Reassessing My Direction...

Weebs628

Hi there! I've been working with a trainer lifting weights for a little over 3 months. She's a body builder and competes in bikini competitions, so we do a lot of isolation exercises, which is nice - I feel like I really know my way around the gym and have LOTS of variety, but I'm really itching to start Stronglifts. I take ballet and modern dance classes, so I want to focus on gaining strength and lowering my body fat percentage/losing inches. My trainer brought up the point that my strength gains won't be as great while eating at a deficit - is this true?

I'm 5'3" and 137 pounds with a goal of 130. With the direction I'm headed, I'm not going to be happy with my body at 130, so I was contemplating eating at maintenance and starting Stronglifts now and pretty much tossing the scale out the window. Do you think if I did this, I would still lose inches and lower my body fat percentage? My maintenance is about 2,000 (not counting exercise) and right now I eat around 1,700 and eat back my exercise calories, so I'm not at a huge deficit.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

SideSteel

Hi there! I've been working with a trainer lifting weights for a little over 3 months. She's a body builder and competes in bikini competitions, so we do a lot of isolation exercises, which is nice - I feel like I really know my way around the gym and have LOTS of variety, but I'm really itching to start Stronglifts. I take ballet and modern dance classes, so I want to focus on gaining strength and lowering my body fat percentage/losing inches. My trainer brought up the point that my strength gains won't be as great while eating at a deficit - is this true?

Yes it's generally true however you can still definitely make strength gains in a deficit.

I'm 5'3" and 137 pounds with a goal of 130. With the direction I'm headed, I'm not going to be happy with my body at 130, so I was contemplating eating at maintenance and starting Stronglifts now and pretty much tossing the scale out the window. Do you think if I did this, I would still lose inches and lower my body fat percentage? My maintenance is about 2,000 (not counting exercise) and right now I eat around 1,700 and eat back my exercise calories, so I'm not at a huge deficit.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

I think you could still eat at a slight deficit and do stronglifts and I bet you will make progress doing so, in both strength and body composition.

Chief_Rocka

My trainer brought up the point that my strength gains won't be as great while eating at a deficit - is this true?

It is true, but it's no reason not to star lifting.

Do you think if I did this, I would still lose inches and lower my body fat percentage?

You almost certainly would.

I think it may be time to seek out a new trainer.

UsedToBeHusky

NROL4W recommends eating 300 calories below TDEE (or maintenance) on rest day and at TDEE on lifting days.

So I would say that you can lift on a deficit, but eat maintenance on lifting days just so you have that little bit of extra energy to workout with.

Weebs628

NROL4W recommends eating 300 calories below TDEE (or maintenance) on rest day and at TDEE on lifting days.

So I would say that you can lift on a deficit, but eat maintenance on lifting days just so you have that little bit of extra energy to workout with.

This sounds like a happy medium to me. I'll give this a try and see how it goes!

Annelies11

NROL4W recommends eating 300 calories below TDEE (or maintenance) on rest day and at TDEE on lifting days.

So I would say that you can lift on a deficit, but eat maintenance on lifting days just so you have that little bit of extra energy to workout with.

This sounds like a happy medium to me. I'll give this a try and see how it goes!

Let us know how it goes as I am really curious. My TDEE is also about 2000, I lift 3x a week and have been eating 1700 a day, but I am worried that I won't build muscle on that much deficit. So I am thinking of eating closer to 2000 on lift days. I have 26% body fat so I have quite a bit of fat to lose. But I love lifting and hate cardio

Weebs628

NROL4W recommends eating 300 calories below TDEE (or maintenance) on rest day and at TDEE on lifting days.

So I would say that you can lift on a deficit, but eat maintenance on lifting days just so you have that little bit of extra energy to workout with.

This sounds like a happy medium to me. I'll give this a try and see how it goes!

Let us know how it goes as I am really curious. My TDEE is also about 2000, I lift 3x a week and have been eating 1700 a day, but I am worried that I won't build muscle on that much deficit. So I am thinking of eating closer to 2000 on lift days. I have 26% body fat so I have quite a bit of fat to lose. But I love lifting and hate cardio

Will do! I love lifting too and I want to cut down on some of the cardio I've been doing as well. I'll give it 3 months and take progress pictures and such.

Sarauk2sf

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