Prioritise weight loss or not ?

[motorhead]

Hi there, I'm 5'9",46 years old and about 235lbs, I ran the nlp since last October, had some injuries in that time that slowed progress
but now have no injuries and I seem to have hit a wall.

BP 242lbs 3x5 (feels heavy now)
Press 170lbs 3x5 (but have regressed recently to around 154lbs)
Squat 319lbs 3x5 (been hovering here feels real heavy)
Deadlift 330lbs 1x5 (maxed out here too)

I have done 2 resets but cant seem to break through, I'm now missing reps and cant go up in weight session to session.
My dilemma here is I need to eat more to break through but my waist is dangerously big at 45 inches and its the same size
as my chest so I'm shaped like a barrel haha. My diet is not good enough but working shift work I'm really struggling to find a simple
solution for my diet.

So my questions are:
-should I prioritize weight loss over strength gains at this point as I'm getting real worried about my waist size ?
-any tips on a simple diet plan, one that I can pre-prepare ?

I guess I'm just between a rock and a hard place as I need to eat more to progress but it goes straight to my gut...

This has probably been covered before, sorry if it has but I'm desperate...


Thanks

[Robert Santana]

You need to do two things. Get that waistline down to at least 40" with more being better and get your deadlift up to 405 x 5 asap. The fact that it's not there now with the other lifts where they are is a concern. Are you chinning or doing lat pulldowns?

[motorhead]

Thanks Robert.
I've put myself on 2500 calories and will adjust as necessary to get the waistline down.
My deadlift is lagging due to my lower back being the weak point, I've had back pain for many years. Do you have any suggestions on how I can strengthen it ? Currently on Wednesday I do RDL to give it a break and to hopefully strengthen the hams and lower back, but progress has really slowed due to this.

[Robert Santana]

If you can squat 319 @ 3 x 5 then I don't think you have a weak lower back, rather I think there is something wrong with your deadlift technique and/or your programming. Getting into the nuts and bolts of that is beyond the scope of this board though. You are welcome to reach out for a consult though :-)

[motorhead]

If you can squat 319 @ 3 x 5 then I don't think you have a weak lower back, rather I think there is something wrong with your deadlift technique and/or your programming. Getting into the nuts and bolts of that is beyond the scope of this board though. You are welcome to reach out for a consult though :-)

Thanks Robert, not sure if there are any SS coaches here in Australia I'll look into it.
Just squatted 325lbs 3x5 (sets reps), BP 242lbs 3x5, but only managed 1 rep on 346lbs deadlift. Perhaps I am just tired by the time I got to deads, I'm at a loss. To my untrained eye my deads look decent, I'll get someone to look at my form and swap out RDL's on wednesday for some chins.

[Robert Santana]

Your back is likely overtrained from squatting and not getting the deadlift up fast enough early in the SSNLP.