Strength on a deficit...

Admiral_Derp

In a couple of weeks I'm going to be starting this routine:

It is designed mainly for burning fat (as that is my primary goal right now), but I also want to hit some strength goals for bench, squat, and dead lift. I'm still a bit of a noob, so I was wondering if anything needed changing? Also, I know that you can't bulk on a deficit, but can you gain strength?

ETA: AMAP means "As many as possible."

Gallowmere1984

Yes, you can easily gain strength on a deficit (and even a fair amount of muscle as a completely untrained new lifter). Until two days ago, I was in a 700-900 calorie deficit from the time I started lifting in late August. My deadlift started out at a terrible and struggling 135. Within two months, I was pulling 365. Fast forward another three months, and I am aiming to break 500 within the next couple of weeks.

It basically comes down to this: as an untrained individual, you have a fair amount of muscle tissue that your brain has absolutely no idea how to utilize, at first. This is why you will almost always see big strength gains in the beginning, even if there is little hypertrophy to go along with it, though there will generally be at least a fair amount of that as well, assuming your macros aren't completely screwed up.

martinh78

Yes, you can easily gain strength on a deficit (and even a fair amount of muscle as a completely untrained new lifter). Until two days ago, I was in a 700-900 calorie deficit from the time I started lifting in late August. My deadlift started out at a terrible and struggling 135. Within two months, I was pulling 365. Fast forward another three months, and I am aiming to break 500 within the next couple of weeks.

It basically comes down to this: as an untrained individual, you have a fair amount of muscle tissue that your brain has absolutely no idea how to utilize, at first. This is why you will almost always see big strength gains in the beginning, even if there is little hypertrophy to go along with it, though there will generally be at least a fair amount of that as well, assuming your macros aren't completely screwed up.

End the thread with that I think (quit whle ahead and all that!). One of the most sensible replies I've read (about strength training) on mfp for a long time.

Admiral_Derp

Deficit is based on BMR, and C/P/F are set at 40/30/30. Should I switch to TDEE-20% (or so) and not eat back exercise calories?st

And I've been lifting for about a month now, on a somewhat general routine, similarly laid out, just to build some foundational strength

Gallowmere1984

Deficit is based on BMR, and C/P/F are set at 40/30/30. Should I switch to TDEE-20% (or so) and not eat back exercise calories?

I never ate back exercise calories intentionally, but if it happened, I wasn't too worried about it. My macro profile was actually set as 55/30/15 P/F/C, but that's just what I found worked for me. If 40/30/30 works for you, it shouldn't hinder anything. Keep in mind as well, my diet was VERY low calorie for my size (5'10", 245 at the start, went from 1540 to 1420 cals decreasing as the fat dropped off), which is why I decided to go so heavy on the protein.

Admiral_Derp

Yeah, I've had what I consider to be extremely good numbers as far as weight and measurements go. I was thinking (pretty arbitrarily) that I would stay with that set up until I got down to around my goal weight and then switch to TDEE for maintenance.

Gallowmere1984

If something has been working for you, there's little reason to change it. The only times you should worry about that are when it either stops working, or you want to change direction with your goal. For example, the reason I decided to come out of my somewhat excessive deficit is because my lifts have finally started to stall a bit, and I told myself from the beginning that once my noob gains were over, I was switching up to a higher calorie diet with more heavy lifting (8-10 times per week, vs. the 5-6 up to then).

Admiral_Derp

Gotcha. Thanks bro.