Body Recomposition: how does it differ from just losing weight?

When you hear ‘weight loss’ for most it means losing as much fat as possible. When we think of losing weight we often think about seeing the number on the scale decrease and usually don’t think too hard about what we are losing, assuming most is fat loss. However, if you lose weight too quickly (more than two pounds per week) you may also be reducing your muscle mass. 

Let’s first start off with debunking some myths surrounding weight loss and body recomposition. 

Myth 1: When you lose weight you are only losing fat.

Muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body (other than your organs). This means that it uses more energy, and thus requires more calories to sustain. When you’re trying to lose weight, often by reducing the calories that you consume, your body will get rid of the most energy intensive tissues first – i.e. your muscles. If you’re rapidly losing weight, and aren’t eating enough protein and doing some form of resistance exercise, you’re likely losing lots of muscle too. 

Why does this matter? 

Since muscle burns more calories than fat simply by existing, when we reduce our muscle mass we are actually reducing our metabolic rate. This means you will burn fewer calories on a day to day basis, and therefore need to consume fewer calories to maintain a calorie deficit. More muscle means a higher metabolic rate, which means burning more calories!

Myth 2: If the scale does not decrease, you are not losing fat.

Body recomposition accounts for all fat and fat-free mass that your body contains: bones, water, and muscles. Instead of just focusing on the number on the scale and attempting to drop it, individuals who choose to focus on this method of weight loss maintain a similar body weight but transform their body by having less fat mass and more muscle mass instead.

Why does this matter?

The problem with a scale is that it considers your body weight as a one dimensional number. It does not account for changes in fat and muscle mass. This means that you could be gaining muscle mass and losing fat, but not seeing any weight loss on the scale. It’d be easy to feel frustrated and dejected in this situation. Newer digital scales may track body weight, body water, muscle and bone mass. These scales are not always accurate, but they can be useful to track changes over time.

Myth 3: It doesn’t matter where you get your calories from. Just eat less!

Most of us are familiar with the typical dieting advice. To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Eat less and move more. There are so many ways to put it. You probably heard of them all. Often to determine calorie targets, people might choose to calculate the energy they burn using apps, calculators, and activity monitors. However, calories aside, the foods and drinks we choose to consume can have a huge impact on our weight loss success. It is best to choose healthy options more often like whole grains, lean proteins, and vegetables and fruit rather than high-calorie, nutrient-empty options like pop and potato chips. 

Why does this matter?

Eating high-fibre, high-protein foods helps you feel full for longer and improves your energy levels. Protein-rich foods are essential to maintaining your muscles during weight loss, helping you to improve your body composition. Eating whole foods can also help to meet your vitamin and mineral requirements. 

While people have technically lost weight restricting calories on a ‘fast food diet’, it is highly inadvisable. Not only is it difficult and unlikely to yield sustainable results, it also increases your risk for nutrient deficiencies and other health complications– yikes.

Our recommendation: Ditch the old scale! Measure your body composition changes overtime with better devices.

One of the most accurate means of measuring body composition is using a DEXA scan. However, DEXA scans are expensive and require trained personnel to operate them. A more economical way is by using a measuring tape to measure chest, waist, neck, and hip circumference. Note that this also can have limited accuracy if we aren’t using landmarks to measure in the same place every time that we take measurements. Like we mentioned above, some fancy scales can also do rough estimates of body fat percentage and muscle mass. As long as you track that data, it’s a helpful way to see if your recomp is on track. 

It is not necessary to measure your weight or inches lost on a daily basis. In fact this can have a more detrimental effect on your mental health, because day to day changes are likely to be small, and it can feel like no progress is being made. We recommend checking in with a combination of weight, body measurements and progress photos every month to track your progress. 

Using a variety of measurements while losing weight can lead to more motivation in your overall journey. It is important to get a well rounded perspective of your improvement when you are on a weight loss or recomposition journey. Consider all the tools you can use: a scale, progress photos, the amount of energy you have and the way your clothes fit. 

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8122302/)

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/01/02/the-pros-and-cons-of-weighing-yourself-every-day