Setting macros for a recomp block

Body recomposition — gaining muscle while losing fat — sits in an awkward spot. It's neither a bulk nor a cut, the scale is almost useless as a progress metric, and most macro calculators assume you've picked one direction. Here's a sane way to set it up.

Who recomp actually works for

Recomp is most realistic when at least one of these is true:

• You're relatively new to structured lifting (or returning after a long break)
• You're carrying enough body fat that your body can fund muscle growth from stored energy
• Your training or protein intake has been far from optimized until now

If you're a lean, experienced lifter with dialed-in nutrition, recomp still happens, but slowly — you'll usually make faster progress alternating focused gaining and cutting phases instead.

Step 1: Set calories near maintenance

Start at your estimated maintenance, or a shallow deficit of roughly 100–300 kcal below it. The logic: muscle growth needs resources, fat loss needs a shortfall, and a small deficit lets training direct traffic — stored fat covers part of the energy bill while dietary protein covers the building material.

Two practical notes:

1. Maintenance estimates from any formula are a starting guess, not a verdict. Expect to adjust after two to three weeks of real data.
2. On a recomp, err shallow. A deep deficit protects the fat-loss side but starves the muscle-gain side, and you end up running a slow cut by accident.

Step 2: Put protein first

Protein is the one macro worth being strict about on a recomp. A practical target is about 1.6–2.2 g per kilogram of body weight per day (roughly 0.7–1 g per pound), spread over three to five feedings. Higher within that range is useful insurance when calories are below maintenance.

Set protein first, then split the remaining calories between carbs and fat based on preference and training demands. A common, workable split: keep fat around 20–30% of calories and give the rest to carbs to fuel training. There's no magic ratio — adherence beats optimization.

Step 3: Judge progress by the right signals

The scale is nearly flat on a successful recomp — that's the point. Watch instead:

• Training numbers. Reps and load trending up over weeks is the clearest sign the muscle side is working.
• Waist measurement and photos. Taken under consistent conditions every two to four weeks, these track the fat side.
• Weekly average weight. Daily weights whipsaw with water and food; only the weekly average means anything here. Slightly down or flat is on plan.

Give the setup a full month before adjusting. If the weekly average climbs steadily and the waist does too, trim 100–150 kcal. If strength is stalling and you're dragging, add the same amount back.

The honest takeaway

A recomp block is just maintenance-ish calories, aggressive protein, progressive training, and patience with a scale that refuses to tell you a story. The numbers above are starting points — your logged data over the first month matters more than any calculator's output.

Ugoku ties nutrition targets to your actual training load and shows your weight trend alongside intake, which is exactly the view a recomp needs — but a notebook and a tape measure work too. The method is what matters.