Rebuilding my healthy habits of eating clean and exercising regularly has been difficult. To take you a little back in time, I stopped exercising in 2019, after having built and maintained a fit body and healthy lifestyle for 5 years. Since 2019, I have tried time and time again to get back on track, in vain. I have to say, my priorities had changed but no matter how small the steps I took to slowly get back into an active lifestyle, I never managed to sustain it, until about a month ago, where I decided I was ready to make lasting change.
This time around, I wanted to do things differently than the way I approached fitness 3 or 4 years ago. In 2018, my main goal was to be lean and fit. So my training schedule consisted of 30 minutes of cardio 5 days a week and strength training five days a week. Today, my goal is to burn fat while building muscle. This is called body recomposition. To do so, I have decreased my carbs intake to about 100g a day, increased my protein intake (I am currently at about 90g a day but my goal is to get to 100g a day), I focus on strength training 5 days a week and only do cardio twice a week.
Body recomposition can lead to weight gain, as muscle mass replaces fat and you are in a caloric surplus, but the number on the scale does not matter to me (I actually never even weigh myself) because I will actually look fitter and will, assuredly, be stronger.
It must be said that I don’t intend on “recomping” for ever. Once I reach the body fat percentage that I am happy with, I will start a maintenance or bulking phase; meaning, I will either maintain my diet and level of fitness in order for it stay as it is, or, for the bulking phase, keep pushing myself to continue building muscle.
Why am I decreasing carbs intake:
I do so because carbohydrates are your body’s favorite source of energy and fat is the second source of energy. Therefore, when you exercise, your body will use carbs first to create energy and when/if it runs out of it, it will use fat. It is easy to understand why a low carb diet can help you burn fat faster: by decreasing your carbs intake, you force your body to use fat for energy instead of carbs, which results in more rapid fat burned.
Why do I increase protein intake:
I do so because proteins are the building blocks of muscles. During a hard strength training workout, muscles are damaged and therefore, muscle protein breakdown occurs, leading to protein loss. Muscle protein synthesis is the process that happens within the 24 hours following a workout, in which protein is produced to repair muscle damage caused by intense exercise. Muscle protein synthesis can be enhanced by increasing protein intake, which will accelerate muscle growth and improve recovery.
Here is my weekly training split:
- Legs with a focus on glutes: 3x a week
- Arms: 1x a week
- Abs: 2x a week
- Cardio: 2x a week
- 2-hour walk on Saturdays and Sundays, which is considered LISS (low impact steady state cardio)
I’ll keep you posted on the results!
