Need help with my cut

[bridger]

I'm a 5' 10'' 167lbs 20 y/o male, I currently workout M/W/F and my program is starting strength. I started on January 9 after losing 40lbs in 2016. My body fat is still crazy high, right around 26% when i did the math in January so I still have a pretty pronounced beer gut at a moderate weight. I eat right around 1800cal/day and get ~130g of protein. It is about a 300cal deficit not including calories burned from excercise as I am trying to maintain my current weight and muscle mass while dropping my body fat to a healthy level.

Here is my issue: I have hit a plateau in the gym and my energy level is garbage after the first exercise. I understand that cutting severely limits progress, even for a novice such as myself, so the fact that weight isn't increasing doesn't bother me much. What does bother me is that I am constantly gassed and it takes a while to recover. Is there some sort of preworkout or macro set up that can keep me feeling strong throughout my sets? Macros right now are somewhere in the range of: 200+gcarb, ~130gprotein, 47gfat
Am I eating the wrong food or am I on the right track and just need to find some energy somewhere and dig deeper in the gym?

Thanks for any tips!

 

[dowaito]

@bridger Do you take creatine? I've noticed an increase in the amount of reps I'm able to do and also my energy level has improved a bit since I started taking it. I add a teaspoon to my morning coffee and I'm good to go.

I know you said you're cutting but try messing around with your caloric intake a bit and see if that gives you a bit more stamina during workouts. If you're unwilling to increase your calories than I'd say drop down a few pounds on your lifts and see if that makes a difference.

 

[johnthetheologian]

@bridger kcal and macros look good. I'd just listen to my body and go with a little bit lighter weight. If you fuck yourself up, you're not helping anyone.

I wouldn't use a pre-workout. It's a once-in-a-while thing to get you fired up, not something to take before every workout. You want to do this for the next years, not days.

You could try some fast digesting carbs 30m before a workout, some people feel better with that (I personally don't).

Other than that, again, lower the weights a bit and maybe get used to the feeling a bit. A cut is hard for your body and why should your body feel super strong, when it lacks energy and you want him to lift heavy weights?

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[themysterydd]

@bridger How long are your rest periods?

About how heavy are your main lifts?

Are you following the warmup from Starting Strength? What's your warmup routine?

Do you do cardio?

 

[bridger]

@themysterydd

1. about 30 sconds to a minute unless my muscles are on fire then I just wait until I think I can do another set without getting stuck and dropping a bar.
2. Squat: 140lbs DL: 175lbs Bench: 75lbs OHP: 70lbs Rows (instead of cleans): 125lbs Chinups: -65lbs (assisted)
3. I follow the warmups on the app, they seem consistent with those mentioned in the book
4. Used to run before lift, didn't like that so I stopped. Should I add cardio after? How much?

On wednesday and Thursday this week I ate over maintenance and I crushed weights and added extra volume for funsies on friday. I think it's most definitely a calorie issue. Next week I'm going to shift a lot of my calories to breakfast and see if that energy will help me power through the gym.

 

[themysterydd]

@bridger Your rest periods are too short. Most likely your problem will resolve if you give yourself 2-3 minutes between each work set (time between warmup sets can be short).

Calories may also be an issue but your rest periods are definitely too short. It's likely that you can keep calories as they were before but still get through your workouts fine if the rest periods are sufficient.

Cardio after lifting or on rest days is great, but I was mainly asking in case the answer was "yes a huge amount", which could cause issues like this while dieting. If you add substantial amounts of cardio you may want to raise calories to partially compensate.