Intermediate weight loss programming

[timelinex]

I'm 29. I recently finished novice LP at around 205lb. I am doing the bridge at the current time and am inching towards 210LB. At 195lb I was 25% according to a dexa, so I am probably a little higher by now. I DO NOT care to be a bodybuilder, but I am sick of so much extra fluff. After the run on the bridge, I think I will start losing weight till I get to below 20%.

What programs have you guys had success with during weightloss?

[Pawn]

Can you drop us a link to your training log / give us a summary of where things are at?

[quikky]

I would think an RPE-based program like The Bridge would be fine during a cut. RPE will allow you to adjust the load appropriately as you're losing weight over time.

[timelinex]

Can you drop us a link to your training log / give us a summary of where things are at?

I don't have one online. Heres the best summary I can come up with.

I finished my novice LP at the following stats:
Age:29
BW:207lb

Excercise: Last working set & actually tested 1rm (between the novice LP and starting The Bridge

High Bar squats (had shoulder issues with low bar): 280x5 and 340x1
Deadlifts: 365x5 and 425x1
Bench Press: 242.5x5 and 280x1
OHP: 147.5x5 & 175x1

I'm on week 3 of the bridge. So far I do not feel like I have gained any strength and if anything I have regressed. It's been a battle to get used to the much higher volume and limited wait times. It is only week 3 and the volumes getting a little easier to handle, so I guess time will tell. My wife isn't liking the 2hr+ workout times though. Even with cutting my rest times to 5minutes, thats easily 1:15 just in rest times between working sets.

[Pawn]

Height?

I'm currently doing a 5/3/1 setup for my squats and deadlifts with Texas Method for bench and press.

You are going to need to get used to the idea that progress isn't going to be fast when your goal is peeling weight off.

I wonder why you don't try to maintain your weight and recomp? (it may be answered by your height though)

[timelinex]

Height?

I'm currently doing a 5/3/1 setup for my squats and deadlifts with Texas Method for bench and press.

You are going to need to get used to the idea that progress isn't going to be fast when your goal is peeling weight off.

I wonder why you don't try to maintain your weight and recomp? (it may be answered by your height though)

I'm 6ft tall. The reason I am not just trying to recomp is I don't see how it is a viable plan. As far as I am concerned, my biggest issue isn't that I have too much fat but rather that I just don't have enough muscle yet.

Here is what is preached here by all SSC's:

1. You can get stronger while not gaining weight
2. Unless you are an overweight rank novice, you cannot gain muscle without gaining weight.

Since gaining muscle will require me to gain weight (and more fat), it is not something I want to do further. Even if recomping will allow me to slowly gain muscle, whats that going to take? 2 years of me having to feel fat till I finally slowly get to a good muscle mass?

This topic seems to be taboo on this forum. I have asked a similar question from the SSC's and I have googled many previous replies. The answers are usually carefully worded versions of "you should try to lose fat and gain muscle" without saying those exact words, since the programs motto and mentality is that "you can't gain muscle and lose fat". Hard to separate the riff from the raff at this point. The spongebob meme seems to apply great here:



recomp meme.jpg

[Dalton Clark]

At 6 feet tall and 207 pounds, I have a hard time believing that you are truly 'fat' enough to justify your concern. What is your waist measurement around the belly button? I am 5'10" tall and 220 pounds and yeah I don't have a six pack (and a small bit of a tire). By the way, you can maintain your weight and move towards a favorable body composition - even at the end of LP. That is exactly what I am doing.

[Charlie Davies]

I wonder why you don't try to maintain your weight and recomp?

How fast does a recomp normally work?

I.e. how fast would an early intermediate lifter in his 20s be able to drop an inch off their waistline, while maintaining weight and getting stronger?

I've been doing this for 8 months and lost just one inch of waistline. But I'm much older, and far below average as a lifter. Maybe it's normally not such a slow process.

[added] Re: Patrick the Starfish joke.

The SS dogma is not that recomp is impossible, it's that it's not time efficient for a non-obese novice. I.e. a non-obese novice should put off fat loss for a few weeks until they are intermediate.

I'm curious about the best strategy for the slightly-fat intermediate.
Is it still more time-efficient to alternately cut and bulk, or does recomp make sense?

I.e. while recomping for 8 months, I only increased my puny squat by 15% and lost 1 inch of waist.
Maybe I'd have done better to cut for 3 months and bulk for 3 months.

[Pawn]

At 6' and ~200lbs you are going to tank your lifts if you try to cut hard.

If you are correct in your assumptions (not novice and not very fat) there is going to be a tradeoff. (reduced recovery, reduced leverages, and potentially reduced work capacity)

So options:
Decease calories; Maintain lifting intensity; Reduce lifting volume
Maintain calories; Maintain lifting intensity; Increase low impact cardio

Recovery is going to be the thing that will moderate all. Be careful not to get hurt or burn out.

I'm again going to point towards 531 since maintaining strength while cutting weight was its original purpose (as far as I understand it).

Good luck.

(I would still recommend maintaining weight with a focus on increasing strength and work capacity, fat loss becoming the byproduct of other goals that are easier to objectively measure and track)

[Satch12879]

What did you do with your diet? That's really the first thing you should be looking at.

Also, and I have come to hate the word "nuance," but it's true. The responses from the coaches really are more nuanced than the seeming contradictory positions you've come to believe they hold.

You also might want to look at your programming and perhaps consider something a little more straight-forward, less complex, and more in line with your goals. Particularly, if the one you're doing doesn't seem to be doing anything for you.