Is strength is maintained or improved under the bar during a fat loss regimen, is it okay to assume that muscle loss was kept to a minimum? Is muscle loss inevitable during a cut no matter the regimen of diet or weight training?

Is strength is maintained or improved under the bar during a fat loss regimen, is it okay to assume that muscle loss was kept to a minimum? Is muscle loss inevitable during a cut no matter the regimen of diet or weight training?

Yes. That’s good way to make sure you are not losing too much muscle. And muscle loss is inevitable no matter the regimen of training and diet, barring you are not on steroids. And that’s the hardest part. How to hold on to the muscle while still losing weight. If you can come with a way, your book will be an instant best seller.

You can also test your body fat with skin calipers to make sure you are losing much of fat and not much muscle

thanks, anoop
if your strength improved during a diet, can one assume this is mostly due to neuromuscular developments?

If your strength is improved during a diet, it means you are doing great. It could be either muscular or neural.

People usually maintain their pulling and leg strength (and sometimes see increases), but the pushing strength really comes down .

Jim and Anatoly might have something to say.

I remember my experience from contest dieting from 257 down to 212. I immediately lost strength and then I plateaued for a short while and then I returned close to my original numbers.  And it was exercise dependent though but mainly due to bodyweight in some cases. Like my chin ups improved, due to the loss of weight. My front squat numbers dropped and then started to rebound, but if you think about it, I may have been replacing body weight with bar weight.

Here were my numbers as I recall them

Before diet PR’s
Front squat 315x6
Bench 315x5
Pull up 8 reps

After 4 weeks
Front 275x5
bench 275x5
Pull ups 10 reps

14 weeks in
Front squat 315x3
Bench 295x5
Pull up 18 reps

Jim@TBF - 29 November 2009 12:27 AM

Here were my numbers as I recall them

Front squat 315x6
Bench 315x5

You are STRONG, dude!!!

Thanks Anatoly,

I have to tell you, every time I load 6 plates and prepare to front squat I am intimidated by it. I would much rather load 8 plates on my back. However, my endurance is poor. On my chest day I super set flat bench with inc. flys and then rest 90 seconds and repeat. On the first set of 245 I can get 15 reps and my second I get 8 or so and then I have to lower it to 185 to get around 12 reps. And it is the same on my light days with all my lifts. The first one is impressive, but the last is like I am a girl. lol.

Those are some elite level numbers, Jim!!

I think you have hit a point where you really need to slow the reps down and really focus on the muscles you are working. you just have to be careful not to do too much heavy stuff at that weight all the time. Maybe bring the reps down to 8-10.

anoopbal - 04 December 2009 03:19 AM

Those are some elite level numbers, Jim!!

I think you have hit a point where you really need to slow the reps down and really focus on the muscles you are working. you just have to be careful not to do too much heavy stuff at that weight all the time. Maybe bring the reps down to 8-10.

Well, I am becoming more aware these days, as joints are creaking a little more and 3 weeks ago my old training partner (41) tore his IT band and popped his bursa sack doing a routine set of squats.

nice numbers, jim!

i’m at a point in my diet where i’m seeing some strength drop offs (like you said, not in my pulling or leg power, but my pushing power). rebounding during a maintenance period seems common, so should I would be worried about a 5-10 lb strength drop?

Just a quick reminder that fat also takes much more space than muscle. Therefore your scale should be thrown to the wolves and your focus should be on dress/pants size. What matters more to you, your weight or how others precive you? Thats what I thought. Nobody sees the weight scale but you. So trash that scale and keep at it until you have reached an appropriate dress size!