Calorie deficit on Stronglifts?

Continue to eat at deficit while you run the program. You will retain the muscle you have and possibly build some in the process.
You will likely be surprised how much muscle you have once you lose the weight.

I would not recommend eating at a surplus at this point. Once you get down to goal weight you can access the next steps you want to take if you are not happy with how much muscle size you have.. either to recomp (build muscle and lose fat while maintaining weight) or run a bulk (eat at surplus).

Okay, then continue with the program on a slight deficit. I've done the program a few times and it was not easy to succeed on a big deficit. But that was my experience only.
Good luck.
And remember, form is more important than weight. So don't sacrifice form for more weight.

I am in week two of StrongLifts at 5'3 175lbs and roughly 1500-1700 calories daily. Things have been feeling great for me so far. I've had one workout where I know I didn't eat enough and my squat felt really weak, so do be careful (I had only had about 1200 that day and had been walking for a few hours.

LenGray wrote: »

Hey everyone. So I'm starting the Stronglifts program tomorrow. I still have a significant amount of weight to lose (70+ lbs) but I'd like to focus on building muscle for a bit. I'm also running 3x a week (C25k), though I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

I was reading through the Stronglifts program and it said that I would need to eat a little over maintenance in order to properly build and recover from my workouts. Is that true? I knew that I wouldn't be able to have a major deficit and lift, but would a small deficit, such as half a pound, while lifting be a valid option or should I just stick to the program as written?

I'm planning on following the plan for 12 weeks and then re-assessing my goals, so I don't guess it makes much of a difference but it's hard to wrap my head around the 'calorie surplus+lifting=slimmer' concept.

Just starting lifting while in a deficit is one of the rare times you could actually build muscle while losing weight.
You won't have that opportunity later after lifting for awhile, nor after you have thinned down.

Depends on how fast you tap out your existing muscle so that more is needed to keep progressing, and how much BF% is available at that point.

As to recovery in a deficit - yes it's worse than if eating at surplus. So make sure your sleeping is good, and nutrition is on point, and as mentioned above, a decent deficit (at 70 lbs to lose, five weeks of 1000 is reasonable as you slowly increase the weight to current max).
Frankly your running 3 x weekly could make that worse - depends on how hard the run is, and how much recovery the body needs.

Since recovery from a really hard lifting workout is within the next 24-48 hrs, that's when you need rest for the recovery and repair.
If your legs are trying to recover and you throw a really hard run on them - well, not good.

So just confirm the C25K isn't sprints for the running part, nice calm run.
This is the time it's actually useful to use the HR zone that for ages has been called Active Recovery - increase blood flow, aid healing. It was fad labeled Fat Burning zone and misapplied many years ago and now a correct backlash against it's misuse - but it still has a valid use.

Or - do the C25K right after the lifting, get all the damage done at once and run as fast as you want to, and only walk fast on days between lifting, still getting the blood flowing to aid healing.

After you start tapping out current muscle and progress slows down and some lifts fail, then move to 500 cal deficit.
You still have enough to lose and can still make progress.
May just have to schedule the meals and snacks better to confirm enough blood sugar to feel strong for the lifts.
Your muscles have more than enough glucose for the effort, your blood sugar effecting your thinking will be the trick.