Caloric Deficit and Growth

[crop9]

Coach, I want to thank you in advance for the support and guidance you've provided this forum. I have searched to see if there is an answer that is applicable to my situation but haven't seen one (if there is one I've overlooked I'll gladly read that instead of wasting your time!).

General recap: I'm 36, been doing starting strength since middle of January. After 12 weeks of starting strength I needed to get some life insurance and the price was quite high and has driven me to focus on dropping weight as quickly as possible and then revisiting the NLP. I tried to continue on my progression and recovery became an issue so I switched to a 4-day split.

Everything has progressed as expected since starting the 4-day split but I'm really struggling to add weight (as expected).

My question is: During the time I'm dropping weight, when a lift stalls, should I just deload and continue and repeat until I'm done or is there a different approach I should do? I think part of this struggle is that as I lose weight, my center of balance shifts and I almost need to re-learn the lifts. It mostly occurs at the 7-10 lbs marks.

Current Stats:
Height: 5'10
Weight: 295 (down from 320 on April 29th). Goal of 220(ish)
Diet: 0.85 grams of lean protein (either chicken or tuna) and a 2-3 cups of veggies (either asparagus, green beans, or green peas), a gallon of water and some pre-workout. I'll admit, there has been a couple of days I've indulged with a handful of gummy worms.


Lifts (Initial - 12 Week - Current): 3x5 for initial and 12-week while current is 5x5 or 2x5 for DL
Bench: 135 - 210 - 220
Press: 95 - 150 - 160
Squat: 145 - 315 - 330
DL: 185 - 325 - 340

[Robert Santana]

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for your question.

It looks like your lifts are going up?? Where are you missing reps?

You are correct, your COM will shift as you lose weight especially near the end when your abdominal circumference really slims down. However, your deadlift should continue to go up throughout the majority of this progression. Squat will see the biggest decrement with press and bench press behind it. Are you doing lat pulldowns too??

My suggestion is if you start missing reps, just either reset and work back up at 5s or try high reps to give the brain a sense of working towards something "new" with the long-term goal to reboot LP as soon as caloric intake is increased post cut. In the past i've typically put weight loss clients on 4 day splits after LP stops working and then put them on a proper LP once calories were increased to maintenance or above. You are essentially "artificially" an intermediate until you can eat again.

[crop9]

Thanks, Coach!

As of right now I'm not missing any reps. My current 4-day is below and I'm still adding 5 lbs to each lift except for DL which is at 2.5 but since I've lost approximately 5" around my waist, the lift is getting "easier". I always start with the intensity lift first and then do the volume lift, followed by the accessory lift. I probably jumped ship too early and still have some room to run; I'm just not sure how much longer.

M/Thr: Bench/Press/Lat Pull downs (which alternate between v-grip and chin-up width)
T/Fri: Squat/DL/Rows (I alternate rows between bent over and cable)

If I decide to do the high volume route, mind if I ask what that might look like? Would I continue to do 5 sets but with a larger number of reps? And how many reps would you recommend?

I hate to ask so many questions, as this is all free advice, but I definitely value your opinion.

Actually, one last question. I am currently following some general advice you advocated in a previous thread surround RFL diet (I think that was what it was called). But in your post you mentioned eating 0.85 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. Recently I read something that advocated something similarly, but it was based on lean body mass. At my current bodyweight of 295, 0.85 would be approximately 250 grams of protein. According to MyFitnessPal my Kroger chicken contains approximately 5.5 grams of protein per ounce and the tuna has about 6.8. This means I should eat a little over 3 pounds of chicken a day or a little over 2 pounds of yellow fin tuna. And to say the least, that amount is rough to consume.

[Robert Santana]

Why are you not adding 5 lb to your deadlift? I have never seen a reason to go less than 5 lb per week on that particular lift. They feel awful after a certain point, that's because they are coming off the floor from a dead stop. Just get better at dealing with that and understanding that the awful feeling is normal.

If you are asking em for a specific program you'll want to reach out via SSOC and look into some online coaching, which I am happy to do. From a general standpoint, more sets and keep the reps at 3-6 if strength is the priority.

250 g protein is a LOT of food yes. That amount sounds excessive. 1 lb of chicken breast will give you ~80-100 g protein (4, 20-25 g servings per lb). That means at 2 lb you'll get 160-200 g ond at 3 lb you'll get 240-300. The issue with this approach is that you are ignoring all of the protein you are getting from non animal sources which certainly counts. I wouldn't base 100% off lean body mass because the wiggle room from using body weight or ideal body weight accounts for non-animal sources that are low in certain amino acids (e.g. methionine, cysteine etc) and the higher needs during cuts.