Stronglifts and Weak Meal Planning
Today was Day 1 of my 12 weeks of Stronglifts 5x5. If you're not aware, Stronglifts is a free weightlifting program with the goal of making major strength gains. You can read about it here. I did a lot of thinking about what route to go down in order to increase my strength while losing weight, and I came up with Stronglifts.
When I was last in good shape, I was also training for a Spartan race. I never completed that race, though. I didn't give myself enough time to train (I signed up only 10 weeks ahead of the race), and I also lacked a structured program. I was basically doing whatever I felt like doing, which I suppose is fine for maintenance of strength, but at the time I was somewhere between 170 and 180 lbs. and while I could bench 90 pounds, I couldn't do a pull up. So, basically, I needed to lose about 20 pounds while increasing my upper body strength (which had plateaued), and after only a few weeks of half-hearted burpees and plateaued benches I just gave up.
That was a couple of years ago now, and at this point I have a lot more to do than lose 20 pounds. If you haven't been around for my last few posts, I actually have 100 pounds to lose. EEEP! I don't expect to lose that weight by my race on December 9th. I do expect to get back to 170-180 by then, though. So how can I be 170-180 and be able to pull my bodyweight up over an obstacle and be able to complete 30 burpees?
Calories and Macros and Dieting, Oh My
Before you get on my case about the supposed contradiction of building strength while dropping pounds, let me say that I've done my research. There are a lot of respected people out there who claim it's possible, Tom Venuto being one of them. He's the author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle which is a book about just this approach. I've done my share of reading and from my own personal experience of past efforts, I know this is doable.
The big question right now is how much that I should be eating.
Part of the reason for my previous plateau, I believe, is that I wasn't eating enough. So, I need to find a middle ground between not enough eating and eating too many calories. The problem for me is that I have two things which make my job harder: I am on anti-anxiety medication (notorious for weight gain) and thyroid medication (my metabolism sucks).
SIGH.
I don't have any ready answers right now. All that I can do for the meantime is eat clean, add in some whey protein supplementation and drink a lot of water. I'm going to track my calories and pay attention to my strength gains. We'll just see what works and tweak accordingly. I need to be patient. I don't expect to land upon the perfect answer in one week.
When I was last in good shape, I was also training for a Spartan race. I never completed that race, though. I didn't give myself enough time to train (I signed up only 10 weeks ahead of the race), and I also lacked a structured program. I was basically doing whatever I felt like doing, which I suppose is fine for maintenance of strength, but at the time I was somewhere between 170 and 180 lbs. and while I could bench 90 pounds, I couldn't do a pull up. So, basically, I needed to lose about 20 pounds while increasing my upper body strength (which had plateaued), and after only a few weeks of half-hearted burpees and plateaued benches I just gave up.
That was a couple of years ago now, and at this point I have a lot more to do than lose 20 pounds. If you haven't been around for my last few posts, I actually have 100 pounds to lose. EEEP! I don't expect to lose that weight by my race on December 9th. I do expect to get back to 170-180 by then, though. So how can I be 170-180 and be able to pull my bodyweight up over an obstacle and be able to complete 30 burpees?
Rather than just going back to my non-programmed workouts which were great for increasing my stamina, weight loss and overall shapeliness (ooh!), I need to take a focused approach. There are tons of weightlifting programs out there, but the ones that are for beginners are often kind of... wussy.
I need to focus on cultivating super-stamina. I need to focus on all around body strength in structured programs. I need to do this while cutting fat from my frame.
Calories and Macros and Dieting, Oh My
Before you get on my case about the supposed contradiction of building strength while dropping pounds, let me say that I've done my research. There are a lot of respected people out there who claim it's possible, Tom Venuto being one of them. He's the author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle which is a book about just this approach. I've done my share of reading and from my own personal experience of past efforts, I know this is doable.
The big question right now is how much that I should be eating.
Part of the reason for my previous plateau, I believe, is that I wasn't eating enough. So, I need to find a middle ground between not enough eating and eating too many calories. The problem for me is that I have two things which make my job harder: I am on anti-anxiety medication (notorious for weight gain) and thyroid medication (my metabolism sucks).
SIGH.
I don't have any ready answers right now. All that I can do for the meantime is eat clean, add in some whey protein supplementation and drink a lot of water. I'm going to track my calories and pay attention to my strength gains. We'll just see what works and tweak accordingly. I need to be patient. I don't expect to land upon the perfect answer in one week.
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