Change Your Body with INTENTION

RECOMP vs "the cut" ?

To RECOMP or cut….that is the question

Body recomposition vs cutting depends on your goals.  Do you want to lose body fat or do you want to build muscle? Some people want to achieve both during the same timeframe which is possible but does comes with challenges.  One of these challenges is your view of the scale.  Body recomposition is the process of losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously achieved through the combination of training and nutrition.  During this process the scale should stay the same while body percentage decreases and lean muscle tissue increases.  This is a challenge if your view of the scale and your measure of success is to see the numbers on the scale go down over a set timeframe.  The goal with RECOMP is not to lose weight.  Success is measured by ensuring that the scale remains the same but the composition of your body changes.  

Whether you measure your body fat at the beginning and end, measure your process through photos and/or assess how your clothing fits along the way, body recomposition is not about calorie restriction but maintaining the correct amount of calories to fuel exercise. What ensures that the scale remains constant is when you eat at or close to your maintenance calories so you can both gain muscle and lose fat during this phase.  RECOMP was a 12 week training program that I created which focused on strengthening commonly neglected muscle groups to improve daily function, posture & overall body composition.  You may have followed along this journey via my Instagram stories last fall as I completed my RECOMP.

“BULKING” SEASON…..MANGIA MANGIA

Now if your goal is to get bigger, then you may be interested in bulking which is exactly as it sounds.  I shared last year that I spent the summer “bulking” by gaining 10 lbs of weight which was a combination of muscle & fat.  Bulking is achieved by eating in a calorie surplus which is consuming more calories than your body can use daily.  Honestly there were a number of reasons why I did this and if I could go back I would do it differently. From 2021-2023 I was either developing, filming or promoting Job 1 and it’s offspring (Bike 1 & Job 1 Super Block).  During that time I lost one of the most significant people in my life, my grandfather.  After the last promotional Job 1 event in June, I decided to take the summer off from training completely to reflect and spend time with family and friends.  

That’s the thing I would have done differently: continued training the Job 1 way.  Rather than prioritizing my fitness, the summer of ‘23 was a time with family, a time to travel and time spent enjoying my favorite thing which is food.  My Italian came through loudly as I said “mangia mangia”!  This summer I took great pride in creating “Tate’s S’mores”.  Do you know what a Tate’s cookie is?  If you don’t, you should. Instead of using graham crackers for my s’mores, I used 2 Tate’s cookies and might I say it was life changing.  But as much as I enjoyed the “3 bite dates” (my philosophy pertaining to decadent foods) that turned into summer flings, I also made sure to prioritize protein in order to promote muscle gain. (I have talked about the importance of protein in my prior articles.)

ENTER “the cut”

One may think after gaining weight the goal would be to lose weight, but that’s not always the case.  The opposite of bulking is cutting and so enters “the cut” into the chat.  The reason why I didn’t make my goal to lose weight was so I could rebuild my strength lost over the summer.  After 12 weeks of RECOMP my strength increased drastically and so became the goal to lose body fat to reveal the hard earned muscle.  the cut is focused on losing body fat while trying to preserve muscle mass. 

There are many factors that go into this phase but the main one is creating a calorie deficit by reducing calorie intake and increasing calorie expenditure, the amount of calories you spend a day.  More than calories it’s the adjustment to macronutrients ratios that promote fat loss while preserving muscle mass.  This doesn’t need to be restrictive to be effective. 

More to come about “the cut” in my next article so stay tuned …

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JJ’s Protein Packed Waffles 

As I said, enjoying food is one of my favorite things! My protein packed waffles have 30g of protein and are so easy to make. Most importantly they are delicious!

This recipe will be sent to you via email only to those who are SUBSCRIBED to my substack. So ensure that you are SUBSCRIBED (it’s FREE!) before the email is sent out in order for the recipe to be sent to you.