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losing a lot of strength on my cut

To cut a long story short I have cut my weight from 191 to 177 pounds, losing a lot of bodyfat in the process (I was overweight for a while). My goal weight at 10% bf is 160 pounds but I have lost a lot of strength on my cut.

From being able to bench 6 reps at 92.5kg I am now hitting only 3-4 reps on 85kg.

Deadlift has suffered massively as has my squat.

Deadlift, 155kg 1x5 to 130 1x3.
Squat, from 137.5kg 1x5 to 112.5kg 1x5.

Today I had a really bad workout where I was really tierd. Could not even get past warmup on the squat, only benched 3 reps on 85kg.


I know its probably to do with calorie deficit/diet, sometimes i have one cheat meal a day (a ready meal as i cba to cut) consisting of 400-500 calories and i think that is what really holds me back.

How do i address this? Could my strength possibly come back on the cut?
Original post by Tom.x.Gotze
To cut a long story short I have cut my weight from 191 to 177 pounds, losing a lot of bodyfat in the process (I was overweight for a while). My goal weight at 10% bf is 160 pounds but I have lost a lot of strength on my cut.

From being able to bench 6 reps at 92.5kg I am now hitting only 3-4 reps on 85kg.

Deadlift has suffered massively as has my squat.

Deadlift, 155kg 1x5 to 130 1x3.
Squat, from 137.5kg 1x5 to 112.5kg 1x5.

Today I had a really bad workout where I was really tierd. Could not even get past warmup on the squat, only benched 3 reps on 85kg.


I know its probably to do with calorie deficit/diet, sometimes i have one cheat meal a day (a ready meal as i cba to cut) consisting of 400-500 calories and i think that is what really holds me back.

How do i address this? Could my strength possibly come back on the cut?


How tall are you?
How much weight are you actually losing a week?
What's your training programme?
I find the faster I cut the more strength I lose. Normally when I aim for 1/1.5 pounds a week I lose minimal strength but any deficit greater than that and my strength suffers. When I cut I try to keep my focus on keeping my strength and normally reduce my volume a little bit as well but honestly you shouldn't worry too much about the strength loss for now. Its probably not due to a loss of muscle but due to your energy levels and overworked CNS and once you go back to your caloric surplus It'll come back.
I never fuss over strength loss when cutting tbh, it's all temporary due to glycogen depletion, less water in the muscles and of course weakness due to being in a deficit. When you knock the calories back up to maintenance or higher, watch a lot of your strength and muscle loss reverse over the next few weeks :wink:
Yep what above poster said, if you want to try and improve your performance whilst cutting try and get the majority of your calories in pre workout.
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It's so much work trying to look sexy :frown:
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Original post by WoodyMKC
I never fuss over strength loss when cutting tbh, it's all temporary due to glycogen depletion, less water in the muscles and of course weakness due to being in a deficit. When you knock the calories back up to maintenance or higher, watch a lot of your strength and muscle loss reverse over the next few weeks :wink:



Hello mate, remember reading quite a lot of your posts, only managed 3 reps on 82.5kg bench today. Is this normal to become quite a bit weaker than I was before (I got 90kg for 5 reps before cutting).

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