Nutrition for Female Body Recomposition Case Study

Client case studies, such as this case study on nutrition for female body recomposition are a phenomenal way to learn how to coach someone. While we teach people how to coach nutrition and become certified Nutrition Coaches, there is just so much to learn and you often need examples to illustrate the concepts. Unfortunately, you can’t really find these online, and it leads coaches to make the same mistakes over and over, and it makes it difficult for coaches to know what to do. They end up feeling lost and unsure. Case studies also help the average person who may find that they have roughly the same characteristics and problems covered in the case study, and thus they get a peak into how coaching may help them solve their problems. As we are very interested in both helping the average person with their health and fitness (this is why we put out so much free content) and we want to improve the health and fitness industry by creating phenomenal coaches, providing free access to these case studies makes sense. So, with that out of the way, let’s get stuck in!

 

Female Body Recomposition Case Study

Emma is a client who wants to lose body fat while increasing her muscle. She is a 30-year-old marketing executive who enjoys working out and already has a decent diet, but she knows she can improve in both areas. She reached out to get personalised nutrition coaching, as she “didn’t want to have to wade through and decipher all the information” herself. In her coaching intake forms, she stated that she wanted to lose some body fat, build some lean muscle and get toned. She also stated that she struggled to find information online about how to create a balanced diet for muscle gain and fat loss in women specifically, and wasn’t sure about the process of building muscle and losing fat.

As a coach, it is important to identify what the client is actually looking for when they engage with coaching. Before we even get started with analysing the actual information in an intake form, we can identify the more meta concepts the client is looking for. In this case, Emma is looking for both a results component (she wants to lose fat and build muscle) and an education component (she clearly highlighted that she struggled to find the information she was looking for). When coaching her (and realistically when coaching most people), you would need to ensure that she is actually building her nutrition knowledge, while getting results. She doesn’t want to come to the end of coaching and realise that she still doesn’t know how to do this herself.

 

Assessing Emma’s Starting Position

The first step with any client is to assess their current position. In our nutrition certification course, we teach a fairly comprehensive intake process to get the information we need, but if you haven’t done our nutrition course, the basic gist is that we need to collect data so we can assess her starting position. This can be in the form of weight measurements, body fat measurements, tape measurements and the more subjective markers of what she thinks and feels about her physique. In this case, Emma felt her muscles lacked definition and that her body fat percentage was higher than she ideally would like.

While it can be easy to get caught up in looking at the data, we also use the intake forms to build out a better idea of what her current lifestyle is like. We don’t just care about where she is currently, we want to know what her daily habits around nutrition, sleep, stress management and exercise are like. Emma was a regular exerciser who primarily did aerobic and light resistance training (she wasn’t confident in the weight room as she felt she didn’t know what she was doing). Her sleep was generally quite good, although her stress management practices could do with some work.

 

Setting Specific Objectives and A Timeline

After going through Emma’s information, we had built out a better picture of what we thought Emma was looking for from coaching, however, at this stage, it is always important to really clarify this with the client. So we discuss her goals, and we tried to make them as specific as possible. Emma had a certain ideal in mind: a sleek, strong physique, and she even had a few images of other women in mind that she would ideally like to look like. We discussed with her why she wanted this, and whether it was an appropriate and achievable goal for her, and we agreed that it was.

This is an important step that often gets missed. You have to dig a little bit deeper into the WHY behind a client’s goal and have a discussion with them about whether or not that goal is appropriate for them at the current moment in time.

Once we had built out a better picture of her end goals, we broke that down into smaller more manageable chunks. For Emma’s goal of body recomposition, we decided that it would make the most sense to spend some time eating around maintenance first, so we could really build some good nutrition habits and get her feeling more confident in the weight room. We would do this for a period of about 6-8 weeks, and then we would engage in a fat loss phase. This would then set the stage for a lean-gaining phase afterwards. While Emma was initially hesitant to commit to just eating at maintenance (she had only ever worked on her nutrition when trying to lose fat, and didn’t really know what good eating at maintenance would do for her), once we discussed how this maintenance phase was there to really allow us to work on her diet and training habits, so we would be able to really pursue her goals in the future, she agreed that she would be willing to at least give it a shot. 

This is the key to body recomposition, especially for women. You can’t achieve everything at once. Laying a foundation first, then allows you to really chase after the goals. It is far harder to work on good training and diet patterns when you are also hungry and don’t have good systems already in place. Trying to focus on fat loss and muscle building at the same time generally doesn’t work. 

 

Developing a Personal Nutrition Plan For Female Body Recomposition

Emma’s diet was actually pretty decent to start with. Despite having a self-confessed sweet tooth and a tendency to overeat when stressed, she ate a generally balanced diet. Emma had noted in our discussions that she didn’t want to end up being one of those people who just eat chicken, broccoli and rice out of a lunch box. She wanted to be able to eat foods she enjoyed, while also acknowledging that sometimes there would have to be trade-offs. Starting with a maintenance phase with the diet allowed us to really work on her nutrition practices, and build out her nutritional knowledge. 

To get her nutrition started, we used myfitnesspal to track her current diet for a week, and then we set calorie and macro targets for her to aim for the next week (read this article if you are unsure of how to set up a good diet). In our nutrition certification course, we teach this method in our Tier 3 Coaching module. Now, Emma already had a decent level of knowledge about nutrition, so throwing her in the deep end with nutrition can often work. However, it is generally a more pleasant journey if we actually identify where we need to focus more and then also create a plan of action to accomplish that.

From the first week of tracking data, we could see that Emma’s calories were actually a bit low mid-week (when she was busy), but then were much higher on the weekends. She also noted that she felt low energy by Thursday, and her perceived energy levels matched her low energy intake quite closely. We also noted that her protein intake was lower than we would like, and that she didn’t really have much protein at breakfast.

So while we gave her calorie and macro targets for the next week, we did also discuss how to solve those two problems. The uneven calorie distribution was an easier problem to solve, as it just involved paying a bit more attention to food intake and trying to ensure a more even spread of calories across the week. The protein intake wasn’t as easy to solve. We decided that we weren’t going to be able to solve it completely all in one go, and decided that if we could at least get breakfast protein sorted, then we would have taken a huge step forward. So we came up with a few breakfast ideas that Emma felt could work for her, and she tried them the next week. 

We spent the next few weeks really working on good diet patterns, and we came up with solutions to the various little problems that Emma encountered along the way. While it isn’t the focus of this case study, we did a lot of work on her training, and got her to a stage where she was very confident in the gym. The maintenance phase was a success, and while we weren’t focused too much on the end result, by the end of it, Emma had built some muscle and lost some fat. So she was already on the way to her goal of body recomposition.

 

Female Body Recomposition

Body recomposition is generally when someone loses fat and builds muscle at the same time. A lot of people would argue that it is when you lose the same amount of fat as muscle you gain, so you end up weighing the same at the end of it all. Now, body recomposition is difficult at the best of times, and realistically, it only occurs in people who are new to resistance training, are coming back from injury or time off from training, or who are using anabolic drugs. It is even harder for women, as they don’t tend to build muscle as quickly as men. This leaves us in a difficult position if body recomposition is the goal. This is where most people mess up with this goal. They try to achieve everything all at once. In reality, most people aren’t looking for body recomposition, they just think that is the quickest way to their end goal. For most people, it is actually the slowest way to the end goal, as you end up not really losing much fat and not really gaining much muscle. This is especially true for female body recomposition. You would be much better off breaking things down into smaller phases, and focusing on one specific aspect of body recomposition at a time. 

So, after we got the baseline diet sorted for Emma, and she had a good idea of what good diet and training patterns looked like for her, we decided that now was the right time to focus on fat loss. We had transitioned away from using calorie and macro tracking after the first few weeks, as we were only really using it as a tool to help us improve the diet. However, now that we were changing the diet and focusing on fat loss, we decided that it was appropriate to utilise that tool again. 

We set a time frame for the fat loss, and implemented a small calorie deficit to facilitate that fat loss. Emma didn’t have to massively change her diet, and she really just ended up eating a slightly smaller portion of the foods she was already eating. She did also try to eat some more high-volume, low-calorie foods, as she didn’t want to get hungry.

We tracked progress over the weeks, notably her body measurements (weight and tape measurements), progress pictures, and her subjective measurements such as energy level, motivation and enjoyment. As we had spent a few weeks eating at maintenance, Emma found the dieting phase super easy. She had really good nutrition habits in place, and while there were specific problems she had to overcome along the way, the diet phase wasn’t difficult as she had really solid habits to fall back on.

After the dieting phase, we transitioned to a gaining phase. Emma had never intentionally tried to gain weight, so she was hesitant to start a gaining phase. Combined with the fact that women tend to build muscle more slowly than men, she was hesitant to eat a surplus of calories. So we discussed this, and agreed that we would take it slowly, aiming for less than 0.5kg of weight gain per month. After the first few weeks, she realised that she wasn’t going to be gaining excessive amounts of fat, and she could see that the extra calories were really helping her to perform in the gym. While we used calorie and macro tracking to ease into the calorie surplus, after a few weeks, Emma was confident enough in her dietary habits to transition away from it. Instead, she relied on her knowledge of nutrition (which she had built over the last few weeks) and the systems she had put in place for her meals. 

After a few months, Emma had made significant progress towards her physique goals and she was confident that she could go it alone. We mapped out the next few months of training and nutrition for her, and then she finished up with coaching. A year later, she emailed to say that she had gone through a very successful gaining phase and another dieting phase, and she was incredibly happy with her physique. We discussed some particulars around eating at maintenance long term, and whether she needed to continue going through these fat loss and muscle gain phases (the short answer is no, you don’t).

 

Specific Problems We Encountered

There are always little hiccups along the way, and I don’t want to make it seem like getting someone’s nutrition sorted is easy. As a coach, you rarely get to see the full picture of how the coaching process plays out and you can be left thinking it is a very easy process, and that some other coaches are just way better than you and always have the right answer. In reality, coaching is a process that is always in flux. You try certain things, see how they work, and then adjust them as needed. Some things will work, and other things won’t. However, as you become more advanced, you will have more tools in your toolbox and you will be able to come up with better solutions.

 

Overcoming a Sweet Tooth 

Emma admitted at the start of the coaching process that she enjoyed sweet treats. Limiting her completely would have been pointless and for most people, it would have just ended in binges. Instead, we went with a moderating method. Emma learned to fit her favourite sweets into her diet occasionally, but we also did some mindfulness practices around these sweet treats. This allowed Emma to actually slow down and enjoy the sweet treats, and to also assess whether or not she did actually enjoy them.

 

Managing Stress Eating

Emma frequently overate as a result of the pressures of her job. We used stress-reduction techniques such as mindfulness, deep breathing, and doing activities she enjoyed, such as going for walks or performing yoga. She realised that stress eating was a coping tactic rather than a hunger response. It wasn’t a problem, rather it was a solution to problems in her life. We just needed to come up with better solutions.

 

Nutrition Knowledge

Emma was unsure of how to properly balance her calories and macronutrients, and she had spent quite a lot of time researching how to set up a diet for women. We discussed the diet more broadly each week, and why we made certain decisions with the diet set-up. Learning about nutrition takes time, and as a coach, you have to help guide your client’s understanding until they get to a point where they feel very confident with their nutrition.

 

Maintaining Consistency in Meal Prep

Meal preparation can be difficult, but it is a lifesaver for busy people like Emma. We came up with some simple and delicious meal prep options that met her nutritional needs. Emma eventually got into a meal prep schedule and discovered that it dramatically reduced her chances of reaching for unhealthy options during demanding workdays.

 

Female Body Recomposition Case Study Conclusion 

Focusing on body recomposition generally just leads people to poorer results. In reality, most people don’t even really want body recomposition, they want to build more muscle and get leaner, but they don’t actually care as much about the route they take to get there. As a coach, it is important to be able to clearly create a plan of action that helps the client actually achieve their goals. You have to be able to educate them on what is possible and what isn’t, and to create a plan of action to help them achieve that goal. This is something that many coaches don’t do, and it generally leads to poorer results.

The key takeaway would be that actually mapping out your client’s timeline and the plan of action will generally lead to better results. But this is only possible if you get very clear on what your client’s goals actually are. This means you will have to spend some time actually talking to your client about their goals and what they are trying to achieve. Helping them to get very clear on their goals and creating a very clear action plan for them will result in much better results.

If you are interested in learning how to coach nutrition, then we recommend getting certified as a nutrition coach. If you aren’t a coach but want to learn more about nutrition, we recommend reading about how to set up a diet. Nutrition is only one piece of the puzzle though, so reading up on how to get good sleep hygiene and stress management practices in place, would also be of benefit. Finally, if you are looking to get help with your diet specifically, then online nutrition coaching may be for you. We also have a number of episodes of the podcast that may be of interest to both coaches and individuals who want to learn more about all of this health and fitness stuff.

 

FAQs On Female Body Recomposition

As I know many people who are not coaches will also be reading these case studies, and many coaches themselves are also interested in developing their knowledge, I just wanted to answer some frequently asked questions about the topic of female body recomposition. As a coach, you have to not only be able to help someone achieve their goals, you have to know if the goals are even possible in the first place. So having a deeper knowledge about a topic can really help you better understand what is actually possible, and potentially also how to go about achieving that goal.

 

Is body recomposition a suitable approach for women looking to improve their physique without bulking up?

Many women do state that they are afraid of getting “too bulky”, they also generally are more afraid of gaining any extra body fat and thus are more likely to look for methods of building muscle without gaining fat. Body recomposition sounds like it is the perfect plan of action as a result. They can just slowly build muscle, while slowly losing fat, and as a result, they won’t get too bulky and they won’t gain extra fat. However, the reality is that by trying to accomplish both goals at once, progress on either goal is incredibly slow and potentially none existent. Most people would be much better off focusing on either building muscle or losing fat, and forget about trying to accomplish them both at once. That isn’t to say it isn’t possible to achieve both at once, however, it really isn’t the most effective approach, and it generally is the longest route to take to actually achieve the desired physique.

 

Are there any specific nutritional guidelines for female body recomposition, such as macronutrient ratios or calorie intake recommendations?

The internet would have you believe that if you just get a specific macronutrient ratio, calorie amount or meal timing strategy, and as if by magic, you will be able to build muscle and lose fat incredibly fast. This just isn’t reality. Yes, getting your calorie and macronutrient needs looked after, and improving your overall diet patterns will likely lead to better results, regardless of the goals, but there is no super secret macronutrient ratio or calorie timing strategy that is going to lead to body recomposition occurring for the vast majority of people. For those that really want to try to get some sort of body recomposition effects, then the main variables are going to be ensuring that you get your calories dialed in, and that you eat sufficient protein. However, these are the two main variables that most people who are interested in changing their body composition need to work on, so there really are no secrets.

 

How important is resistance training in female body recomposition?

Realistically, while this case study has been focused on nutrition, training is going to be a really vital part of any potential body composition endeavour. You can think of resistance training as the tool that tells the food you eat where to go. While you can build some muscle with just sufficient calories and protein (and maybe some walking), the reality is that you need to be doing resistance training to actually effectively build muscle. Following sound exercise guidelines will ensure that you maximise your muscle-building endeavours. However, much like with nutrition, there is no super secret resistance training program that will have you losing fat and building muscle super fast. Muscle gain takes time, and this is especially true for women.

 

Can women effectively build muscle while simultaneously losing fat?

Can women build muscle while losing fat? Yes. Is it the best way to go about things? Generally, no. Building muscle takes a long time, but losing fat can occur so much quicker. You could easily lose a kilo of fat in a week, but even the most genetically blessed and pharmacologically enhanced person out there would struggle to gain a kilo of actual muscle in a week. So, in almost every case, you would be far better to split the overall goal up into phases, and focus on one thing at a time. Generally, this will mean losing fat first, and then spending a much longer time eating in a surplus and gaining muscle.