Changing your body composition involves altering the amount of muscle and fat you have in your body. In modern society, favourable body composition changes are often described as an increase in muscle and a decrease in body fat. This allows you to accentuate the parts of your body that are conventionally appealing.
I’ve made it known in the past that I have misgivings about training with an excessive focus on body composition. I’ve written about fitness transformations and the effects of a negative body image on motivation. As a result, I mainly focus on strength training and gym habits on this blog.
However, I accept that there are many people who want to change their body composition regardless. I accept that I cannot simply tell people they’re wrong for wanting bigger arms or a smaller stomach.
If you’re going to do it, it’s important that you do it in the healthiest and most efficient way possible. Here are several things to consider before you embark on changing your body composition.
1. Your “Why” Is the Most Important Thing
Your motivations and values have a huge impact on your happiness. Whether you’re trying to gain weight, lose weight, build muscle or get lean, the most important thing is understanding what is driving you to do so. Having the right reasons for pursuing your goals can make all the difference between achieving them or not, and how you get there.
It might be that you are motivated to change your body for someone else: to impress a partner or friends, or to gain approval on social media. This extrinsic motivation may not align with your deeper values (socializing, enjoying nice meals, etc.) and therefore may not be powerful enough to make you stick at the habits that would get you to your goals. However, these extrinsic motivations are still powerful enough to make you feel ashamed for not looking how you think you should look.
It’s easy to internalize very strong negative feelings about our appearance. We’ve all grown up with years of positive reinforcement surrounding muscular men and “toned” women in our media. This deeply affects our world view about what is acceptable and, more importantly, unacceptable. These feelings can be difficult to explore, but if you’re feeling negative about your current appearance then you owe it to yourself to challenge your thoughts before embarking on a long-term fitness journey.
It may be a good idea to start practicing body neutrality. You can find out more at the bottom of this article.
2. Muscles Only Change In Limited Ways
Muscles can either grow (hypertrophy) or shrink (atrophy). We can increase or decrease the amount of fat on top of a muscle). With a targeted approach we may be able to target certain fibres of a muscle more than others, but any aspect of a muscle’s appearance are only products of these adaptations.
However, marketing and media are full of terms like “toning”, “lifting”, and “sculpting”. These create the perception that there are multiple ways to alter the appearance of your body. This is coupled with claims that so-and-so exercise will give you a chest or butt like that of your favourite celebrity. These things are usually determined by one of 3 factors:
- Muscles growing or shrinking;
- Having more/less body fat sitting on top;
- Things we can’t control such as bone structure and genetics.
All this means that people and brands promising to alter the shape or quality of your body parts are misleading you and overcomplicating the process. Don’t get suckered in by dishonest marketing, and don’t compare your body to your favourite celebrity or athlete.
3. Weight Loss is Simple, Maintaining it is Complex
The Good News
It has been well-established that weight loss occurs when the body is consuming less energy (measured in calories) than it uses in a day. This gap between consumption and use is often referred to as a calorie deficit. This simplifies things because it means that all the diets and meal plans you see advertised are working on the same principle, whether they admit it or not. This also means you can focus on finding the one that fits your lifestyle.
The Not-so-Good News
As much as we simplify the process of losing weight, it’s everything else that’s quite complicated. I’m talking about monitoring your food intake, consuming calories in a way that makes you feel full and happy, and selecting meals in a way that is efficient for your wallet and your time. Bearing this in mind, there are some important things to consider:
- You really, REALLY should be sure that you’re trying to get leaner for the right reasons (back to point 1). Don’t do it out of shame, or the need to be accepted. Your body does wonderful things for you every day, and you will never get the time back that you spend restricting yourself and chasing a look that won’t guarantee you happiness.
- Anything that offers you an easy shortcut to weight loss is probably sacrificing your health or happiness.
- There is a fine line between appropriate weight-loss behaviours and disordered eating behaviours. If you suspect you may have adopted some unhealthy habits, you should seek help and advice (see below). We may typically associate disordered eating with excessive thinness, but this only accounts for a small percentage of people who actually display disordered eating.
This last point is obviously a complex topic, and one that I am not best qualified to discuss further. The UK’s eating disorder charity, Beat, offers a national helpline 365 days a year. I am not affiliated with them, or incentivised to promote them in any way.
The main point for this whole post is that your appearance should never come at the expense of your mental or physical wellbeing. The reward of conforming to society’s physical standards is, at best, a shallow one. Being able to celebrate your body and its abilities is one of the greatest things you can achieve, regardless of how you look.
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