When did you decide to move from cutting/losing to maintenance whilst lifting heavy?

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  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
    sarko15 wrote: »
    Chieflrg wrote: »
    Personally I'm either in maintenance of some form or slightly gaining weight. Cutting weight for me is more about water on a short term basis and not anything that is body composition since I'm reasonably low body fat at all times.

    Perhaps you can define what lifting heavy is to you since that is a vague term along with your current goal and end goal.

    Generally speaking I tend to bump up lifters calories when measuring their fatigue and disecting their load management. I don't feel there is one clear cut answer without knowing the goal or training.

    Currently:
    Benching 60 lbs
    Squatting 100 lbs (on smith machine at the moment, but planning on switching to real squat rack this week)
    Deadlifting 75 lbs

    So it's not "heavy" by other people's standards probably. I've been adding weight very slowly. Mostly I'm wondering if I'm wasting time trying to lift in a deficit, and how my progress would look if I bumped up to maintainance (also mostly to take in more protein than I realistically can on 1410 calories a day).

    I don't have a good goal when it comes to strength training at this point. I'd mostly just love to get my body fat % in a healthy range and feel really empowered lifting heavy *kitten*.

    What is your current weight/height and what is your current deficit? It's going to vary for everyone, but you might be better served with a smaller deficit. I didn't have a problem increasing strength as a newbie on similar calories which equated to about a 0.5lb loss per week. I was able to get up to around a 165 DL, 155 squat and 95lb bench within 9ish months at around 97-101 lbs before plateauing. I then started slowing gaining muscle and additional strength. I also had no problem getting 100-120g protein in at that calorie level, but I eat a lot of seafood and dairy/eggs.
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
    Nevermind...I just saw you answered all of my question in your first comment. I'd maybe try switching to a smaller deficit for a while.
  • rose2_0
    rose2_0 Posts: 150 Member
    When I was hungry and fed up.
  • happysquatter
    happysquatter Posts: 91 Member
    I’m still under 1 year of serious training and following a 5x5 LP

    Maintenance or above has been good and almost necessary for me. I’ve lost body fat (28% down to 23-24%) while gaining 5-6 lbs. The calories basically fueling me and I let my body take care of noob gains/fat loss