Most people understand the goal. Fewer understand what it actually takes to get there — not in theory, but in practice, session by session, week by week. If you’ve read the blog about what body recomposition is, this is the execution side of body recomposition: how to train, how to eat, and what the process actually looks like when it's working.
The difference between training and training hard enough
This is where most people fall short — not because they lack commitment, but because they genuinely don't know what "hard enough" or training close to failure feels like.
Most people stop a set when it starts to burn. That's the wrong cue. The burn is lactic acid accumulation — a metabolic by-product, not a signal of meaningful stimulus. The reps that actually drive muscle growth are the ones that come after — the ones that require considerably more effort than the first, where the muscle is genuinely approaching failure and form is the only thing holding the rep together.
Stopping five to eight reps before true muscular failure means your body has no real reason to adapt. It's comfortable. Comfortable doesn't change. Even if it feels hard, it's not going to be a strong enough signal for your body to change.
When I review training videos from new clients, the majority are working at sixty to seventy percent of their actual capacity — and have no idea. Once they start genuinely pushing close to failure on compound lifts, the results change immediately. Practically: the last two to five reps of a working set should feel like they might not happen.
The training week: what it actually looks like
Three to four sessions per week. High intensity, low volume. Each session built around one to two compound lifts, followed by two to three accessory exercises. Two to four sets per exercise, pushed close to failure. Full recovery between sessions.
That is it. You do not need six days a week. You do not need two hours in the gym. You need to train with intent, push your actual limit on the exercises that matter, and recover properly so you can repeat it.
The key compound lifts that belong in every program: deadlifts, squats, leg press, bench press, barbell rows, hip thrusts, military press (not all at once of course, but a program should be built around them). These movements recruit multiple muscle groups and joints simultaneously — allowing you to move significantly more weight than any isolation exercise. The heavier, more systemic load is what forces real adaptation. Isolation work supports the compounds (and is great to correct weaknesses and imbalances); it doesn't replace them.
The sessions where you go through the motions don't accumulate — they just add fatigue. Three focused sessions beat five average ones every time.
Why adding cardio is the worst thing you can do
Sustained, strenuous cardio — running, cycling, HIIT — sends a specific signal to your body: become lighter, more efficient, less reliant on metabolically expensive tissue. Muscle is heavy. In an endurance-adapted body, it becomes a liability, and the body responds accordingly.
I've seen this with clients who reintroduce sports like soccer or cycling mid-programme. Strength stalls. Muscle gains stop. Some gain body fat despite changes to their training, because the body receives two contradictory signals and defaults to the one it's receiving most consistently.
Walking is different. Low-intensity movement supports cortisol regulation, improves insulin sensitivity, and aids recovery. What it doesn't do is interfere with your strength signal. Keep the walking. Cut the sustained cardio.
Protein: the number that actually matters
The optimal target for building muscle and/or losing body fat is higher than you'd think: 2 to 3 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight, daily. For a 65kg woman, that's 130–195g. This is the range that supports muscle protein synthesis, preserves lean mass during a deficit, and provides the satiety that makes adherence possible.
Spread it across your meals of course, however 80g in one sitting isn't bad — your body can process more than you think at one time. Quality sources examples: red meat, chicken, eggs, fish (the leaner it is the higher protein it is), Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, protein powder.
There's also a metabolic advantage to protein that tracking apps don't account for. Digesting and metabolising protein burns approximately 20–25% of its calorie value in the process — the thermic effect of food. A high-protein diet carries a built-in metabolic edge that a high-carb or high-fat diet at the same calorie level does not.
Protein is also muscle-sparing — during a fat loss phase, adequate protein is what signals the body to preserve lean tissue rather than break it down for fuel. That makes it the most important nutritional variable when the goal is to lose fat and build or maintain muscle at the same time.
Carbohydrates: fuel, not the enemy
Carbohydrates are your primary training fuel. They are stored as glycogen in muscle and liver, drawn on during resistance training, and replenished through your post-training meal. If you're going into sessions under-fuelled on carbohydrates, your training will suffer — and your training is the stimulus for everything else.
Prioritise carbs in the meals around your sessions: [LINK to /blog/pre-workout-meal] before to fuel performance, after to support recovery and glycogen replenishment. The amount you need depends on your weight, your total calories and macros, and goals, but as a guide, 0.5 to 1g of carbs per kilogram of body weight pre and post workout. Consuming 20g carbs pre-working versus 50g carbs pre-workout is noticeable when you're training close to failure. You will perform significantly better with a larger carbohydrate serving pre-workout. Overall carbohydrate availability across the day is what ultimately drives performance and recovery.
Understanding how calories and macronutrient timing work together is essential to getting this right.
Food quality beyond the calorie number
Two people on identical calorie targets can have completely different results if one is eating whole foods and the other isn't. Whole, minimally processed food produces better satiety, better hormonal function, improved recovery, and more stable energy than the same calorie count from processed sources — measurably so.
When clients shift from processed food to whole food, the change in their body composition data shows up at the next InBody scan. It goes beyond calories, and it's one of the reasons food quality is non-negotiable in this programme regardless of where calories are set.
What progress actually looks like
Meaningful body recomposition takes months, not weeks. The marker that matters most in the early stages isn't the mirror — it's strength. If you're lifting more weight for more reps than you were twelve weeks ago, your body is changing, even in the weeks the mirror hasn't caught up yet.
The women who get the best results train like athletes. They add weight to the bar, push close to failure, eat to support the work they're doing, and trust the process over the long term. That combination — done consistently — is what changes a body.
If you're ready to execute a body recomposition program with this level of detail and guidance, let's work together. I'll build your training plan, dial in your nutrition for your specific goals, and coach you through each phase so you see real, measurable results.
References
Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J. Does training to failure maximize muscle hypertrophy? Strength and Conditioning Journal. 2019;41(5):108–113. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31895290/
Nóbrega SR, Libardi CA. Is resistance training to muscular failure necessary? Frontiers in Physiology. 2016;7:10. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26839533/
Morton RW, Murphy KT, McKellar SR, et al. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2018;52(6):376–384. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28698222/
Burke LM, Hawley JA, Wong SHS, Jeukendrup AE. Carbohydrates for training and competition. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2011;29(sup1):S17–S27. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21660838/
Hall KD, Ayuketah A, Brychta R, et al. Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain. Cell Metabolism. 2019;30(1):67–77. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31105044/
Wilson JM, Marin PJ, Rhea MR, et al. Concurrent training: a meta-analysis examining interference of aerobic and resistance exercises. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012;26(8):2293–2307. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22002517/