Strength building question

[MAR1984]

I'm trying to lose weight, so I'm in a calorie deficit. I'm weight lifting to maintain muscle mass. I know I can't really build muscle mass while in a deficit, but I know I can build strength in a deficit. My question is, is there a limit to the amount of strength you can gain without building muscle mass?

 

[KaraCooks]

There's a limit, but at this point, it's probably not something that you really need to worry about. IMO, anyway.

 

[MAR1984]

Thanks Kara. Just trying to determine some realistic strength goals to work towards, or to get an idea on where I might stall out and not be able to increase the weight any higher.

 

[KaraCooks]

Just trying to determine some realistic strength goals to work towards, or to get an idea on where I might stall out and not be able to increase the weight any higher.

Honestly I think this is going to be very individual. A group of us worked through the 5x5 Stronglifts program last fall and documented it on my board. Each of us hit our strength / burnout level at different times. A lot of us changed our diets for the length of the program. I did nearly double all of my current lifts before I hit my limit, but honestly I found that focusing on strength rather than composition wound up being detrimental to my weight loss efforts.

For me, I needed to focus more on slow progressive increases to make sure I was able to maintain muscle (and keeping in line with my weight loss) ... rather than focusing on sheer strength building.

But again, everyone is different.