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Losing weight while maintaining strength - strats?

jj80

jj80

Member
What are some dieting and workout guidelines to lose fat while maintaining strength? I don't want my 1rms to drop most of all.

How much should I eat below maintenance calories? Stay at 80% of my maintenance calories?

Is keto a good idea?

Should I make sure I hit my muscle groups twice a week? I would think higher frequency / lower volume might stop my body using them as a fuel source (I read this somewhere but not sure if it's total BS...)

I'm at around 20% BF. I've cut down before but I also lost a fair bit of muscle I think by eating too much below maintenance. Trent's keto guide here looks fairly good but not sure if it's what I want - http://ausbb.com/nutrition-diet/17129-my-exp-keto-clients.html
 
If you want to diet and maintain or gain strength keto probably isn't the best idea.

You want to do a slow weight loss, 2kg a month is plenty and keep carbs as high as you can and still get the minimum amounts of fat and protein.

If weight loss is more than 0.5kg a week increase the calories.

Basically slow weight loss and keeping carbs up is the key.
 
Thanks Bazz sounds sensible.

I had trouble maintaining strength dropping 1kg / week, 0.5kg/week seems more reasonable.
 
I am in the process of doing the same thing, I kicked things off with 5 weeks of keto and lost 10-15% on my lifts, after switching to a calorie defecit with a balanced diet, hitting 150g protein daily, I have got my lifts back up to previous PBs and it looks like I can push them higher.

The main thing you want to do is ensure you maintain the intensity (weight) but perhaps reduce the volume. I cut down on my warmup sets significantly but was already doing 3x5 for most lifts so did not change my work sets.

I started out at 92kg, down to 88kg now after 8 weeks. My BF is above 30% at a guess, your mileage may vary. Currently going for 2000 calories per day, with one or two days per week where I will go as high as 2500-3000.
 
I've been steadily losing weight for 8 months+...about 1kg per month. Strength has improved well...I think a slow and steady approach seems to work
 
You dont actulayy lose strength when uou cut fat. Its just because youre in an energy deficit. When you reintroduce calories and carbs your old strenth will return very fast
 
I find the same problem.

Monday morning I weighted 88.6kg
Thursday morning I weighted 86.1

Height 185cm
lost = 2.5kg
No cardio, normal 2000-2300 C diet, Heavy weights on Monday/Tuesday

Weighed myself same time, (first thing after morning pee pee on both days)

Yet I'm still lifting the same weights, if not improving with extra volume, reps each day)

Such a balancing act to get it right for each individual.
 
Keto is ok,
but probably not neccassary.
If your in a caloric defecit then youll be fine regardless of wheather you consume carbs or not..
 
0ni said:
You dont actulayy lose strength when uou cut fat. Its just because youre in an energy deficit. When you reintroduce calories and carbs your old strenth will return very fast
Click to expand...

Yes, but the original post was about losing weight, not necessarily losing fat, although that is the goal.

I would have thought keto would be better than a higher carb eating plan (presuming the same total Calories) due to the higher intake of protein helping prevent muscle catabolism.
 
do anything but keto/low carb
try and keep your carbs as high as u can whilst being in a deficit so you can maintain performance in the gym -> lose less strength and muscle

as opposed to
50 carbs -> no energy -> shitty ass performance -> loss of strength and muscle
 
niin0s said:
do anything but keto/low carb
try and keep your carbs as high as u can whilst being in a deficit so you can maintain performance in the gym -> lose less strength and muscle

as opposed to
50 carbs -> no energy -> shitty ass performance -> loss of strength and muscle
Click to expand...

Have used Keto

Works well with starting strength and the low rep ranges. I built up to PB lifts while in Keto and then when I added the carbs back moved past my PBs.....

Only bad thing I have to say about Keto was Keto flu

I prefer IIFYM
 
People have dieted down successfully with every possible diet since forever
 
0ni said:
WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT
i DONT EVEN UNDERSTAND
Click to expand...

Simple. It's easy for anyone overweight to lose weight. But for any athlete you want as much of that weight loss to be fat and the least to be muscle. You can try to maximise the amount of fat with your macros and training. In terms of diet you tend to want to up the protein intake.

At the same total calories (and both at deficit) a keto diet will contain more protein than a diet higher in carbs. This can help to maximise fat loss.

You probably don't have to go down to full keto in terms of carbs but I think anyone should experiment with dropping the carbs down and bit rather than keeping it as high as possible. If you find you suffer then you can always bump them up again.
 
Riddles said:
Simple. It's easy for anyone overweight to lose weight. But for any athlete you want as much of that weight loss to be fat and the least to be muscle. You can try to maximise the amount of fat with your macros and training. In terms of diet you tend to want to up the protein intake.

At the same total calories (and both at deficit) a keto diet will contain more protein than a diet higher in carbs. This can help to maximise fat loss.

You probably don't have to go down to full keto in terms of carbs but I think anyone should experiment with dropping the carbs down and bit rather than keeping it as high as possible. If you find you suffer then you can always bump them up again.
Click to expand...

Why should a keto diet be higher in protein than a higher carb diet. Keto is about low carbs, generally replacing the cabs with fat.

Keto diets are terrible for energy levels in most people. Combine keto and calorie deficit and energy levels and workouts go to shit. Not ideal for cuttjng no matter how much protein you have.

Why not get adequate levels of fat and protein and then enough carbs to fuel your lifestyle and workouts.
 
Last edited:
This is a pretty decent explanation from Eric Helms, hes a natty BBer but he powerlifts also, basically if your just looking to get beach lean(not lower than 8%), losing strength shouldnt be a problem unless you drop cals stupidly fast or do something drastic, being moderate with your weight loss is key [YOUTUBE]hlfsM45VQPU&feature=plcp[/YOUTUBE]
 
He says in the first damn sentence that he is trying to lose fat. Whatever youre rambling on about has nothing to do what i am saying. The fuck has macro ratios got anything to do with what i was saying
 
Bulksawce said:
This is a pretty decent explanation from Eric Helms, hes a natty BBer but he powerlifts also, basically if your just looking to get beach lean(not lower than 8%), losing strength shouldnt be a problem unless you drop cals stupidly fast or do something drastic, being moderate with your weight loss is key
Click to expand...

a natty bber who ran a cycle of superdrol lol k
 
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