Don't give up man. You are still early enough into the program and weight loss where you should be experiencing some newbie gains. Yes, that will end at some point, especially as you get lower in body fat; and eating at a deficit definitely does not help as it's basically a head-wind, but you still can get plenty strong as long as you are not eating an some insane calorie deficit. Also, it's the only way to maintain the lean muscle mass you have now.

So while you can do another program, what program would you do to maintain/build strength? StrongLifts and Starting Strength are by far the easiest programs I've seen to follow for a beginner. Just follow the program as it's outlined. If you fail on a weight 3 times, deload. If after two deloads, you fail at the same max weight, then move to the 3x5, rinse and repeat till you get to the 1x5. After the 1x5, your should be at an intermediate level of strength in which you could progress to something like Madcow.

You might be doing lifts in one program while doing lifts in another at some point. I am doing Madcow for squats while doing 3x5 for bench press & rows, and 1x5 for OHP and deadlifts.

Now all that being said, I'm all for taking a break every so often, especially while you are at a caloric deficit. Someone my age (41) just does not recover like a 21 year old would. I will take a week off of weights every 8-12 weeks, will also eat a little more during that time (still at a deficit, just not as much of one) just to help with recovery.

Keep at it brother, it will pay off in the end.

I can relate to the "lost the joy of it" feelings. I went through the same thing in my run at SL5x5. Though I did get farther along because I wasn't trying to lose weight at the time, just change my body composition.

I did quit the SL5x5 program after 52 workouts (I was still attempting 5x5 for everything). Then I did an upper body only program of my own design because I perceived an imbalance between how my lower body had progressed vs my upper body. I did improve my upper body, but lost ground on my lower body.

In February of this year I went back to a total body program loosely based on Mark Rippetoe's Texas Method ( http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_texas_method ). I was disappointed to learn that with my weight loss, I had also lost strength. I tried to pick up the squats and deadlifts at about 80% of where I had been when I quit.

That was a tough go and I struggled with it until I set MFP to maintain my weight. Some time after that I turned the corner and started making progress on my strength again. I am still not back to where I was on my lower body when I quit SL5x5. I also lost some of the gains from my upper body program.

But I have realized that I have almost moved down one whole powerlifting weight class and the smaller guys don't move as much iron as the bigger guys. Refer to this to see what I mean: http://lonkilgore.com/freebies/freebies.html

So my advice would be to continue a total body program and accept the fact that you are working at conflicting goals. Just maintaining your current strength as you lose weight would be a victory.

First off, I want to give props to those who are doing SL in a deficit! I am in a surplus and still struggling. As far as the mental issues that come with an upcoming assumed failure I can relate. I'm 11 weeks in right now, weeks 1-7 went great with consistent gains and strong finishes on each lift (except the God forsaken OHP, don't get me started). Week 8...brick wall! I started failing squat, bench, then finally DL, all in the same week. I am on schedule to fail rows for the third time lol. I laugh at that and I'll tell you why. My confidence was shaken, hard, during week 8. I knew I didn't want to quit but I certainly was not looking forward to waking up early and eating more than I really want to just to go fail miserably at the gym. I really had no choice though...did I really want to start doing BB splits? lol...NO. I stuck it out and took my failures in stride, cried a little, maybe, ha. So I reset 10% on those lifts as prescribed and began working back up. With the squat and DL, I am feeling stronger and more confident not only in my ability to successfully complete the lifts but with decent form, something that was deteriorating rapidly before the resets. Yesterday I attempted squats with the weight, 175 Lbs, that caused me to have to deload in the first place, and I knocked it out of the park with energy to spare...confidence restored! And the ultimate accomplishment of the week was my OHP with which I completed 5x5 with 90 lbs, something I thought was simply not gonna happen...ever lol.

I read a quote by someone, somewhere (<<talk about citing sources, booyah) that basically said in order to build the strength and body that *most* are trying to build, you're gonna spend a considerable amount of time with a heavy barbell on your back. For some reason that just sticks in my head.

In summary, (which is quite necessary after ^^that massive wall of text)....just like with weight loss, consistency is key. < Why didn't I just say that to begin with.