Maintaining Strength while losing weight

Glowworm

Member
I've lost just over 75 lbs, and my weight lifting has recently started to DECREASE. My muscles are physically exausted at lower reps today than it was 6 months ago at higher weights.

Anyone know what exactly is attributing to this? I'm guessing it probably has to do with diet? If so, what type of supplements or alternative intake do I need to be considering to maintain my strength?
 
Hey Glowworm,

It could be a number of things - though if its diet chances are its either a lack of protein or too few calories in your diet. Im no expert on this however so i could be wrong!
 
I would have said it's not enough carbs. Especially if it's weight lifting. Glycogen supplies energy to your muscles and glycogen comes from glucose which in turn comes from eating carbs.

I can't suggest anything as I don't weightlift. I can only tell you what I do before I exercise (an hour or something before) and that is make sure I have something substantial to eat, with carbs. I know I'm going to burn it off, so I don't worry about it.
 
Impressive amount of weight loss! Perhaps you could post a days eating/ exercising and we could see if we can help.
 
Thanks everyone for the responses... I was thinking it was too low of an intake.

Breakfast- 1 piece of peanut butter toast (87+190 cal, 8%carb, 11g protein, 16g fat), 1 personal box of cereal(114 cal, 9% carbs, 1.3g protein), 1 apple (74 cal, 6% carbs), 1 small glass of juice (148 cal, 12% carb)
Workout- 2-3 miles running at incline, and then high-rep weight lifting, alternating days between upper and lower body
Lunch: 1 sandwich, 6 slices of ham, 1 slice cheese, white bread(352 cal, 24% fat, 11% carb, 20g protein
Dinner: 1 bowl of soup, sometimes a ham and cheese sandwich if I'm hungry (180 calories, 14% carbs, 2 g protein)

Estimated calorie intake: 1145
Estimated calorie burn: 800
maintenance calorie count: *3200

Fat: about 60% (37.5 adjusted)
Carbs: about 60% (37.5 adjusted)
protein: 34.3g

Well all in all I guess I now realize I have been starving myself for the last few months... this is the first time I counted them... so thank you for that.

What should I try to increase my intake to, around 3000, and I probably dont have enough carbs or proteins either. I'm thinking everyones right? LOL...

thanks for the help... any other pointers anyone can offer? is that 3000 about right? Its going to be tough to eat that much!
 
Strength is fairly straightforward to maintain -

Choose a lower body exercise (squat or deadlift variation), an upper body pulling exercise and an upper body pushing exercise (standing overhead DB presses and Chin Ups / Lat Pulldowns are great options).

Perform 2 sets of 4-6 repetitions of each exercise, once or twice per week before your usual training session. This should be sufficient to maintain your strength levels, as long as the weights used are heavy enough that you could not lift them more than 7 times per set.


Also, yes, your calorie intake would need to be higher to maintain your strength and keep the metabolic effect of weight training effective.


Good luck


EDIT: Also, for a better fat burning effect try increasing the amount of protein you eat. If you are going heavy but for low reps as I outlined above, you will not need to eat as much as 3000 kcals. Try upping your current intake by 300 kcals a week and see how this affects your training, until you find the right amount of intake that lets you exercise sufficiently whilst also burning the fat.
 
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