Need a sense of direction

[sthaznpride17]

Hey guys, I have been lifting since I started college, which was two years ago. Before that I had not touched a barbel in my life. I am stronger now than I was before college but I'm not really happy with what I have been doing. I am 5'8" 150lbs and I'm guessing around 18% body fat, which is primarily on my gut and chest. I'm somewhat conflicted on which direction to take: whether to bulk or cut. My goal over the summer is to lose 5lbs of body fat before school starts, which is a small but reachable goal. Currently I am doing Starting Strength 3x5 on MWF and have it plateau's on all my lifts due. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[dealmaster00]

How is your diet looking? You might want to take a look at the fat loss sticky for a sample diet plan and a list of good foods to eat. If you aren't watching your diet it can be easy to start gaining weight...not the good kind. Try to eat healthy 90% of the time, cheat meals 10% of the time.

The other important thing you should be doing is sleep...get 8 hours every night. This is just about as important as diet.

If you are plateauing on your lifts, then you should deload (take 10% of the weight off your work set and work your way back up to your work set). If after several deloads you still are not progressing then it's time to look into an intermediate workout.

 

[katank]

dealmaster pretty much covered it. Cleaning up diet and getting more sleep can definitely break you past the plateaus.

I'd recommend trying to avoid intermediate routine if you can. Try a hard reset (20%) if one or two soft resets doesn't work. You can find strength standards for all the lifts in Starting Strength. How do you stack up against those?

 

[Lamont Burns]

I am on SS. I recently got stuck on both Bench and OH Press. At 155 and 100, respectively. I dropped both back down about 10% and for the week I started the deload made sure to sleep and eat well.

I am back to those levels and 5lbs past both now and looking strong at least on bench, OH press might be a tough one forever for me, but I love it anyway.

 

[sthaznpride17]

I think the plateau's are there because I'm trying to do conflicting things. I am trying to lift heavier, but also lose the fat. I am focusing on eating healthier, but I am definitely not on a "clean" bulking diet. Is it possible to lose fat and gain muscle by simply eating healthy and lifting? Or should I concentrate on one thing at a time?

 

[darkxshade]

If you're on a cutting phase, then you're on[or should be on] a caloric deficit while eating healthy. The purpose of heavy lifting during cutting is to force your body to hold onto lean muscle that you already have because in a caloric deficit[and cardio], your body will lose body fat and muscle. The heavier you lift, the more your body will use fat stores for energy because you're telling it you need the muscle.

 

[katank]

Unless you are a complete beginner, losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously will be slow. You are likely to get faster results on bulk and cut cycles instead.

Either do GOMAD or something similar to bulk and get past the plateaus or just aggressively cut and maintain your strength at current levels. It doesn't matter what you choose as long as you make some progress and feel good about yourself.

 

[yelo333]

Yes, your thinking is exactly correct. It is very, very difficult to make strength gains while losing weight, especially if you've been lifting for awhile. I'm naturally very skinny, and my experience has been that I really don't make any gains unless I make a very conscious effort to eat as much as possible as often as possible.

I wouldn't worry about your weight at the moment. Just eat clean, eat when hungry, eat enough, and you should be set. Keep lifting, and you'll get stronger. There's just unfortunately no real way to gain an appreciable amount of muscle without giving your body enough food. Worry about losing weight later, once you've achieved your strength goals.

Actually, according to Mehdi over at Stronglifts, the desirable weight for a 5'8" guy is more than 150lbs anyway, so you probably aren't fat at this point. So, if he is correct, you're just going to wind up looking skinny if you lose weight anyway.

Basically, if you lose 5lbs now, you'll just wind up looking 5lbs skinnier. And not be any stronger, possibly weaker. If you gained some weight or at least maintained your current weight, you'll wind up looking better & be stronger to boot.

Keep lifting & eating! :thumbsup:

 

[darkxshade]

Alternatively if you want to bulk, you want to eat on a caloric surplus which means you have to eat more calories than you burn daily. It however, has to come from healthy foods. On a bulking phase, you gain muscle from the surplus of calories that your body stoes while lifting increasingly heavy weights. If you eat healthy, your muscle will grow and you'll lift heavier weights faster, if you eat unhealthy, you'll lift heavier weights slower and gain more fat in the process.

 

[Lamont Burns]

Originally posted by: sthaznpride17
I think the plateau's are there because I'm trying to do conflicting things. I am trying to lift heavier, but also lose the fat. I am focusing on eating healthier, but I am definitely not on a "clean" bulking diet. Is it possible to lose fat and gain muscle by simply eating healthy and lifting? Or should I concentrate on one thing at a time?

Not many people can maintain a 100% clean bulk 24/7. Especially if they simplify it into just a few foods every day.

If you can keep it at 85-90% at your current height/weight, if that will keep you on better foods longer than just completely derailing yourself, so be it.

I would eat in excess if I were you, if you are gaining too fast throttle it back. You won't know much of anything worthwhile for at least a week on a single diet I would think.

I started off pretty skinny, and lifting puny amounts. My amounts are still relatively small for someone my size, but my strength is visible on and off the weights, with just a small % fat gain so far eating large.

 

[sthaznpride17]

I think the best thing for me is to focus on reaching my strength goals, I can always go on a cut later if I feel there is too much fat. Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[yelo333]

Originally posted by: Lamont Burns
Not many people can maintain a 100% clean bulk 24/7. Especially if they simplify it into just a few foods every day.

Yup. Also consider that just to maintain a certain % bf, you'd actually be gaining fat along with the muscle. So there's nothing wrong with gaining a little fat.