive, multiply your maintenance intake by 1.05 - 1.1.

Setting Protein Intake

Eating lots of protein is one of the biggest nutritional keys to pulling off a body recomposition.

—> Protein has the highest “thermic effect” of all the macronutrients - When you eat food, it takes energy for your body to digest said food. The energy/calories burned during digestion is called "the thermic effect of food" (TEF).

Now the amount of calories - or TEF - you burn during digestion depends on the macronutrients you eat.

- Protein: 20-35% of the calories you consume via protein are burned off during digestion

- Carbs: 5-15% of the calories you consume via carbs are burned off during digestion

- Fats: 0-5% of the calories you consume via carbs are burned off during digestion

So when you eat protein, a big chunk of the calories you take in are actually burned off during digestion - quite a bit more than carbs, and A LOT more than fats.

By keeping calories the same, but increasing protein you’re consuming the same total calories as before, but burning more calories in the process.

—> You'll be more satiated - Lean protein is the most filling food (which is another reason my online clients make eating a lean protein source at every meal a big priority).

—> It's the building block of lean muscle - I don't think I need to explain why under-consuming it could create issues here.

Now, there’s a weird amount of fear about high protein intakes - but the reality is, you can eat a TON of protein with no need to worry. It won’t give you cancer, ruin your kidneys, or anything of the sort. Quite a few recent studies have proven this.

For example, this study from 2016, which was titled:"A High Protein Diet Has No Harmful Effects: A One Year Crossover Study In Resistance-Trained Males"

In this study, the subjects ate 1.5 grams/lb of body weight daily for a year.

The results?

"A diet high in protein had no harmful effects on any measures of health. Furthermore, there was no change in body weight, fat mass, or lean body mass despite eating more total calories and protein." (1)

Did you catch that last sentence?

Not only are you probably good to eat a lot more protein - it also seems protein is much less likely to be stored as body fat than fat or carbs, even if you're eating more calories due to increased protein.

To help illustrate this point further - this 2015 study took 48 randomized, resistance-trained men and women and had them consume a minimum of 1.36g/lb of protein daily or to maintain current dietary habits for eight weeks while undergoing a standardized resistance training program designed to increase lean body mass.

The results?

"Compared to the control group, the high-protein group consumed significantly more calories (+ 490 kcal) and protein (3.4 vs. 2.3 g/kg) from primarily whey protein shakes, leading to a diet that was 39% protein, 27% fat, and 34% carbohydrate. Both groups significantly increased FFM (muscle mass) and significantly reduced FM (body fat) compared to baseline, but the reduction in FM (body fat) was significantly greater in the high-protein group compared to the control group (−1.6 vs. −0.3 kg). Accordingly, body weight gain was also significantly less in the high-protein group compared to the control group." (2)

The high-protein group ate ~490 calories more than the lower protein group, and lost more fat.

So it's safe to say, for many reasons, it's smart to keep protein high in a body recomposition phase. I recommend ~1.2 - 1.5g/lb body weight for most in this context.

Setting Fat & Carb Intake

Getting adequate fat is super important.

Fat plays a key role in hormonal production and function. So if you're under-eating fat, key hormones to muscle growth (e.g. testosterone) won't be produced in adequate levels. This will also result in you feeling much worse, and training performance will suffer, blunting your ability to stimulate new muscle growth in the gym.

So there is clearly a minimum "fat threshold" that needs to be met in order to make optimal gains. This threshold is generally thought to be around .3g of fat/lb of body weight. (Anectdotally, this number is closer to .4g/lb of bodyweight for women.)

Now, realize two things:

—> #1: Increasing fat more than the recommend threshold does not mean testosterone and other beneficial hormones linearly increase or are "supercharged" by more fat.

Your body needs this minimum fat threshold to function properly. Past this point - unless you're in ketosis - extra calories from fat don't do much of anything to fuel better performance in the gym, or more gains.

—> #2: When you increase fat, you're making a trade-off for decreased carbs. Given the minimum fat-threshold is met, extra carbs will do much more to fuel your gains than extra fat.

Carbs play a key role in your ability to perform in the gym. They're your body's preferred fuel source, especially for anaerobic activities (short, explosive bouts of exercise - like lifting weights).

Carbs also aid in the recovery process, and help decrease levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

So, when you take these factors into consideration, it makes sense to take a lower fat, higher carb approach in a body recomposition phase.

For most in a body recomposition phase, I recommend setting fat around .3-.4g/lb of body weight, and filling the remaining calories with carbs.

Diet Breaks & Calorie Cycling

Especially as someone looking to build/maintain as much muscle as possible, implementing diet breaks and calorie cycling strategies is smart, and a big part of what we focus on to help you optimize everything within online coaching. That said, I’ve already written entire blogs on when/why/how I implement these strategies with online clients. Check them out here:

—> Diet Breaks 101: What/Why/How 

—> Calorie Cycling 101: 6 Methods To Get You Leaner

Nutrient Timing

Things like nutrient timing are typically disregarded as unimportant in the fitness space.

Now, while you will get most of the result from hitting your daily macros, following a smart training program, and sleeping enough - body recomposition requires a lot more attention to detail.

You're chasing a very specific result here, which requires you getting very specific with the process.

—> Protein Timing Across The Day - It's true that calories are the primary driver of weight loss or weight gain. But for optimal lean muscle growth, you need to consider muscle protein synthesis (MPS).

Muscle protein synthesis is basically the process of your body turning dietary protein into actual lean muscle.

Consuming protein (with the most optimal amount being 25-50g) increases muscle protein synthesis for ~3-6 hours.

So, to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis through your day, it's most optimal to spread your protein (and meals) across 4-6 meals, with 25-50g protein at each.

—> Pre-Workout Meal - What you eat pre-workout is key for kick-starting the recovery process, and helps fuel your body through intense training.

To prevent as much muscle protein breakdown (the opposite process of muscle protein synthesis - muscle protein is being broken down) as possible, and create optimal circumstances for recovery/growth, you should consume ~25-50g of protein in this meal. If you really don't have the option to eat a pre-workout meal (e.g. you workout super early), I'd recommend at least drinking a protein shake before hand. This will digest very quickly, and shouldn't give you issues.

If you have time to allow the meal to digest pre-workout (>1 hour), adding ~25-50 grams carbs to the mix is smart. A mix of carbs from starch and fruit gives you a combo of faster and slower releasing carbs to fuel you through the workout.

We want to avoid too much fat in this meal, because it will slow digestion, and have you feeling sluggish during your training.

A solid pre-workout meal could look something like:

- Greek yogurt (slow digesting protein)

Whey protein (fast digesting protein)

Oatmeal (starchy carb)

Berries (carb from fruit)

Typically, you'll feel best eating this 1-2 hours before you workout. I like to split the difference here and go with 1.5 hours pre-workout. Eating this meal too close to your workout will have you lifting with food still digesting in your belly, making you feel sluggish.

—> Post-Workout Meal - As far as protein, aim to eat another ~25-50g of protein within an hour post-workout (as it will have been about 3 hours from your previous bolus of protein at this point).

With carbs, insulin sensitivity is highest post-workout. (Basically, your body will most efficiently use carbs for muscle-building purposes at this time.) So it makes sense to time lots of fast-digesting carbs post workout (e.g. white rice, spotted bananas). This is the most important time to consume carbs, as far as timing goes - so if your carbs are limited on a diet, putting most of them here is smart.

On a similar note, an intense training session will trigger a stress response. Basically, when you experience stress, cortisol (the stress hormone) rises and your nervous system enters a sympathetic state or “fight-or-flight mode”. In this state, your brain perceives an imminent threat, and slows or stops all bodily processes but the most vital to either “fighting or fleeing”. This means processes crucial to your recovery - food digestion, hormone production, and muscle growth itself - are slowed or essentially stopped.

So obviously, to optimize recovery, you want to get out of a sympathetic state as fast as possible post-workout, and get into the parasympathetic or “rest and digest” state. Here, your body focuses on nutrient absorption, repairing damaged tissues, etc.

The beauty of timing your carbs intra/post-workout like this is, carbs help decrease cortisol levels. So consuming carbs post workout will help you create a better environment for building lean muscle.

Similar to the pre-workout meal, we want to keep fat low here. Fat would slow your body's ability to digest the nutrients you just took in.

—> Pre-Bed Meal - Now, sleep is a crucial part of your body actually being able to make build muscle & burn fat. Eating too close to bed will slightly disrupt your sleep quality, but we also want your body to have some protein available throughout the night. ~1 hour before bed, eat 25-50g protein from a slow digesting source (casein powder, greek yogurt, cottage cheese).

Recovery For Body Recomposition

So, while training and nutrition are the topics that everyone wants to talk about… no one wants to think about the importance of recovery.

But the reality is, if you don’t make recovery a priority, you won't be able to achieve the body recomposition that you want.

Remember the muscle building formula from earlier?

Stress + recovery from stress = growth

Without proper focus on recovery, your body won’t grow.

Along with what we’ve already discussed nutritionally, sleep is a factor here. 

Many of the outcomes you’re chasing in a recomposition phase - muscle tissue growth, fat oxidation, hormone production, and the repair and improvement of most every other system in your body… happen in a large part during your sleep.

So to truly create a great recomposition effect, it’s crucial that you’re getting at least 7 hours of sleep (with up to 9 hours per night being ideal). 

Really, I can’t emphasize how important this is. One of the main things I have online clients track every day on their metric tracker is hours of sleep, for this exact reason. 

Check out a full breakdown of my client’s metric trackers below ↴

Biofeedback For Body Recomposition

As you’ve probably realized, it’s much more than just macros and a training program that create great online client results. It’s a whole ecosystem of factors that need to be on point in order to lose fat and build lean muscle at the same time.

This is exactly why all of my online clients track biofeedback. Biofeedback tells us how your physiology and psychology are responding to your training & nutrition prescriptions, and whether you’re achieving positive or negative outcomes from them.

I have my online clients rank:

—> Training Performance

—> Sleep Quality

—> Hunger Levels

—> Cravings

—> Motivation

—> Mood

The reality is, in a body recomposition phase, we need biofeedback to be good (mostly 4’s and 5’s) in order to achieve the outcomes that you want, so this is a big part of what we adjust nutrition and training volume from.

Ranking biofeedback gives us the answer to questions like:

- Is the client doing too much training volume, the right amount, or can we do more?

- Is the client dieting too hard, just the right amount, or can we be more aggressive?

- Are the client's sleep & stress management routines working?

Supplements For Body Recomposition

Far from the most important factor for a recomposition, but there are a few supplements that are likely. worth your money. Especially in a case like this, where we're looking to optimize every last detail.

—> Creatine Monohydrate - Creatine is an extremely well researched supplement, with the most effective form being creatine monohydrate.

Our bodies use creatine phosphate for as a fuel source for the first few seconds of intense or explosive movement/exercise. Think of supplementing with creatine as “topping off the tank”. It allows you to maintain high-intensity exercise for slightly longer.

This means an increase in strength, and overall workload you’re able to handle in the gym, equating to building more muscle.

Now, the effects of creatine are far from “steroid-like”, but it is a proven supplement to aid building muscle and strength.

3-5 grams/day is the general recommended dose.

—> Caffeine - Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Although considered a psychoactive drug, its use is extremely common and mostly unregulated.

Of all the supplements on this list, caffeine has by far the most noticeable effects. Not only does caffeine boost mood, alertness and mental clarity, it also has some real benefits to your workouts.

Research shows that caffeine decreases perceived effort, increases power output, and improves endurance.

—> Protein Powders - If you’re able to hit your daily protein requirements entirely from whole foods, there’s no need to use a protein powder. Protein powders are lacking many of the micronutrients that quality, whole food protein sources will have.

But, if you’re struggling to meet your daily protein requirements, supplementing with a protein powder can be helpful.

Whey protein and casein proteins have the best amino acid profiles of available protein powders. They're the easiest for your body to absorb and use. It’s debatable which is superior. The body digests whey protein quicker than casein protein.

Whey and casein protein are derivatives of milk. So if animal products are a no-go for you: pea or rice proteins have the best amino acid profiles.

—> Multi-Vitamin - Getting all of your micronutrients from whole foods is ideal.

Ideal, but not always realistic. Taking a multivitamin is a good way to ensure your daily micronutrient needs are met.

—> Vitamin D - We obtain vitamin D naturally through food and sunlight.

The issue? Most of us don’t get enough time in the sun, and the amount of vitamin D is negligible in most foods outside of fatty fish. As a result, vitamin D deficiency is extremely common

Taking a vitamin D or Cod liver oil supplement can be extremely helpful in preventing this deficiency.

The typical recommended dose is 1,000-2,000 IU per day.

—> EPA And DHA (Fish Oil) - EPA and DHA are essential fatty acids. Now, if you eat fatty fish 2+ times per week, you're good on these. If not, a fish oil supplement can help.

Typically, 1-2g EPA + DHA per day is advised.

And that is how we help clients achieve body recomposition within online coaching. 

It’s not an easy process, which is why most people have fail without investing in a coach, and becoming extremely committed to the process.

So if you're ready to stop guessing and start achieving, click here now to apply for online coaching with our team. We apply proven, science-backed nutrition & training methods through individualized coaching to help you get the body you want, and teach you on how to keep it for a lifetime.


About The Author

Jeremiah Bair is a certified nutrition coach, strength coach, and owner of the online coaching business Bairfit. Check out his Podcast and Instagram  for more educational content.

Keep Learning

The Fat Loss GuideProject type

Thyroid Health 101Project type

How To Get Toned ArmsProject type

Fix Your Back PainProject type

How to get AbsProject type