Recomposition vs Adding Mass

We’ve all heard people talk about turning fat into muscle, or turning muscle into fat, and we’ve alway hated them. We know alchemy doesn’t work! But in the last few years I’ve noticed something pretty odd: my body doesn’t like changing mass. I’ve noticed, however, that if I let my diet go to hell, stop going to the gym and fatten myself up for a while, it takes me a few weeks to change my body composition back towards lower bf, but I stay at the higher bodyweight.

Just recently, I added a fair bit of fat to my frame and gained some weight. In the couple of weeks, I’ve been pretty unhappy with how fat I was getting, and decided to do a quick little cut. Well, 1 week into it, I’ve lost less than 1 lb, but my bf has dropped a fair bit, and my waist has gotten abour 3/4" smaller.

In the past, I’ve noticed the same pattern, where my fat loss and muscle gain occur at exactly the same rate, so my weight doesn’t move even though I’m getting visibly leaner and more muscular. Anyone have any thoughts as to what may be going on here?