Tl;dr how do I lose weight without impeding my strength gainz? Not sure if I should make a thread for this but....
I've been very invested in powerlifting, and I've seen some great progress by sticking to it for the past 4 months! This is the first sport I've enjoyed without the main goal being something aesthetic related. I should note I walk everywhere, do 20-40 heavy cardio atleast 4x a week, and dance like a weirdo for 30-90 mins 4-5x a week. I consider myself active, but I'm not losing weight. I know it's my diet. :-(
My diet is squared away (lean protein/fruits/veggies/nuts/etc) M/T and T/F when I lift, but goes super squirrelly with shit food (lots of processed carbs) on Wed/Sat/Sun. My lifts on Mon/Thurs (squat/DL) have thus been continuously going up and making progress, but my Tuesday/Friday (bench/ohp) lifts are not! I'm pretty sure if I switched what days I do certain lifts, the results would be the same. I have thus concluded that my eating on Mon/Thurs might be impeding my progress on Tues/Fri respectively.
On the days I eat right, I'm exhausted, and of course the following day during my lift I'm exhausted. I usually wake up hungry (and go to the gym at 6AM pretty hungry) the day following when I eat healthy. I'm eating between 1500-2000 which is within range for me to be losing 1-2lbs/wk according to all the calculators.
The problem is, I know how to lose weight with calories deficits. NBD, just need to fix my squirrelly days if I want to lose weight. My problem is: how do I make strength progress with a calorie deficit? Should I adjust my macronutrients on the days I lift so the following day's lift is better? Should I be eating more on Mon/Thurs to make progress on Tues/Thurs? It is much harder to say no to candy when the next day's squats are making great progress....
I really would like to lose another 20-30lbs for summer, but I also want to be really strong with more progress on my lifts. Do I have to make a choice between losing weight and gaining strength? :-(
Sorry for such a long post!