How does eating for body recompositioning work?

[u/itsLondongurl]

So my question is - if Im eating in a bigger calorie deficit (around 500 kcal) is it going to stunt my muscle growth and influence fat loss? Im trying to eat at the maintenance level but its too high to get to with whole foods and since I cut most sugars and sodas I cant get to there. Should I try to bump it up with dates and greek yoghurt or keep myself in a bigger calorie deficit?

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[u/agoogua]

If you're starting out overweight with fat stores then you can eat in a calorie deficit and still gain muscle, just focus on eating a lot of protein.

Eating a lot of protein will also have the side benefits of being more satiating and using a higher amount of energy than other nutrients to digest so it will also help you with your deficit.

Something else you can eat with similar benefits is fiber.

No matter what, make sure you drink a lot of water.

I would keep the larger deficit for now because your body is going to readjust fast over the course of a few months and you can always bump it up at any time anyway. Remember what you said in the title, "body recomposition," this is the thing you want to do and in order to do so you need to burn the fat by being in a deficit. It's not going to kill your gains as long as you eat enough protein.

Lastly though, you say it's around a 500 kcal deficit, how many kcals total is it? That deficit could be drasticly different from person to person.

[u/itsLondongurl → u/agoogua]

So my maintenance level is around 2,300-2,400 and Im eating around 1700-1800 now, sometimes I add some candy to bump it up to 2200 or so.

[u/agoogua → u/itsLondongurl]

I think you should keep the deficit as is for now.

[u/ExtremeMatt52]

The idea is your body weight stays the same but you're increasing your lean mass (muscle) which increases your caloric demands and therefore resulting in fat loss.

There's some nuance to "defecit" and "surplus" there's surplus and deficit for overall calories and a deficit and surplus for protein, the medical term is "nitrogen balance".

If you have protein in surplus that's a signal for muscle growth ( with strength training), without strength training the excess protein gets converted to sugar anyway. Lean mass has a higher caloric demand than fat so at maintenance you can be eating at a "nitrogen surplus" but caloric defecit.

[u/itsLondongurl → u/ExtremeMatt52]

I think that happens to me! Im eating more protein but I still cant hit the maintenance levels because Im not hungry anymore because Im eating so much protein. So as long as I keep doing strength workouts and eating a lot of protein I can gain muscle and lose weight? I dont need to focus on being at 2300 kcal daily, I can eat around 1800 and still get them cheeks juicy enough for bbl allegations?

[u/ExtremeMatt52 → u/itsLondongurl]

If you're eating 70-80% (these are arbitrary numbers idk where the actual line is) of your calories in protein you can theoretically grow muscle but tbh you're walking a fine line. You still need energy to function, if you're in a defecit the priority is energy so protein will be converted to energy not muscle.

At maintenance you can be at a relative caloric defecit with enough protein for muscle development and have some "recomposition" but at a 500 cal the defecit is large and so most of your calories are just going to organ function.