Episode 40: What to Do if the Scale Stops Moving (9 Signs You’re In a Recomp)

Trainer Tips

Feb 24

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Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I give some tips for navigating a stage of your fitness journey called the “recomp.”

A recomp is a period of time when your body both burns fat and builds muscle, changing your body composition. During a recomp, the scale may not show significant changes, which can be mentally challenging for those who are used to tracking progress through weight loss.

It can be easy to assume that you have stopped making progress. But in this episode, I outline nine signs of progress to look for while you’re in a recomp, such as changes in body measurements, clothing fit, muscle definition, stable or fluctuating scale numbers, increased energy, improved workout recovery, visible progress in photos, reduced body fat percentage, and better health markers like resting heart rate and cholesterol levels.

If you’re struggling to see your progress while in a recomp, I also give some tips for keeping yourself motivated in your fitness journey while the scale doesn’t move.

For additional support, consider joining the Gains Club membership on my website! I post new content every week for improving your health and fitness--including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Check out jaydigains.com to sign up.

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Jayd (00:00):
If the scale isn't moving or if it's just kind of fluctuating a little bit up and then a little bit down, that is a really good sign that your body is where we want it. It's doing both burning fat and building muscle at the same time. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. Today we're going to be talking about what it feels like and looks like when your body is in what we call a recomp. So a recomp is short for repositioning, and it's that tricky time in your fitness journey where you're doing both building muscle and burning fat at the same time, and so progress can often feel really slow, and if you have been on a really long fat loss journey where you have lost a lot of weight, this period of your fitness journey can feel really hard, especially because up until now you have probably used the scale as the primary way of measuring and tracking your progress.
(01:07)
But when your body is in a recomp, when you're repositioning your body building muscle and burning fat at the same time, you might notice that the scale doesn't move very much and sometimes it may actually go up. And what I found over the last couple of years is that this is just really hard on the mental for many of my clients, especially if they've already lost a lot of weight or if the weight loss was their primary goal when they first started their fitness journey. So today what I'm going to do is share with you nine signs that your body is in a recomp, and then I'm also going to share some tips for how to overcome the mental block that often comes with being in a recomp stage. Now, keep in mind that this podcast episode has a post that goes along with it that has a lot more detail, as well as a guided worksheet that you can download and use to journal to help yourself overcome any mental hurdles that you might have as a result of being in a recomp. And you can find that on my membership site. Just go to jaydigains.com or jaydharrisonfitness.com. Without further ado, let's take a look at nine signs that your body is in a recomp.
(02:27)
The number one thing that you'll likely notice if your body is in a recomp, changes in your body measurements. Now, the scale itself, when you step on the scale in the morning and you weigh your actual body weight may not change very much, but it's your body measurements that will really tell you whether your body is burning fat and building muscle. So when you're in this stage of your fitness journey, it's really important to make sure that you are taking your measurements regularly, especially the measurement of your waist and your hips. Waist to hip ratio is at this stage, a much better indicator of progress in terms of fat loss than stepping on the scale. So as you lose belly fat, you should over time see the number of inches or the number of centimeters of your waist go down. Now, ideally, if you want to shoot for a specific goal when it comes to the measurement of your hips and your waist, generally speaking, what we see as a healthy waist to hip ratio is 0.85 or below for women and 0.9 or below for men.
(03:35)
So that's a good goal to shoot for when it comes to your measurements. While your body is in a recomp, you may also notice that your clothing fits differently. You may see that your pants are fitting a little bit looser or maybe you need to change how you buckle your belt in the morning. These are all good signs that your body is repositioning even if the scale isn't moving. Another thing that you might notice if you're in a recomp is that you have an increased amount of muscle definition. You might be able to actually see your muscles better and notice them more than you did before. I tend to see this more often in the shoulders and the arms as well as in the legs. Those are the two areas that you're more likely to see more muscle definition happening. If you are really hyper-focused on your midsection or the abs, then just know that that's going to take a while for you to see visible abs.
(04:28)
You have to have a pretty low body fat percentage for you to see visible abs, especially as a woman. But take a look at your arms and your legs. Those will tell you whether you're recomp. You'll see muscle definition come much faster in those areas. You may also begin to see veins and muscle striations that maybe weren't there before. This is also another good sign that you're building muscle and burning fat. Number three, another sign that your body is in a recomp is that when you step on the scale day to day, you see a stable or slightly fluctuating number. And I know that this is kind of hard for a lot of people mentally to see the scale not moving, but that's actually a really good sign if the scale isn't moving or if it's just kind of fluctuating a little bit up and then a little bit down.
(05:15)
That is a really good sign that your body is where we want it. It's doing both burning fat and building muscle at the same time. Remember that as you burn fat, of course your body is going to weigh less because you're carrying less bulk. At the same time though, when you're building muscle, muscle is pretty heavy, but it's much denser, it takes up a lot less space than body fat. So one pound of muscle is much smaller, takes up a lot less space than one pound of fat. So while you're in a recomp and you're doing both at the same time, that's why you're probably noticing that the scale isn't changing much, but your measurements are changing, your clothing is fitting much looser. So really try not to get hung up on the number on the scale. In fact, if you see that the scale is stable or fluctuating slightly, my recommendation for people who have a really hard time with seeing the number on the scale every day not changing is to just put the scale in the closet for a while.
(06:17)
If you are seeing these results, that means that you are doing what you need to be doing on a day-to-day basis. You're working out the way that you should, you're eating the way that you should, so don't change anything about what you're actually doing in the gym or how you're eating, but just put the scale away. You don't need it at this point to measure your progress. You just need to keep doing what you're doing, right? So if it's really bothering you to look at the scale, then don't bother with it. That's what I would recommend and that's what I tell my clients. Now. Some people feel really relieved to hear that and just like fuck that thing and put it away, but more often than not, I find that people really struggle to let go of the scale and let go of the reading it every day because they become just so hung up on seeing that those numbers go down and it's almost like an addiction.
(07:09)
They're addicted to seeing those numbers go down all the time. And if that's the case, you really have to work on changing your mindset. You really have to focus on seeing yourself and your body differently, and the goal is different from what it used to be. And we'll talk more about that when we talk about what to do if you're struggling with a recomp in a little bit. Another really good sign that your body is recomp is that you have more energy and you're recovering better from your workouts. You may see less soreness in your muscles after you're working out, and then you also may have more energy throughout the day within your workouts. You might feel really strong and really energized and then you don't feel quite as tired when you're done with your workouts. This shows us that you have the right amount of energy in your body through what you're eating to build muscle effectively.
(07:58)
Remember that when we're in really steep calorie deficits, when you're not actually getting as much energy through your food as your body needs, it's very common to feel really, really tired and have a hard time recovering from the gym. But if you are seeing your measurements going down and you have more energy and you're performing well and recovering well from your workouts, that's a really good sign that you're in that sweet spot where your body is doing both building muscle and burning fat. Number six, if you are in a recomp, you will likely notice changes in your progress photos on a week by week basis. It is really important to take progress photos. I know it's not everybody's favorite strategy, but it can be so helpful, especially when you are in this state of a recomp where you're having trouble seeing your progress, looking at your photos side by side on a week by week basis, especially over the course of six to 12 weeks, you should be able to see noticeable differences from where you started a few weeks ago to where you are now.
(09:01)
And that can be really helpful to look at, especially when you're not seeing the scale move and you're feeling like, am I making any progress? When you look at your progress photos, you should notice that there's more visible separation between your muscles. You should look leaner and have more muscle definition. If that's what you're seeing when you look at your progress photos, that's a great sign that you are right where you need to be in your recomp. Number seven, I think it's a really great idea if you have access to a way to measure your body fat percentage. This can be a really great way to track your progress. If you see that the scale isn't moving, you can use body fat calibers. You can do a DEXA scan. The place where I work has something called a fit 3D scan. All of these are ways for you to track and see what your body fat percentage is.
(09:50)
Now they all have a standard rate of error, so they're not going to be 100% accurate. But if you take these tests fairly regularly under the same conditions every time, like take it at the same time of day, maybe not have food beforehand, probably do it in the morning, you should see a pretty consistent trend towards the body fat going down when you do these types of scans. So body fat percentage, looking at that and seeing that go down, even if the scale isn't going down, is a great way for you to know, Hey, I'm in the right place. I'm burning fat. When you do these scans, you should also see that you are either maintaining your lean muscle mass or your lean muscle mass percentage is increasing. These are all really good signs that you're where you need to be in your recomp. And number eight, another sign that your body is in a recomp is that you just feel like you move better in your cardio.
(10:43)
Just like with your strength workouts or in your muscle building workouts, you might notice that you have more energy, that you're able to recover better, that you're able to work out for longer and that it just doesn't feel quite as hard. You may also notice that activities of daily living that maybe were difficult for you a few months ago, like hiking or going for long walks or cardiovascular exercise like hi, doesn't feel quite as hard as it used to. This is another really good sign that you're in a recomp. And number nine, if your health markers are also improving, this is a good sign that you are making progress good health markers to look at is your resting heart rate. In general, as we get healthier and fitter, our heart becomes more efficient at pumping oxygen to our muscles. Our heart has to work really, really hard when we're overweight and we have a lot of fat because there's a lot of area to deliver blood to.
(11:40)
But as you burn fat and build muscle and become leaner, then your heart doesn't have to work quite as hard. At the same time, your heart gets stronger through exercise. So if you see your resting heart rate go down over the course of a couple of weeks or months, that is a good sign that you're making progress in your fitness and in your recomp. Other markers to look for is blood sugar levels and cholesterol. These should also improve, and if you do see them improving that, that lets you know that you are making progress. Now, I do want to say that a recomp is for many people the goal. Many people like to do both building muscle and burning fat at the same time because most people have the goal of looking toned and what it means to be toned is having a lean body that looks strong and that lean strong look many people refer to as toned is a result of building muscle and burning fat.
(12:37)
Professional bodybuilders a lot of times will go through different blocks of their training and their nutrition focus where they will be specifically focused on burning fat, and that would be called a cut face where they're trying to cut calories and cut fat versus being in a bulk where they're specifically focused on building muscle, they're eating a calorie surplus and working out to build muscle. So a lot of times people will kind of alternate between periods of bulking and cutting, and that can be very helpful if you don't really want to worry about tracking too carefully. If you want to be more relaxed with your diet and just focus on getting enough protein, if you're really trying to build muscle and maximize muscle gains, being in a bulk is a really efficient way to do that. But when we are eating calorie surplus, it's not uncommon for your body to put on a little bit of fat in addition to the muscle that you build.
(13:34)
And so what often happens after an extended period of being in a bulk and building muscle, people will transition into a cut phase where the goal is to retain as much of the muscle that they've built during the bulk while burning fat. So they will transition slowly and gradually into a calorie deficit where they're eating fewer calories than what their body spends. And the goal is to now try to trim off that layer of fat without losing muscle. It's very hard to do this, especially if you are in a very significant cut where you're eating a really low number of calories. If you're eating a really low number of calories, then you're likely going to burn off some of that muscle that you've built. So what a lot of people do, instead of alternating between bulking and cutting, is they will aim to do what's called a recomp.
(14:27)
And a recomp is when you're doing both at the same time, building muscle and burning fat. Now, being in a recomp means that you're going to make slower progress on both sides. Your muscle gains will be slower, your fat loss will be slower, but it is a lot more sustainable for most people because you don't have to be in too much of a calorie deficit where you feel like you're depriving yourself, and you also don't have to worry as much about your body gaining fat like you would in a bulk. So people will often aim for being in a recomp, but they'll aim for their recomp period to be for an extended period of time, like six months to a year or even more so a recomp is a slow way to make progress on both fat loss and muscle gains, but it is at the same time a very sustainable way to make progress.
(15:25)
You're more likely to actually keep the gains that you make from a recomp phase, then you are from cutting and bulking and alternating between those two. What I found with my clients is that bulking and cutting alternating between bulking and cutting just does not work for them on a mental health side of things. I have a few clients that as soon as we say that we're going into a fat loss phase or a cut phase, it just messes with their head. It's really hard for them to be in that mindset, and that's okay. That's not an uncommon problem to struggle with. And so for that reason, I actually do recommend for most of my clients to just really spend most of their time thinking of what they're working towards is a recomp. Now, if they really have a specific goal like competition that they want to work towards, whether it's a power lifting competition or a competition of strength, or if they want to compete on stage for bodybuilding, that is where you do need to get more strict and focused on how you are planning your dieting around your workouts.
(16:36)
But for the average person who just wants to look better, I honestly think that a recomp aiming for a recomp is really the way to go. It is slow, yes, but I mean it's sustainable and it is less difficult on the brain. So I really like recomp periods, and I really think that it's a great way for you to kind of maintain an equilibrium in your life without having to really focusing on cutting fat and being in a cut, which means that you really, really got to focus on tracking your calories and making sure that you're on it with that. And now if you have been in a really long-term fat loss journey where maybe you've lost 50 to a hundred or even more pounds, then eventually you are going to reach a point where your body is going to have to be in a recomp.
(17:29)
You're likely going to reach that point where your weight kind of tapers and just kind of stays the same or fluctuates very, very little amount, and that can be really hard to adjust to when you have been using the scale as the main measure of your progress for so long. That is where I find that people struggle when they are in a recomp phase. It's usually the people who have had to lose a lot of weight and who are really attached to seeing the scale number go down. But I mean, if you think about it, you were eventually going to reach this point at some point, right? You can't just keep seeing the scale go down, down, down, down, down forever. You knew that there was a finite point that that was going to have to end, right? Unless you wanted to just wither away to nothing, right?
(18:22)
It's normal to have several points in your fitness journey, especially if you were on a big long-term fat loss journey where you recomp and plateau while your body is building muscle and burning fat at the same time, and then you go through another phase where it's like a big drop, and then there's another little plateau where you're comping for a while. I actually think that that is a very sustainable and healthy way to approach a long-term fat loss goal. And just going into it, you need to know that you're going to have these periods where the scale doesn't move, but that doesn't mean that you're not making progress. That is a normal part of the long-term fat loss gain. But if you're struggling with fat, if you're really having a hard time with seeing yourself as making progress when you have these signs that your body is recomp, here are a couple of things that I recommend.
(19:12)
Number one, really try to shift your focus from the scale to performance wins. Try to rethink what you think of as progress or signs of progress, right? You are making progress, you are burning fat and you are building muscle, especially if those nine things that we talked about earlier are happening for you. But you need to kind of take your mind off of the scale as the primary measure of your progress, and instead, focus on the things that are actually going to change more frequently on a day-to-day or week by week basis, and that's your performance gains. Being able to do more repetitions of an exercise with the same weight, or being able to add more weight onto an exercise over time, or just being able to do an exercise that was challenging for you. Those are the things that are going to change a lot more quickly than the number on the scale and even the amount of body fat you have and the amount of muscle that you have.
(20:18)
Those are very, very slow things to progress. But what you can see definitive changes on a week by week basis or from workout to workout is how you move and how much you can lift or how much you can do a different exercise or how long you can do an exercise. So really focus on those performance wins. I think it's probably a good idea to get onto a specific training program that has a very specific or a couple of training goals where maybe you're trying to increase your one rep max, or maybe you're trying to increase how many reps you can do of a specific exercise and train towards that over the course of a couple of weeks and really focus on that performance goal because the body fat is going to go down, the muscle is going to go up over the course of you just following that program and continuing to eat the way that you're eating.
(21:13)
That's going to happen just by default. It's already happening, right? If you have those nine markers. But what you can do to motivate yourself as really focus on that goal a couple weeks out of being able to do a pull up or being able to do X number of pushups or being able to lift X amount of weight. Number two, make sure that you are using those progress photos and taking your measurements, because sometimes you're not going to see the progress that you're making by looking in the mirror every day because we see ourselves in the mirror every day. It's really easy to miss those small changes that happen on a day by day basis. But when you take regular progress photos, it's a lot easier to see those changes and they seem a lot more drastic. So weekly progress photos is a great approach.
(22:01)
Also, taking weekly measurements where you're taking a tape measure and actually measuring your waist, your hips, your thighs, your biceps, your chest, getting those measurements and tracking those changes over time is a great way to motivate yourself as you're in your recomp stage. Number three, educate yourself on how body composition changes and how it works. The more you learn about how your body burns fat and builds muscle, the more at ease you will be in your mind As you are in this recomp stage, you'll be able to actually understand and appreciate the changes that your body is exhibiting as you build muscle and burn fat. You'll also have a lot more patience for seeing the scale not move. So learn more read up on what happens in the body, what the different mechanisms of burning fat and building muscle are. Also talking to other people who've been on this journey and have similar things happening to them can be extremely helpful in terms of educating yourself on what's normal.
(23:10)
So talking to other people, connecting with other people who are also in a recomp or who also have been on a fitness journey for a while and have been through recomp stages. That can be very, very helpful and comforting you and putting your mind at ease. So just try to learn more about what's going on in your body. Again, I have a post that goes with this podcast in the Gains Club membership site where I go a lot more into detail about what actually happens in your body when you burn fat and when you build muscle. So that's a good resource. Being in the Gains Club is also a great way to learn more about fat loss and what happens in your body when you build muscle. There's also training tips and other things in there, as well as recipes and meal plans to help you along, but learn as much as you can.
(23:57)
That's so important. Number four, try in your mind to reframe your scale fluctuations as normal, and this will be a lot easier when you do educate yourself on how your body burns fat and builds muscle. This as an opportunity to develop a mantra of, it's okay, it's normal, it's okay. It's normal. When you see the scale fluctuating or when you see it staying the same, even try to reframe it as That's good. This is a good thing because when you see the scale not moving, that's one of those key indicators that your body is burning fat and building muscle at the same time. So try to reframe it for yourself and say to yourself consciously, when you see that number change or when you see it staying about the same or fluctuating very small throughout the course of a week, start to actually say to yourself, that's good.
(24:51)
That's normal. That's what I should be seeing right now. Change how you talk to yourself about the number that you see on the scale. Number three, it can be really, really helpful for you to give for yourself three non-scale goals to achieve on a week by week basis to focus your mind on so that you can spend less of your mental energy focused on the scale. So three non-scale wins per week could be like by the end of the week, I want to feel like I'm stronger or using one of those performance goals. I want to be able to do this exercise for this amount of weight, or I showed up and I did my workouts, or I did some cardio this week and it felt really good, or I have improved energy. And really mark those down in your mind. Or if you use a fitness journal, put it in your fitness journal as wins because they are wins.
(25:53)
Your increased energy is a win, your increased performance and how good you feel in the gym and outside of the gym, that's a win. So check that off every week. Whatever those non-scale wins are for you, check them off every week. And I do actually recommend keeping a journal. I think a journal is really important, especially if you're struggling mentally with your fitness journey. And I would say every week try to say, these are and write down, these are my three non-scale wins for the week, and do that every week until it becomes second nature where you really start focusing on those things rather than on the number that you see on the scale. Number six, if you are struggling mentally with the numbers that you see on the scale, that's when I really think you need to break up with the scale, and I think you need to put it away for while because the attachment to it is not helpful for you and it's hurting you probably.
(26:50)
It's not uncommon for some of my clients to become so despondent as a result of not seeing the scale change. It's easy to fall into this spiral where you fall off the plan altogether because you feel like you're not making progress, even though your body is showing signs that you are making progress. The signs that we talked about before, if that's the case, I mean, I'm serious about it, some people really have a hard time putting the scale away, but you need to really think about whether this tool is actually helping you to make progress. Our goal is to become healthier, become fitter, become a better version of yourself, and we use many tools to help us along the way in that journey. And maybe at some point in the past, that number on the scale was a major motivator for you, and it helped you to show up and keep showing up.
(27:53)
But once that tool loses its efficacy, once that tool is no longer helpful for you, then you need to let it go and use other tools that are better and a better measurement and a better motivator for you to keep showing up. If it starts to work against you and make it so that you don't want to show up for your workouts and you don't want to do anything, then that's a major problem. That's a major red flag for me. So I really would recommend for you to just put it away, put it in the closet, don't step on it for a couple of weeks. Let it go. If you really have trouble with it, if you feel like it's a compulsion or an addiction, then throw that shit away. I'm serious. Give it away. Give it to your trainer and say, can you hold onto this for a couple of weeks so that I don't step on it so that I'm not tempted?
(28:47)
You need to treat it as something to stay away from if it's hurting you and you're totally normal for feeling this way. It is very, very common for people to feel this way, but it is okay to let it go. I'm telling you right now, it's okay to let it go. And if you want to mail me your scale, you can send it to my PO box and I'll hold onto it for you for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, and I'll send it back to you. Okay? If you don't have anybody else in your fitness journey to keep you accountable, I'll take it. Okay? Anything to get you back on track and anything to help you to feel ready to show up for your workouts and feel good about your fitness journey again. Okay? Now, like I said before, I do really recommend that you keep some kind of a journal while you are on your fitness journey.
(29:39)
This is important for tracking progress. It's also important for helping to take data of how you're feeling and the different strategies that you try and how effective they are. But you can also use your fitness journal or journaling in general to help you to work through mindset blocks, like the type that we normally see with recomp. So what I've put together is a little guide for you that you can use in your daily journaling or weekly journaling to help you work through changing your mindset around the scale and around your recomp so that you can focus on the things that actually are an indicator of your progress and let go of the scale. So you can find that in the Gains Club membership site in the post that I mentioned before. You can download the journaling guide and use it for your own journaling practice.
(30:43)
Just go to jaydigains.com or jaydharrisonfitness.com. Don't forget that my name is spelled JAYD, not JADE. Or you can just look for the links that are in the description of this video if you're watching on YouTube, or you can look at the episode notes below. So that's it for the podcast for today. I hope that you found it helpful. Please leave a comment in the comment section if you are watching this on YouTube, and let me know what you think, what your experiences have been with Recomp your Body, and also let me know what strategies you found helpful along your journey. If you want to find more content, again, head to my membership site, jaydigains.com. You can also hang out with me when I'm live on my Twitch channel, Twitch.tv/jaydigains. I go live on Tuesdays and then a couple other times through the week when I have time between clients or other things.
(31:38)
Please let me know if you have any questions or if you want any help. I am accepting online personal training clients, so if you're interested in working with me directly, go to my website, jaydigains.com, click on programs, and you'll find information on the different programs that I offer coaching in. Thank you so much for watching or listening. Wherever you are, don't forget to subscribe to my channel so that you don't miss a video. And if you're listening to the podcast, make sure that you subscribe or follow wherever it is that you're listening, and I will see you next time.