Leaning Out, Losing Strength

[Stacey Gregrow]

Hello all,

I am new to these boards, but I have been lurking quite some time. I am a recovering zoner, who has been doing a semi-paleo lifestyle for about a month now. I eat lean meats, veggies, nuts, seeds, some fruit and all, but I probably have too many eggs in the true paleo-eater's eyes, and I don't ALWAYS have grass fed meats on hand. I have noticed that I have not been as strong lately. I have not been able to set a PR in a while with oly lifting and I am attributing it to my diet. Has this happened to you? What did you do? I have noticed that paleo definitely helps me lean out, which is a good thing, but I don't want to lose my strength in the same sence. Any help is much appreciated.

[Nic Kirkland]

What does your programming consist of?

In order to support strength on Paleo I have to really focus on eating a lot. As in eating meat and vegetables until it hurts.

[Stacey Gregrow]

Originally Posted by Nic Kirkland

What does your programming consist of?

In order to support strength on Paleo I have to really focus on eating a lot. As in eating meat and vegetables until it hurts.

Thanks for the reply Nic,
I workout 5 times per week and our programming usually consists of 2 Max effort lift days, and the rest being Met cons or couplets. I have been trying to stay within the same parameters with my foods, eating 3-4 oz protein at every meal, some sort of carb (not as much as I used to eat when zoning), and a fat. I have been eating extra fat to replace the carbs (about 6 blocks with every meal). Is that what I should be doing? thanks in advance...

[Nic Kirkland]

Originally Posted by Stacey Gregrow

Is that what I should be doing? thanks in advance...

Individual nutritional/diet concerns like these are very hard to address as the answer is usually, it depends on the person and situation.

I would say the answer is no if you're losing strength. It's very easy to get full on Paleo foods once you're doing it right. Try upping your protein uptake for a few weeks and see how that treats you. Another factor may be your post workout nutrition. If you're not getting a shot of protein/carbs in that window immediately post workout that may be having a negative impact on your recovery from your work.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

"eating 3-4 oz protein at every meal" double that at least

How much do you sleep? When was the last time you took time off or reduced volume/intensity? How long on this program? WHat do you do through out the day (active job, running after kids, running after women, etc)?

You are either not producing enough stress to drive adaptation or you are not recovering enough from the stress to produce adaptation.

[Steven Low]

When you drop significant amounts of weight you will lose strength because you will lose muscle mass even with a good diet.

Now if you're losing absurd amounts of strength something may be up.

If your performance overall is decreasing same thing.

It's easy to overdo training when you're losing weight.

May need more sleep and and rest break.

[Leonid Soubbotine]

I've gone from 220 to 198-200 in the past year - because the process was so slow - I didn't lose any strength/power at all & gained quite a bit actually.

[David Meverden]

Do you track what you eat in FitDay or similar? Despite your zone trained eye you might be eating less than you think.

When I've done strict paleo I would sometimes eat as few as 1900 calories a day if I merely ate when I was hungry and stopped when I wasn't. For me (who needs around 3000 kcal to stay at a constant weight) that was a pretty good recipe for fat and strength loss. Same might be happening with you.

[Brian Bedell]

Could be many, most, or all of the things mentioned above. I see a lot of people "blaming" the paleo diet for weight loss or a decrease in performance...this is not paleo's fault, it's more then likely people having trouble eating enough of the good foods b/c they are not cheap and in every vending machine. On paleo, you need to plan your eating better. And you said you are eating less carbs now, maybe you need the carbs.

[Stacey Gregrow]

Thank you for all of the advice. I should probably get more sleep, and I do have an active job, teaching PE to kids with disabilities. I will up the protein a bit and see how I feel. I know when changing your eating patterns you have to give it time to adapt. The last time I took a week off was the 2nd week of May, right before regionals where I competed on the Affiliate team. I will keep working on it, but I appreciate the help guys!