I want to be a "helluva 275"

[dtarrence]

Alright so im a 310lb 6ft 2in male.
I'm currently running HLM and am on schedule to deadlift 500 and squat 405 before the new year.

Current lifts:
SQ: 380x4x5
DL: 475X2X3
BP: 300X4X5
OP: 175X4X5


I feel that the time has come for my priorty to shift from getting stronger to losing weight. My 3 goals for next year are, In order of importance:

1: drop to 275lbs(for sake of specificty lets say by april)
2: maintain current strength levels
3: decrease time spent in the gym( im a grad student and i currently spend 3 hrs easy 3 days a week training)

What kind of programming should i use to accomplish these goals? And what should my nutrition look like?

[Michael Wolf]

If you want to drop 35 lbs in 3 months and maintain current strength levels, while spending less time in the gym...all I can really say is good luck. I think that is very likely an unrealistic combination of goals. You could probably do it in 9 months and more or less maintain strength, possibly even set some new PRs in the earlier stages. You could do it in 3 months and spend less time in the gym, but you will lose strength when you cut 3 lbs per week for 3 months. You won't lose all your strength, and you'll be able to get it back when you stabilize, but during a cut like that, you can't expect to not lose strength.

[dtarrence]

Ok lets drop goal 2 then.

[Michael Wolf]

Moderate volume, moderate intensity, fairly large caloric deficit.

[dtarrence]

Moderate volume, moderate intensity, fairly large caloric deficit.

so how does this sound four a 4 day Heavy/light split?

Monday
Heavy squat 70% 1rm for 5x3
Power Clean/snatch 3x5
Conditioning 10min

Tuesday
Heavy press 70% 5x3
Paused bench 89% of friday 5x3
chins
Conditioning 10min

Thursday
Heavy Deadlift 70% 5x3
light squat 80% mondays weight 5x3
conditioning 10 min

Friday
Heavy Bench 70% 5x3
Pin press from forehead 80% of tuesday 5x3
barbell Row 5x3
conditioning 10 min

if I've been doing 5x5s on most lifts since March, does this constitute moderate volume and intensity? Is 40 min. enough conditioning work for the week? Im thinking somewhere between 2000-2500 Cal a day with 200 g of protein.

[Michael Wolf]

Not a bad stab, I'd adjust a few things. Intensity is fairly low here, you're going to need to do something heavier than 70% 1RM sometimes. Singles at 88-92%, and doubles and triples at the same % of 2 and 3rm, respectively - at least one of those should be done every two weeks, if not every week. I'd also probably only deadlift one set of five and a back-off, especially if you're doing 15 cleans and snatches the other day.

Food wise, you might want to ask Santana, but I'd probably have more protein, like 250g. Total cals will depend on where you're starting from, but weighing 310, going down to 2000-2500 in one shot seems drastic to me. You're probably eating 4000 or so to be where you are with training, assuming you're not doing much else. If so, going down to 3000 is still a pretty big jump. 250/250/110 gets you down to 3000.

[Dave Lamb]

I feel like if you actually eat what you're planning and train, the weight will fly off without doing conditioning. I think, and take it for what it's worth, that doing conditioning 4 days per week, while dieting, will make you explode into a million little pieces. I don't know if I'm adding anything valuable here, but I wouldn't start with conditioning at all. I'd start with the macros, train with as much intensity and volume as you can recover from, try like hell to make strength gains, and only after all that stuff works for several weeks, you would add conditioning once per week to start, twice per week at most. Any thoughts on this? I'm just afraid you are very much used to training in a very well-fed state. Dieting changes that, although maybe not as much going from low 300's to upper 200's... I'm curious to hear Wolf's experience here...

[Michael Wolf]

You're probably right that he doesn't need it, at least at first, and he might even be better off not doing it considering the deficit he'll be in and the large amount of fat he has to lose making it easier to do so at first. I made a judgement call not to pick on that part, since it was only 10 minutes, and I got the sense I was already reorienting the paradigm enough to make acceptance and compliance a bit of a stretch, so made a judgement call not to pick on something I didn't think would be a huge deal in that small quantity.