My Body Composition Shift

For the last year or so, I’ve felt fine—strong, consistent with workouts, eating high-quality foods, sleeping decently. On paper, everything looked solid.

But then I took an honest look at my body composition.
Not the scale.
Not how my jeans fit.
The actual data.

And there it was: about a 3% increase in body fat that had quietly crept in.

Nothing dramatic. Nothing alarming.
But enough to make me pause and ask: How did this happen when I “do everything right”?

The problem wasn’t effort, it was math.

Here’s the truth:
I wasn’t overeating junk.
I wasn’t skipping protein.
I wasn’t inconsistent.

I was simply eating too much fat.

Healthy fat. High-quality fat.

And fat… still counts.

The Sneaky Nature of Fat Calories

Fat is incredibly calorie-dense:

  • 9 calories per gram

  • More than double carbs or protein

When you’re adding:

  • olive oil “glugs”

  • ample amounts of butter

  • handfuls of nuts

  • full-fat dressings

  • higher-fat cuts of meat

  • lot of cheese

And, it adds up fast, especially if you’re not tracking with intention.

I realized my macros were drifting into a place where fat was crowding out the balance needed for optimal body composition for me right now.

My Macro Reset (Not a Diet, a Course Correction)

This wasn’t about restriction.
It was about alignment.

My current targets:

  • Calories: ~1,734/day

  • Protein: ~130 g

  • Carbs: ~151 g

  • Fat: ~67 g

Protein stayed high (non-negotiable).
Carbs stayed adequate to support training and hormones.
Fat came down—not eliminated, just right-sized. Heaven forbid we head back to the 90’s no/low fat craze.

And almost immediately, things felt different:

  • Better training output

  • Less “puffy” feeling

  • Improved satiety

  • Body composition moving in the direction I actually wanted

I have shifted my training over the last few years to have more strength training, less metcons, a fit more HIIT sessions sprinkled in. I plugged my data into a few macro counters and let ChatGPT help fine tune. In the past I have tracked with MyFitnessPal, but realized quickly that using ChatGPT to track was a breeze. I just plugged in what my amounts were and let it do the rest. It would help me pick snacks and give me ideas if I needed them. It was so much faster than using MyFitnessPal.

A Key Realization I See With Patients All the Time

This is the part I think matters most.

Many people are not “doing it wrong.”
They’re doing it slightly off for their current goal.

You can eat:

  • Whole foods

  • Clean ingredients

  • Anti-inflammatory everything

…and still overshoot your needs.

Macros aren’t about control, they’re about feedback. They tell you when your intentions and outcomes aren’t matching.

Goals Change — Nutrition Should Too

A year ago, my focus was maintenance, strength, recovery, and flexibility.
Now, my goal is recomposing slightly—losing a bit of body fat while maintaining muscle.

That requires adjustment.

Not punishment.
Not extremes.
Just honesty.

The Takeaway

If body fat has “snuck on,” it doesn’t always mean:

  • your hormones are broken

  • your metabolism is wrecked

  • you need to overhaul everything

Sometimes it simply means, what once worked… needs tweaking.

And, yes, sometimes the culprit is too much of a good thing. For me? Especially fat.

Tara Woodland