Where should I stop losing weight and start maintaining if I want to stay relatively strong?

cbohling1987

So I've been doing Crossfit for about 4 months and tracking my intake and I've lost about 15lbs, from ~190lb. to 175, which puts me right at the upper end of "not overweight" for my height and age (5'11" 29yo male). Over the past few weeks I've been feeling like my strength has actually diminished - for example yesterday I failed at a lower weight than usual when working up to a 1 rep max back squat.

I was originally going to try to get down to about 160lb because I still have some belly flab, but now I'm a bit wary given that my strength seems to be waning.

Should I just stop around 170lb and try to recomp while lifting more to tone up?

kommodevaran

You should reduce the calorie deficit anyway, as you get closer to your goal weight. If you're happy with your current weight, stay there and recomp.

cbohling1987

Yeah my daily caloric goal is 1960 right now w/ "lightly active" selected as my daily activity level and that has been working, but I feel like I'm struggling to get 150+ grams of protein every day. I think I may increase it to ~2100 cals and try to eat more chicken lol

steveko89

What deficit are you running right now? Since you've lost weight you can probably go from the 1+ lbs/week you've losing now to 0.5-0.75 lbs/week to help with your energy levels.

jemhh

Keep in mind that everybody has an off day at the gym and that it doesn't necessarily mean that anything is going wrong. It could be nothing or it could mean that you need a deload or it could mean that it is time to drop volume a little bit if you want to keep focusing on fat loss.

cbohling1987

steveko89 wrote: »

What deficit are you running right now? Since you've lost weight you can probably go from the 1+ lbs/week you've losing now to 0.5-0.75 lbs/week to help with your energy levels.

I have been doing 20%. I might cut it to 10% deficit and see if that helps.

jemhh wrote: »

Keep in mind that everybody has an off day at the gym and that it doesn't necessarily mean that anything is going wrong. It could be nothing or it could mean that you need a deload or it could mean that it is time to drop volume a little bit if you want to keep focusing on fat loss.

Yeah, admittedly that was my first time lifting heavy after doing a bunch of cardio focused workouts for the past few weeks, so that's a good point.

steveko89

cbohling1987 wrote: »

Yeah my daily caloric goal is 1960 right now w/ "lightly active" selected as my daily activity level and that has been working, but I feel like I'm struggling to get 150+ grams of protein every day. I think I may increase it to ~2100 cals and try to eat more chicken lol

We're pretty similarly sized (28, 6'1" 176lbs, 14% BF by skulpt scanner) and my calculated TDEE is around 2400 so I think your 1960 goal is pretty good. Personally, I shoot for at least 1g/lb protein daily, so I would leave your calories and up your protein.

deannalfisher

if you open your diary - people may be able to provide recommendations for how to get more protein in (although I tend to fall into the #eatthedamnchicken category)

Nony_Mouse

Another thing you might like to try is a controlled diet break, then going back to a lower deficit for the last bit. This isn't a free for all, it's eating at maintenance cals for two weeks to help reset hormones (leptin, thyroid, and cortisol principally) that get out of whack when you're at a prolonged deficit. You can read more about it and how to do one here: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/

There is also an increasingly long and unwieldy thread in this forum titled "Of refeeds and diet breaks" that is worth checking out for more info on these things, including anecdotes from those of us incorporating them. The first 5-6 pages are the 'must read' bit, with a handy synopsis on p.6. You can work your way to p.39 at your leisure