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Thread: Stopping A Fat Loss Diet

  1. #1
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    Default Stopping A Fat Loss Diet

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    Over the last 9 weeks, I've dropped from 208lbs to 200lbs (mid 20's % BF to low 20's) using a pretty moderate approach. 2200 calories, 40% carb, 35% protein, 25% fat. There was one week when I was traveling and pigging out on local food, so that explains the slightly less than 1lb/week rate.

    My question is about whether it's a good time to take a maintenance phase, or whether I should keep going. I'd like to get down to about 185-190 (roughly 15% bf) before I go back to a slight surplus and higher volumes to build muscle.

    Considerations:

    1. I don't feel like I have much in the way of psychological diet fatigue. It's been pretty easy so far, and I'm not having very many cravings. This makes me think I could probably keep going.
    2. My appetite is pretty small, and I am not super hungry all the time. This makes me think my metabolism is slowing, which makes me think I should maybe take a break.
    3. My energy levels fluctuate between ok and poor, but never high. I typically eat a carb heavy meal before training, and my volume isn't super high, so I can typically get through them without too much trouble...although I did get pretty dizzy yesterday grinding my last rep of the 5th set of presses, which never happens when I'm eating enough.

    So I'm conflicted. What do you think Mr. Santana? Take a maintenance phase for a 2-3 weeks, or just keep trucking?

    Thanks

  2. #2
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    How strong are you?

  3. #3
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    Early intermediate

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    Height?

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mitchell Smith View Post
    Early intermediate
    How strong are you?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by danomite! View Post
    Height?
    5'8"

    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    How strong are you?
    Not particularly strong. Early intermediate in all lifts but the squat, which is back in Novice stage. Currently regaining some strength after knee and shoulder injury layoff. Here are my current figures.

    Press - 115 x 5 (best press is 175 x 1)
    Bench - 195 x 5 (best bench 220 x 5)
    Squat - Unknown, probably like 225 x 5 right now, finished LP at 285 x 3 x 5 last year before getting injured
    Deadlift - Probably ~315 x 5 (best pull is 405 x 1)


    Current program (on 2nd week) is the High Intensity/Low Volume Split Routine from page 154 of PP3. Press/Bench is programmed as written. Squat is changed slightly. I run 5x5 squats on both days and add 5lbs each time (essentially a 2 day linear progression) instead of the intensity/volume split. The idea is to essentially do LP for the squat since it's lagging so much, and use the intermediate programming for the other lifts. I'm sure my strength on Bench/Press/Dead will return quickly, but my squat kinda always sucked so I expect it to take longer, thus the idea of putting it back to LP.

    Program: Rehab Program - Google Sheets

  7. #7
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    I am not entirely convinced that your deadlift is intermediate. What's going on there?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    I am not entirely convinced that your deadlift is intermediate. What's going on there?
    It was out in front of the squat big time for my entire training history. I did 5/3/1 for a while after LP and was training with 340-370 for work sets, and 315-335 for like 5x5 or 5x10 back off sets. I didn't realize at the time though that this was generating so much back fatigue that it was greatly hindering my ability to progress the squat.

    It's just fallen off a bit from not training. I was working with a PT to correct my rather severe anterior pelvic tilt(which had caused my knee issues), and he had me take a short hiatus from pulling. I pulled 315x5 last week and it just felt weird (new pelvic position and I'm dieted down) so I decided to back off the weight and do a run up from like 285x5 adding 10lbs/week until I got my groove back. I expect to be back pulling 350+ very soon.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mitchell Smith View Post
    It's just fallen off a bit from not training. I was working with a PT to correct my rather severe anterior pelvic tilt(which had caused my knee issues), and he had me take a short hiatus from pulling. I pulled 315x5 last week and it just felt weird (new pelvic position and I'm dieted down) so I decided to back off the weight and do a run up from like 285x5 adding 10lbs/week until I got my groove back. I expect to be back pulling 350+ very soon.
    This makes more sense. Get it back up there, it will go a long way. On the same token don't squat yourself out of a deadlift either. You need both

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    This makes more sense. Get it back up there, it will go a long way. On the same token don't squat yourself out of a deadlift either. You need both
    So my plan (unless you have a better idea) is to go ahead and cut this diet off now instead of continuing. I plan to add ~200 calories/day back into my diet each week until my weight starts staying the same (instead of just dumping 1000 extra calories a day back into the diet). From there, I plan to just run a maintenance level diet for a while (6 weeks or so probably) and treat this time like a strength block, using the program detailed above. After that's done, then I might drop the intensity a little, up the volume, and go hypocaloric again aiming for 185-190. Or, if my strength is continuing to improve without needing to be in a surplus, I might just ride that wave until it crashes...

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