Recommended Minimum carbs for Overweight 39 yr old.

[Rich Pauley]

Age: 39
Sex: Male
Training history: 3 weeks training (SSLP) after abut a 1yr layoff. Previous SS attempt ended with 405# Squat and DL working sets and 275# Bench Work sets and 165# Press work sets.
Current weight and BF% estimate: 325# @ >35% 6ft tall.
Current calorie and macro totals (if known) unknown focusing on minimal carbs with lots of meat, eggs, and veggies with some fruit and rice.
Your question: what is your minimum recommended carbohydrate intake to not interfere with training and still lose weight.

[Robert Santana]

Age: 39
Sex: Male
Training history: 3 weeks training (SSLP) after abut a 1yr layoff. Previous SS attempt ended with 405# Squat and DL working sets and 275# Bench Work sets and 165# Press work sets.
Current weight and BF% estimate: 325# @ >35% 6ft tall.
Current calorie and macro totals (if known) unknown focusing on minimal carbs with lots of meat, eggs, and veggies with some fruit and rice.
Your question: what is your minimum recommended carbohydrate intake to not interfere with training and still lose weight.

Thanks for posting Rich! So, there is no hard number and this is going to vary across individuals, but as a general recommendation i tend to see performance hold up well when they are at 300 or more for males.

[Marenghi]

Hmm, do you mean 300g of carbohydrates?
I agree its a fine number for performance, but it may be hard to maintain for weight loss in slightly overweight people.
However, forgive me for being frank, youre clearly overweight, Rich, and thus you have a higher energy expenditure. That means you could eat 300g and still lose weight. If you want to choose maximal performance over maximal weight loss. Id take a middle ground between the two in your place.

[Robert Santana]

Hmm, do you mean 300g of carbohydrates?
I agree its a fine number for performance, but it may be hard to maintain for weight loss in slightly overweight people.
However, forgive me for being frank, youre clearly overweight, Rich, and thus you have a higher energy expenditure. That means you could eat 300g and still lose weight. If you want to choose maximal performance over maximal weight loss. Id take a middle ground between the two in your place.

Rich, you're also squatting 405 for a set of 5. Males who squat 405 for a set of 5 burn more calories than males who squat 205 for a set of 5. There is also this to consider. However, yes the more overweight you are the more you can get away with. If you are overweight and strong you can get away with even more.

[Rich Pauley]

Those were lifts from my previous attempt at SS just to give history of lifting. I had a layoff of about a year and just started back up lifting again about 3 weeks ago. Current lifts today are 315 DL, 275 SQ, 195 Bench/Rows, and 105 Press. I’m making steady progress. Weight loss is the primary goal for sure. I just don’t want to go so low in calories as to sabotage my LP.

[Fast Eddie Rochester]

Hey Rich, I'm in a similar boat liftwise and weightwise. I've found I feel best right around 100-130g. Lower than that and I feel grindy in the rack. I'm eating @ 2400 a day and weight is coming off slow but steady.

[Robert Santana]

Those were lifts from my previous attempt at SS just to give history of lifting. I had a layoff of about a year and just started back up lifting again about 3 weeks ago. Current lifts today are 315 DL, 275 SQ, 195 Bench/Rows, and 105 Press. I’m making steady progress. Weight loss is the primary goal for sure. I just don’t want to go so low in calories as to sabotage my LP.

Since you ran it up pretty far before chances are you can get away with “less” for now because these lifts are light in relation to what you are capable of but ultimately when you start getting to limit sets again you’ll start to feel the effects. At the end of the day you need to start somewhere and adjust from there based on how you respond. Try 300 for a week and see where it takes you.

[MattBraunstein]

I’m just going to add a point that seems to have been missed. If you really are looking to make body composition changes, you need to be tracking your macros. I don’t see how you could accurately do this, unless you’ve had many years of experience already doing this. You just mention that you are low carb and the general foods you eat. But how much protein, carbohydrate & fat are you really consuming? Plus, you need to be consistent with these numbers over a week or two to get a baseline of where you stand and what changes you need to make to progress.

Along with this, would you recommend a conditioning session? It seems like when someone has a significant excess of body fat, you need a little more than just the weight training to spur progress.

[Robert Santana]

Along with this, would you recommend a conditioning session? It seems like when someone has a significant excess of body fat, you need a little more than just the weight training to spur progress.

Not necessarily. I’ve taken guys down from 305 to 205 on a strength program. Conditioning doesn’t contribute all that much to your energy expenditure unless you are doing multiple hours of it. However, biological variability exists and some folks may very well need to do it whereas other will not.

[Robert Santana]

I’m just going to add a point that seems to have been missed. If you really are looking to make body composition changes, you need to be tracking your macros. I don’t see how you could accurately do this, unless you’ve had many years of experience already doing this. You just mention that you are low carb and the general foods you eat. But how much protein, carbohydrate & fat are you really consuming? Plus, you need to be consistent with these numbers over a week or two to get a baseline of where you stand and what changes you need to make to progress.

All true although his question was specifically referring to carbs.