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Tips for Body Recomposition

This is an article I loved the first time I read it on Iron Addict’s board. It was written by a member there going by the name “discuslifter.” Unfortunately he no longer posts there, but there is a lot of good information contained in it. For anyone confused, a body recomposition is a term used to describe someone aiming to slowly reduce bodyfat while slowly adding muscle mass. If a person starts at 200 lbs and 15% bodyfat, they may do a recomp and 4 months later still be 200 lbs, but they may be 7% bodyfat. This means they went from looking very average with 170 lbs of lean mass to ripped and muscular with 186 lbs of lean mass…despite no change in scale weight.

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Full body circuits in rep ranges that help you gain muscle will burn more fat, get you in better shape, and help increase strength and mass. No it’s not ideal for strength gains, but we’re talking body recomp as a main goal, not competitive powerlifting.

Stay away from all stimulants. They increase cortisol, decrease insulin sensitivity, can interfere with sleep which can adversely affect insulin sensitivity, put undue strain on the adrenal glands, can cause sympathetic dominance, and can suppress digestive function. NEVER EVER use stimulants and consume carbs together. Unless you want a blood profile of a diabetic. Need energy? First make sure you have good sleeping habits. If you still need energy, look to non-stimulant boosts like ALCAR, tyrosine, stuff like Biotest’s Power Drive, etc. Think of these as healthy stimulants because they actually provide your body with the nutrients needed for mental energy.

Most people over 12-15% BF could probably afford to ditch the PWO carbs and use glutamine/glycine. Here’s the catch, and this is really important….

….When we transition from a higher carb diet to a low carb one, don’t we all know about the transition phase? It’s a bare minimum of 2 weeks, but strong adaptation can take 3-4 weeks.

Now please keep this in mind when you ditch the PWO carbs. Do you honestly think your body is going to adapt to this instantly and performance will be the same? Of course not! Some people it affects more than others, but please if you’re going to do this, give it at least 2 weeks. Try it. If after 3-4 weeks your performance is horrible, try adding 20-40g of a mix of faster and slower carbs PWO with 10mg of biotin. You really might be harming your goals if you’re 15%+ and trying to take in 75g dextrose PWO after doing 4×8.

Cardio and GPP. This is extremely important for improving insulin sensitivity (IS). 150 minutes minimum per week. This combined with weights will make dramatic changes in IS. It helps to increase capillary density, increases….well forget it. This information is around everywhere, but I think many of us don’t know of it or ignore it. Just no jogging for 1 hour straight, okay? You’ll jack up your cortisol levels and actually increase blood sugar levels and it is catabolic to muscle. Not good. You can run for 20 minutes, do sled pulling, do light rep work, calisthenics, riding a bicycle, etc.

Eat less food and consume at least 0.44g/kg bwt BCAAs between meals.

Take in 20-50g of fish and/or cod liver oil daily.

Look into supplements that help with losing fat and gaining muscle. Things like Biotest’s Carbolin-19, perhaps herbal testosterone boosters if you need them, or even the more prohormone route like LG Sciences methyl 1-D.

Supplements that are vital for recomp and are affordable: fenugreek, gymnema sylvestre (gurmar), bitter melon, coffee berry, cinnamon, and taurine.

Supplements that help with insulin sensitivity but aren’t so vital (meaning if you have more money to put into supplements): r-ALA, ALCAR

What should a multi look like to increase IS?

(Vitamin A and D will come from cod liver oil)
Vitamin E, mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols – 800-1,000 IUs.
Vitamin K – 10mg

Vitamin C, mixed mineral ascorbates or “full spectrum” C – 3-5g (or more if you want)
(Most B vitamins are plentiful in multis, so I’ll only mention ones that may require more)
B6 – 500mg
B5 – 2-5g
Folic acid – 5mg
Biotin – 15-20mg
choline – 1-2g
Inositol – 1-2g

Calcium (lactate, malate) – 1-2g
Magnesium (citrate, malate, aspartate, etc) – 600-1000mg
Zinc – 30mg (or more if zinc tally test shows strong deficiency)
Iron – NONE…in fact, males should probably give blood to decrease blood iron levels to increase insulin sensitivity.
Chromium, GTF (polynicotinate) – 800-1000mcg
Molybdenum – 250-500mcg
Boron – 2mg
Manganese – 7mg max
Selenium – 200-400mcg
Iodine – get lots of it from kelp. Iodine toxicity is overhyped BS.
Trace minerals – Trace Minerals Research has a great supplement in tablet or liquid form…1-3 servings a day.

NAC – 600-1200mg
CoQ10 – 100mg
TMG – 1-2g (if methylation is a problem)

Take 10-20mg of biotin with a large carb meal. If you’re doing a carb load, you can take 20-50mg of biotin throughout the day with meals. Taking things like fenugreek, gurmar, bitter melon, cinnamon, r-ALA, chromium, etc with carb meals is a good idea.

If a carb meal makes you really sleepy, either reduce the quantity of the carbs or choose a slower digesting one. For example, if white rice makes you crash, maybe try whole grain rice, or some sort of hearty sprouted bread. Crashing badly means your body poorly handled blood sugar and insulin…that’s not a good thing. You can increase carbs and the speed of them as you improve glucose control and insulin sensitivity.

How to decrease insulin response to each meal?

-Fish or cod liver oil with meals
-2 tsp vinegar or 4 tsp lemon or lime juice (these are also strongly alkaline forming which helps reduce cortisol in the body)
-Fiber, especially beta-glucans when you are consuming carbs

You should make a list of supplements, then put them in order of most to least important. Include prices in the list. To do this on a budget, shave off the ones on the bottom first, but also see if you can shave off the more expensive ones. For example, r-ALA is great, but expensive. Shaving off that can save a lot of money but you can still get results with cheaper supplements like the fenugreek, bitter melon, gurmar, etc. Doing this you can end up with a list of cheap but great supplements you can take to get your goals and save money.

Sorry if this is disjointed. I was just kinda writing things as I thought of them.

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