Losing Weight Without Losing Strength

Looking to lose a few pounds and just wanted to get anyone’s opinion if these activities would be valid routes to take to lose some without losing strength. Basically trying to not get any of that fast to slow twitch muscle shift to happen.

Walking/Incline Walking (pace still able to talk)
DB/Kettle bell swings (~30s on ~30s off for 5-10min)
Jump rope (~30s on ~30s off for 5-10min)
Mobility drill circuits

Diet wise I planned on cutting the carby meals a bit lower to knock off some water storage, as well as notching up the water intake to flush the system more.

Anybody else with any tips? Do my suggestions seem like valid approaches?

If you don’t want to lose strength then you have to lift heavy. You have to give your muscles a reason to stay around. What you listed will definitly lead to strength loss.

DK here is a link to an article by Charles Staley on this exact topic. Although I have yet to try this workout I am about a month away from doing so.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=459309

[quote]DK wrote:
Looking to lose a few pounds and just wanted to get anyone’s opinion if these activities would be valid routes to take to lose some without losing strength. Basically trying to not get any of that fast to slow twitch muscle shift to happen.

Walking/Incline Walking (pace still able to talk)
DB/Kettle bell swings (~30s on ~30s off for 5-10min)
Jump rope (~30s on ~30s off for 5-10min)
Mobility drill circuits

Diet wise I planned on cutting the carby meals a bit lower to knock off some water storage, as well as notching up the water intake to flush the system more.

Anybody else with any tips? Do my suggestions seem like valid approaches?[/quote]

Keep protein high and eat your carbs around your workouts.

Depending how much you want to lose, it’s perfectly possible.

I’ve taken my weight down 4kg over the past month with no strength loss. Still hitting alot of PR’s like.

Basically what I’ve been doing is 12-13 kcals per lb of bodyweight split 40/30/30 protein/fat/carbs. Been wokring well so far.

I haven’t added in any cardio because I’m training hard and feel it would get in the way of my recovery.

If you don’t want to lose strength your weight loss is just going to be slower

If strength is not a huge concern and you want to look better, just diet down and don’t worry about it too much you will lose the weight faster and strength loss will not be huge.

I tend to eat a lot of carbs regularly so a weeks worth of low carb, low salt, and high water intake always helps me drop 3-4 kg prior to a weightlifting meet. I don’t feel like strength decreased, but then again most of my weight loss is usually just water weight.

Barbell complexes (ala Cosgrove) have been working well for me and I only do them one day per week…

[quote]Tuggles wrote:
DK here is a link to an article by Charles Staley on this exact topic. Although I have yet to try this workout I am about a month away from doing so.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=459309 [/quote]

Thanks for the link, I’m sure this would up the calories expended a bit more than now, but I’m pretty sure my strength would suffer a bit.

I should have explained a little more - I am trying to lose a few lbs getting ready for a powerlifting meet so I need to keep my routine pretty much as-is, just with some added activity to notch down the lbs.

[quote]Hanley wrote:
Depending how much you want to lose, it’s perfectly possible.

I’ve taken my weight down 4kg over the past month with no strength loss. Still hitting alot of PR’s like.

Basically what I’ve been doing is 12-13 kcals per lb of bodyweight split 40/30/30 protein/fat/carbs. Been wokring well so far.

I haven’t added in any cardio because I’m training hard and feel it would get in the way of my recovery.[/quote]

Thanks for the tip, you’re actually counting the calories then? Have a typical daily meal plan to attain it?

That’s really exactly what I need, 4kg = ~8.8lbs. I’m currently at about 190, and need to be down to 181 for a meet in 5 weeks (well, 181.75 or something like that to be exact). I think my body is trying to tell me to compete at the weight class my height says I should be in. (at 5’11 I’m not near the usual 5’4 or so typical in the 181s).

I know I don’t want to throw in actual “cardio”, but something lower intensity like I said. Walking, mobility drills, etc. Almost active recovery or something a la Cressey’s cardio confusion. Of course with it being lower intensity active recovery it won’t really amount to many calories burned anyway…

[quote]dfreezy wrote:
I tend to eat a lot of carbs regularly so a weeks worth of low carb, low salt, and high water intake always helps me drop 3-4 kg prior to a weightlifting meet. I don’t feel like strength decreased, but then again most of my weight loss is usually just water weight.[/quote]

Yeah for my last meet I was about 183-4ish, weighed in at 177.3, so it was about a 7lb switch, and all I did there was up my water intake the week before and stop the night before to let me ‘drain’ out a bit. I was also in a jacuzzi the night before, so I’m sure some of that was sweat out too.

If I’m at 184-185 I’ll be fine just manipulating the water weight a bit with carbs/water intake, but I would just like to get down to that weight to be sure I’ll make weight. It’s just that at 190, I still have some lbs to go.

This past month has not been exactly stellar on the diet side either, so cleaning up that should help knock me down too.