9 Signs You’re In a Recomp

Have you reached a point in your fitness journey where the scale has stopped going down? For many people, this can be stressful and confusing—especially if you are noticing other signs of fat loss (like your clothes fitting looser). It can be disheartening to feel like you’re making progress, but your body weight doesn’t reflect that progress.

When this happens, does it mean that you aren’t making progress? Absolutely not! It just means that you are likely in a recomp.

“Recomp” is short for repositioning, which means that the amount of your body weight that is fat versus muscle is changing. In general, as you burn fat, your body typically gets lighter and smaller. But as you build muscle, your body weight may go up as you become more dense and strong. As a result, you may see very little change on the scale for an extended period of time.

For some people, this can be extremely distressing—especially if you have used the scale as the primary measure of your fitness progress for a long time. When your body is recompositioning, however, you need to look to other more accurate measures of progress. Learn more and download the journaling guide in this post.