Lose fat keep strength

michaelvalkos

I am 19, weigh about 236 pounds, decently strong with a bench of 285 a squat of 430 and a deadlift of 445. I am not at all interested in losing any of my strength, but i would like to trim some fat. What is a good approach for this do i just incoporate running? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

jemhh

You'll need to either burn more calories or ingest fewer calories or do a combo. To keep your strength up, keep lifting the weight you are now but you may find you need to reduce volume. At a certain point, your strength may decrease anyway though and at that point you may decide to maintain a bit or decide that a few more pounds off the body is worth the trade-off.

medic2038

Keeping protein up and lifting heavy are the biggest things you can do to maintain LBM. Eating at a deficit (usually -500/day), while keeping up lifts and protein should net you decent results.

Now with that being said depending upon your body composition your lifts may actually go down, depending on how much weight you lose. In all likelihood they might drop a little, or plateau. BUT in reality you're not actually going to be losing much strength probably. If you can bench 280, and squat 425, at 220 you've actually gotten stronger!

michaelvalkos

Ok thanks

Chadxx

A little cardio is definitely good for you. Just keep your deficit low, your protein high, and keep pumping that iron. You will be fine.

dhimaan

Keep your deficit within 500 calories and lift heavy (8-12 rep range). With a 500 calorie deficit you will not lose weight super fast but you will most likely keep your lean muscle mass (you will look good when all is said and done). With a bigger deficit you will lose weight faster but risk losing muscle mass.

Good luck buddy.

Packerjohn

Chadxx wrote: »

A little cardio is definitely good for you. Just keep your deficit low, your protein high, and keep pumping that iron. You will be fine.

^This.

Here is a good article on cardio for people who are looking to be athletic:

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/long-duration-low-intensity-cardio/

Best of luck

courtneyfabulous

Calorie deficit (not too low, only 250 to 500 below TDEE)

Eat enough protein- many body builders go with between 0.8 and 1.5 grams of protein per day per pound of body weight (ususally 1 gram per pound)- but you want to use either your goal body weight or your lean body weight, not current body weight to calculate this.

Keep lifting

Do some cardio- I believe hiit cardio like sprint intervals, bodyweight exercise intervals (stuff like burpees), or plyometric exercises burns more fat and less muscle? You do shorter sessions like 15 to 30 minutes with hiit rather than longer sessions of steady state cardio, so it's more time efficient as well.