For context, I've been back at the gym now for about a year and I've taken nutrition and activity more seriously than ever before to challenge myself. Since after highschool I've always sat around 25-30% bodyfat (peaking a little higher) and I'm down to something around 15% now.
For the last about 7 lbs of this journey, I've had a lot more misses in the gym as far as did seta. Like last week I did for example 50 lbs for 8,8,7 then this week I had to drop down, since I could only do 5-6 at 50 lbs. It doesn't happen for every lift, but it's pretty consistently at least 1 lift per week. I know at some point, the game becomes just trying to preserve strength/muscle, but I figured that would be more of an issue if I get closer to 10% bf. Any tips or experience is greatly appreciated.
It's my understanding from reading a major (meta?)study recently that maintaining muscle should be as simple as working the muscles enough to activate a mechano-sensor protein like once a week should be enough. Basically weight lifting and maintaining that "pump" for the rest period between sets. I know that if you're not making gains, it's likely you're not getting enough protein. At least, protein is usually the first thing to double-check is more what I'm getting at. Followed by making sure you're working those muscle groups often enough, you're increasing weight/frequency enough, adequate sleep, adequate amount of calories, etc.
Im not a doctor, but I have a good few years experience in the gym, and my suspicion is that it may be diet related. You'd be surprised how often you need to adjust your macros and caloric intake, especially when doing the bulking/cutting method. If you're already at like 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight(while cutting? Doubt it), then I would see about adjusting the amount of calories. I know, super difficult to fit those macros, but you gotta adjust the diet to get the results you want at the speed you want. In any case, it sounds to me like you're not quite producing enough energy (as has already been suggested). Your body may not like the amount of calories cut per day and/or the amount of protein isn't adequate to maintain.
And one other thing is to keep in mind that you've been at it for a year, so it's common for people to keep plateau-ing in various metrics at your point. Even the usual adjustments can be much less effective at this point. The body is great at adaptation, and sometimes that can be counterproductive to the goals we're trying to attain.
In any case, it can be any number of things. I've had buddies in the gym plateau then suddenly start getting gains again by adding a little cardio, or fixing their sleeping schedule, or noticing they haven't been hydrating like they know they should. Hell, I've even heard of stretching as a "workout" on rest days working for some. If you get a good bit of the "obvious" stuff squared away (sleep, water, etc), along with double-checking your macros/calories and you're still losing strength, I would go see a doctor and/or nutritionist.
I should probably also mention that cutting and maintaining muscle is very difficult when doing the cutting/bulking method. It usually comes down to protein intake being inadequate because of the difficulty of keeping within caloric restraints. So most people kinda just accept that strength loss will happen when cutting, which is perfectly valid. Just depends on your goals and priorities.
Sorry, tl;dr: 1. Ensure adequate protein intake to maintain 2.Make sure the calorie reduction while cutting isn't too dramatic 3. Ensure adequate sleep/hydration for recovery 4.If you're sure you're hitting the above points adequately and still losing strength, probably talk to a doctor... which I am not.
This is fair, and I partly assumed that my cut was a little drastic to maintain at leaner percentages. I was doing approximately a 800 calorie deficit, so I bumped that down to 500, which should help a bit. I think I'm being plenty of protein, not 1 g/lb, but from what I've seen getting at least 0.7 should be good, and I get between 0.85 and 0.9. I think I may just have to dial things so that the rest of the cut is a little slower, which is annoying since I wanted to finish faster lol. I appreciate your thoughts!
Hoooo boy, yeah, from my experience, 800 calories is definitely too drastic. And the amount of protein you're taking in is plenty good. IIRC, the minimum recommended is like .61 g/lb, so .7 is great. But yeah, I get it, I'm right there with you on getting things to where you want them to be like yesterday. When I'm trying to get back into the gym, I'm fighting myself the whole way to not get impatient, reminding myself before, during, and after, and still I find myself every time getting pissed immediately. I know I expect too much of myself at a pace that just isn't physically possible, so, hard relate to constantly having to readjust by telling yourself to chill. It feels like I'm dragging myself, kicking and screaming, back to reality over and over. I know you already see it a year in, but don't forget to remind yourself that the hard, sustainable work is worth it all along the way, not just in the end.
But yeah, I'd keep the calorie deficit at a maximum of 500 when cutting if you want to maintain muscle mass/strength. Biology is fucky, though, so you may want to keep an eye on things anyway as the rules for even your own body can just change. Anyway, I think you're doing great already, so keep up the good work. Always happy to help in whatever capacity I can.
I appreciate the input! Yeah I'm just frustrated because the deficit worked really great for like 5 months, seeing pretty consistent, reasonably "fast progress". I imagine that's mostly because I had extra fat stores to burn through. The last week or so I bumped my number closer to 500, so I'll see how that feels after I settle, but so far the scale stopped moving. There's no way my maintenance is 2000 calories at 180 lbs and being pretty active. The body is weird lol