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Losing weight, losing strength...need advice

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Posted by: JerseyPaul

Recently I've adopted a low carb/high protein/high fat diet. So far it has worked well. Starting at a BW of 235, I'm at 224 in two weeks. I usually average 5% carbs/30% protein/65% fat. I do about 30 min of cardio 3-4 times a week also.

Problem is, I'm losing strength gains right along with the weight. Is this inevitable? After perusing this site, I learned about carb ups and drinking lots of water. Will this help?

-Paul


Posted by: derekisdman

Fat seems way too high. I would put carbs up to 15%, protein to 50%, fat to 35% but that's just me.


Posted by: metallicat61003

Yeah your carbs need to come up,and your fat needs to go down, and if you are looking to gain muscle you probably don't want to do all that cardio because you are using up to many calories


Posted by: Prince

Quote:
Originally posted by JerseyPaul
Recently I've adopted a low carb/high protein/high fat diet. So far it has worked well. Starting at a BW of 235, I'm at 224 in two weeks. I usually average 5% carbs/30% protein/65% fat. I do about 30 min of cardio 3-4 times a week also.

Problem is, I'm losing strength gains right along with the weight. Is this inevitable? After perusing this site, I learned about carb ups and drinking lots of water. Will this help?

-Paul
It's working well? Then stick with it.

Of course you will lose strength if you're dieting and losing weight. If you're a natural lifter it's inevitable.


Posted by: P-funk

How fast did you drop down to the calories you are consuming right now???? Droping cals to fast can make you catabolic. Also how much cardio were you doing before your current cardio program?? You have to give your body time to get used to changes. Cut calories and your body needs to adjust to a new level of caloric intake to. Do more cardio and your body needs to adjust to a new level of caloric(energy) expenditure. Do both to fast and to soon and your body will hate you..........Be patient...plan your cut to last for several weeks (I like anywere form 9-16 weeks for a cut). Make adjustments slowley so that you can retain as much lean masss as possible and lose as much fat as possible......In my opinion 10lbs in 2 weeks is a lot of weight loss and because you say you are losing strength really concerns me...........In my opinion I would go back to eating maintenance calories for 2 weeks and start my diet over with only a small decrease in cals for the first 2 weeks.


Posted by: SolidToTheCORE

Stupid is as Stupid does.
Dieting is like driving on the freeway you can't change four lanes at 125 mph. You have to make small adjustments.

The only healthy way to do this right is by the ZIG-ZAG method.
It is only tried and true way to lose Body Fat and not lose to much LEAN MUSCLE TISSUE.
If you want the brake down PM me. I will hook it up.
If not at at least increase your carbs to about 15% - cut
them after 6pm - 7pm


Posted by: JerseyPaul

Thank for the advice guys. I' m using a version of Mauro Di Paquale's Anabolic Diet. In this diet you stick to 5%/30%/65% with a 1-1/2 day of high carbs on weekends to replenish glyocen. Supposedly this diet allows you to burn fat, sparing muscle tissue. Obviously, this hasn't worked thus far. My goal was to keep caloric intake the same, but by virtue of the diet, I'm about 300 calories a day under the norm.

Good points about the changes. I started doing cardio consistently about 4 weeks ago, then started the diet two weeks ago. I know some strength loss is inevitable with weight loss, but on bench for instance where I was doing 225 x 6, I now can only do 3 or 4...

I'm 47 years old, so my metabolism is slower then most. I want to maintain cardio for health reasons. I've started running 1.75 miles 2 or 3 times a week (slow pace-11 minute mile), and using an elliptical machine. How about if I switch to walking 2 miles, alternating with the elliptical machine?

I saw at this site the recommendation of 45 grams of carbs a day, with two carb up meals a week. I'm thinking I should try this, and up my calories along with reducing cardio. If I keep losing strength, I'll switch to a maintenance diet for a couple of weeks as recommended by P-funk, and regroup. Sound like a plan?

Paul


Posted by: tigerboo

If you weigh 235 lbs. and have lets say 190 lbs. of solid muscle, even if you retain all of your lean muscle mass and lose 15 lbs of fat you WILL lose strength!

Mass moves Mass!


Posted by: Leslie

9 lb lost in 2 weeks seems rather high. It is a signal you are not consuming enough calories. Its nice to see the weight go down, but anything more than 2lbs after the first week (where most water is lost) is only going to be muscle mass. The goal is to preserve LBM.

I would continue your diet, since its only been two weeks, and see how things go. Be sure you are getting in your carbs on the high days.I also understand your cardio reasoning, I would switch it down to walking on incline or the eliptical, saving running for once in a while. This should help lessen the risk of muscle loss.

Unfortunately, one needs to expect some strength loss as they lose weight. You could have had an "off" day as your body is adjusting to the new diet though.


Posted by: tcw

Quote:
Originally posted by Prince
It's working well? Then stick with it.

Of course you will lose strength if you're dieting and losing weight. If you're a natural lifter it's inevitable.

You have only been on the diet for two weeks, stick with it as Leslie and Prince have said.

The diet sounds incredibly similar to the one I'm currently on, same ratios almost. Try inserting a carb-up day on Wednesday and Saturday. It helps with the strength and it helps keep you on the zig-zag. Carb up to body weight in grams of clean carbs. See if this helps.

Also, with this type of diet you need to be sure your fats are clean as well. You're losing weight which is good but at these ratios of fats, bad fats may be causing you to shoot yourself in the foot.

Also give yourself 30-45 days of a strict diet. Your strength will return somewhat, but some loss is inevitable being natural.


Posted by: naturalguy

You are losing strength because your carbs are too low, you cannot train at full intensity on low carbs. What you should do is eat the majority of your carbs around your training sessions (before and after) and at other times of the day eat fibrous carbs. This by design will give you carb up times instead of just doing it on some arbitrary day of the week. Eat for your energy needs.







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