So I’m huge into my powerlifting, current goals are to deadlift 220kg, squat 180kg and bench 140kg.
But another issue I have is that I’m huge… and not in the good sense. I got so into my head that powerlifters need to eat fuck loads and ended up doing so, and now I’m horribly overweight.
I’m confused with what I should do, because (and correct me if I’m wrong), but you cant gain strength without being in a caloric surplus, but you have to be in a caloric deficit to burn fat away.
So atm, I’m a little confused with what I should be doing with my diet right now. I’m on about 3000kcal a day, about 200g protein, 300g carbs, 100g fats, on a 4 day split, 2 bench days and 2 squat/deadlift days.
If anybody has any feedback, help, tips or whatever I would really, really appreciate it, coz I’m in a bit of a pickle about it.
Honestly, I’d ditch the powerlifting training for now. If you’ve gained a significant amount of fat then I would focus soley on dropping the weight, THEN resuming calories and clean bulking if needed. You don’t need to diet down to a six pack, but you’ll be a lot better served in your training (and weight classes) if you’re not holding a lot of fat as a beginner.
If you are as fat as you say you are, then you’ll be able to lose weight while gaining (or at the very least maintaining) strength. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t overhaul your training but would instead focus on dialing in your nutrition.
To be clear, did you get fat while eating in the way that you outline above, or is that something you’ve started doing recently to help you lose weight?
[quote]daltron wrote:
What do you weigh right now/height?
Honestly, I’d ditch the powerlifting training for now. If you’ve gained a significant amount of fat then I would focus soley on dropping the weight, THEN resuming calories and clean bulking if needed. You don’t need to diet down to a six pack, but you’ll be a lot better served in your training (and weight classes) if you’re not holding a lot of fat as a beginner.[/quote]
I weigh about 95kg, and I’m 5 foot 7. I want to get to about 80-85kg. I’d say I’m at least 30% bodyfat right now, I’ve started eating my carbs around waking up, pre, intra and post workout and thats at. Still gonna aim between 2500-3000kcal per day I think
[quote]TrevorLPT wrote:
If you are as fat as you say you are, then you’ll be able to lose weight while gaining (or at the very least maintaining) strength. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t overhaul your training but would instead focus on dialing in your nutrition.
To be clear, did you get fat while eating in the way that you outline above, or is that something you’ve started doing recently to help you lose weight? [/quote]
I just started eating like this recently, my calories were ridiculously high coz I was just eating loads of pasta, donuts, all that bad shit. I’m gonna base my nutrition around carbs in the morning, pre, intra and post workout and thats it, and base the rest of my diet around protein and fat. If I keep it around 2500-3000kcal, hopefully I’ll at least see a difference in my body composition, what do you think?
One doesn’t need to eat waaay over caloric surplus to gain strength, but i’m sure it would accelerate to some point, anyway;
Dial in your nutrition as the posters above said and make your sole focus in the gym not loosing strength while loosing fat. I’d pick a program and stick with it to the end, tnation shall have a good few articles about loosing fat.
Also add some sort of conditioning 2-3 times a week.
[quote]TrevorLPT wrote:
If you are as fat as you say you are, then you’ll be able to lose weight while gaining (or at the very least maintaining) strength. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t overhaul your training but would instead focus on dialing in your nutrition.
To be clear, did you get fat while eating in the way that you outline above, or is that something you’ve started doing recently to help you lose weight? [/quote]
I just started eating like this recently, my calories were ridiculously high coz I was just eating loads of pasta, donuts, all that bad shit. I’m gonna base my nutrition around carbs in the morning, pre, intra and post workout and thats it, and base the rest of my diet around protein and fat. If I keep it around 2500-3000kcal, hopefully I’ll at least see a difference in my body composition, what do you think?[/quote]
Going from eating loads of junk to not eating loads of junk is often enough to see progress, at least in the beginning. I think your diet sounds fine. I’d personally stick to the higher end of that scale for as long as possible, but that’s just me.
I’d also avoid the urge to add a bunch of conditioning and complete change your training. Don’t think about “not losing strength.” Think about gaining it, but without eating a bunch of donuts.
To start off just keep the food choices clean( no donuts/sugary crap loads of gree n veg etc) as opposed to going on a cut and try cranking up both the tempo and volume of assitance work…
Different views by different people, here’s what i agree and disagree with the posts above,
Yes cut the junk completely of course and you might not have to change the way you LIFT, however,
We are not talking about cutting a few pounds here, you want to loose 10-15 kg. You (realistically) aren’t going to accomplish this by just ‘not going into a cut and cutting junk’ or without losing strength.
Conditioning doesn’t have to change the way you train, doing something low grade (walking/light jogging) even on your off days will do wonders for your fat loss in the long run and highly suggest it.
Strongly agree with the above poster about walking or doing low-intensity conditioning (heart rate between 120-150 BPM) as a strategy for improved health, performance, and body composition in the long run. When people say “do some conditioning” on this website, I often interpret that as them suggesting HIIT, which is an approach that I would consider inappropriate for the OP. My mistake.
I’m able to cut slowly and continue gaining strength in my bench/squat/deadlift slowly. It’s not impossible.
I cut carbs, except for the meal before a lifting session. I do Tabata after many of my lifting sessions. Also, I try to eat few carbs on non-lifting days. I do eat as much meat, fats and cheese as I feel like, though, and have protein shakes in water with a greens and reds powder mix. I also drink multiple cups of coffee in the morning and take up to 7 fish oil caps at night.
