What kind of diet should I choose?

[kaliber]

Hi!

32 years old man, 5'9, 243 lbs.
I had a break from lifting for about one and a half year due to various reasons. Been lifting for several years but have been doing quite shitty programs and didnt discover Starting strength and Rips methods until later on.
In january i started out again following the NLP. Got up to a 177,5 kg squat (391 lbs.), a 97,5 kg bench (215 lbs., and a 180 kg deadlift (397 lbs.). Thought it would be a good idea to start out light and work my way up from there.
However too much stress got up to me and I had a break once more and havent been lifting for 12 weeks but now I like to get back on my feet and going to start put the NLP again. I have been using the RP diet a lot before and are going to use that once again. But I am a little confused on what kind of diet I should choose. I am thinking that I should go with a maintenance to not get fatter but at the same time I am thinking that I should do a muscle gain diet because I am doing NLP and need to put on some muscle.
My plan is to do a weigth loss later on after i put on some muscle and got my strength back up.

What do you recommend?

[Robert Santana]

RP is a balanced diet so I'd go with the fat loss given your strength:weight ratios and BMI (in a useful context). At 5'9" you'll want to be around 200 lb to have good leverage. To get as strong as you possibly can, I can see 242 working but you are a ways out from needing to be that heavy unless of course you are fine with it and want to leverage it now. Just depends on which tradeoffs you are comfortable with.

[kaliber]

RP is a balanced diet so I'd go with the fat loss given your strength:weight ratios and BMI (in a useful context). At 5'9" you'll want to be around 200 lb to have good leverage. To get as strong as you possibly can, I can see 242 working but you are a ways out from needing to be that heavy unless of course you are fine with it and want to leverage it now. Just depends on which tradeoffs you are comfortable with.

Thank you for your answer Robert! Yeah i relly would like to loose some weight. I've just been worried that I don't going to make efficient gains if I go straight for a weigth loss diet along with NLP or that I won't be able to preserve muscle mass. My plan over the long run is to eventually compete in a meet. I am comfortable to keep my weight for a while if that is the best method in terms of training efficiency.

[Robert Santana]

You fall in the category of the guy who can lose weight and get stronger. So I'd do that now and get it over with while you still can.

[kaliber]

Yeah I guess you are right Robert! I started out my weigth loss phase now and are aiming for a 6 kg weigth loss in 8 weeks. After that I'm going to do a about 8 weeks long maintenance phase after that and then continue with another weigth loss phase. And then see where I should go from there. What do you think of that?

[Robert Santana]

Try it out and see how it goes.

[kaliber]

Many thanks to you Robert from Sweden!

[Robert Santana]

You are welcome from Arizona.