Cutting Fat

[Rjanderson]

I’m working on a modified LP to get back to previous PRs, which were not that high to begin with. I’m currently at 265sq/280dl/165bp/100press. Other than the dl, these numbers are artificially low due to lingering form issues (hopefully getting coaching and programming soon). So right now, I’m doing LP with a light day on Wednesday. I’m 35,5’8”, 245 and really need to lose some fat to get to around 220. I’m planning to average 2500kc/ with 250p/200c. All that to say, is there a maximum amount of time you recommend eating in a deficit, or just contiue until the goal is reached. In all honesty, I’m not really even sure what 220 would look like on this program. I’m mainly concerned about getting my waist below 40, but ultimately 34-36. TIA for the feedback.

[Robert Santana]

When you say that everything is artificially low except the deadlift are you suggesting that the deadlift is a PR?

I would not stay on a deficit longer than 3 months, 4 tops.

[Rjanderson]

I started with SS in November 2017 but I’ve started LP over again several times after long layoffs. My 3x5 PR is 290sq/295dl/210bp/125 press1.0. I’m now doing press 2.0.

[Robert Santana]

Your deadlift should be higher than that. What's going on there?

[Rjanderson]

The PRs came at various times throughout this journey, usually not together. My deadlift has always been on about the same trajectory as my squat. It's probably been about 2 years now since I attempted 300 and couldn't get it off the floor. It was probably a form issue, but I was also about 25-30 lbs lighter then. In 2016-2017 I lost a lot of weight doing exercises like dumbbell weighted lunges, farmer's carry's, dumbbell bench/incline press, plus a lot of sprints. I was 180-185 lbs from 220 and I was eating mostly vegetarian (not out of some ethical conundrum) and keto. This was when I started strength training but was doing strong lifts before I was introduced to SS. I got some coaching from Alex Kennedy out of Atlanta Barbell and my squat went from 155 (I think) to 290 before I failed at 295. I was eating more protein but probably not enough carbs and my form was shit. On that same LP, I failed the DL at 300. I don't remember what my Bench Press and OH Press were. I'm not proud of it, nor happy with myself, but my training is wildly inconsistent during the 10 months of the school year. Last summer I worked back up to about 280sq/280dl/195bp/125op before I had some injuries, most likely because I was overtrained and didn't have good programming. At that time I was about 230. Now here I am trying to be more consistent, as I have a home gym. This is more for the form checks forum, but I also fucked up my elbows due to squat grip, which prevented my bench press from progressing. I'm hopefully going to see Alex again soon to work on the squat form and to get better programming. I've seen you say to keep trying to push an LP during a calorie deficit and then switch to intermediate. I'm hoping to use something like Andy Baker's suggestion of a 4-day split while trying to cut some of this weight off.

[Robert Santana]

How long have you been squatting (including pre SS) and how long have you been deadlifting? Unless you have insanely short arms and/or small hands I don't understand how your squat and deadlift are the same at the current weight lifted.

[Rjanderson]

About 3.5 years. I fucked around with squats a bit during my teen years and did some squatting doing more of a body part split in my mid-20s. But never anything heavy and always highbar. I don't know what to say other than YNDTP. When I met with Alex, I started at 155 and 185. When I got to 225 Alex switched me to rows, and so I was adding 15 lbs/week to my squat, but only 5-10 lbs/week to my deadlift, depending on whether I dl once or twice. It was not long before my squat was within 5 lbs of my deadlft. My next training session will be 285 (Wednesday) on deadlift and my next heavy set of squats will be 270 (Friday). I will say that I have been severely limited by elbow tendonitis pretty much since the weight started getting above 225 or so. My issue is I cannot seem to keep the bar from moving on my back, which rounds my thoracic spine and cranks my elbows up. It has gotten better recently, but it still aches after a session and my fingers have started to get numb more often. It's odd that this only occurs on the left side of my body. I had a meniscus tear requiring surgery and then an ACL tear requiring reconstructive surgery on my right knee when I was 16, but I can't imagine that still affects me. I'm probably too long winded for this forum.

[Robert Santana]

My guess is that you had more than 185 in you that first week OR you could have moved up faster than you did. A 225 x 5 deadlift doesn't sound like a justification for switching you to rows given where your squat ended up. Common theme that I see in guys that DIY and come to the gym. Now you have to figure out how to push it up without detraining your squat. Probably need to either push heavier because you are sandbagging or start working in some rack pulls to account for the stress induced by the squat. The other thing to mention is that a bigger deadlift will help tremendously with these upper back problems. That and you may just need to go to advanced novice to allow yourself to recover effectively. It's likely that your legs are strong enough but your back is fatiguing during the lift. You can still muscle it up 3 times per week but if your back is rounding and the bar is moving then adding weight and doing them 3x per week is NDTP. The program assumes safe and correct technique to avoid situations like your elbow tendonitis. In other words being able to stand up with it is not the criteria for adding weight to the bar. Performing it correctly is.

If you want to lose body fat go ahead and scale down your fat calories and see what happens. I'd take out 200-400 to start, with most of it coming from fat. Reset your squat, keep pushing your deadlift, and when the back starts to round add the light day in the middle and maybe even do front squats, provided your knee can tolerate them, on that day to reinforce thoracic extension. I've used this approach on several "bar rollers" and it works pretty well. Snatch grip deadlifts for the lighter pull also works.

[Rjanderson]

Thanks for the info. Not that my dl is strong but the reduction in elbow pain does seem to coincide with dl increases. I recently started incorporating RDL on Fridays with rows on Wednesday. Any suggestion what to take my squat down to?

For nutrition, my BMR is 2217 and maintenance is either 3436 or 3048 depending on whether I use light or moderate intensity multiplier. My plan was to do 250p/200c/50 fat M-F and 250/300/100 on weekends, which puts me at about 2500 average for the week. This worked last summer, where I didn’t lose any weight but my waist measurement went down a few inches over the course of 3 months. Is that too much of a deficit?