Good amount of weight to lose

[John Grantham]

started sslp about 5 weeks ago. 42 years old , male. Not totally untrained prior. Things are starting to grind (at like a mere 92.5 lb press) Waist is ~ 44 inches, weight 233lbs . I need to be more consistent with the diet . Have tried to have a calorie deficit , but have ended up more or less just maintaining. Want to build muscle long term, not untested in competing. Should I wait on gaining strength and focus harder on weight loss given that I’ve got so much to lose? If so, I know I’d want to keep training to maintain lean body mass, but should I keep up SSLP , or switch to something with a lower intensity and demand for progress in weights every work out?

I feel like im a little heavier than the guys described in the hypothetical Scenario # 3 in the beast article , so not sure if the advice is the best for me (otherwise I’d just follow it and not ask this question). I think weight loss should be the most important thing for me right now and the pace should be rather quick . If I thought I could do that and build strength (and perhaps just a wee bit of muscle), i would do it but if the better course would be to get leaner faster I would do that instead.


Thanks in advance

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Hey John,

Thanks for being here. I think you need to lose weight, now. I would lower calories until that starts happening and keeps happening long term. If you're not losing weight, you're not in a deficit, ya know?

I would do LP as written with 3-4 resets when you stall. Each time you stall, e.g. fail to add weight to the bar, I would have a coach peak at your form to be sure you're not making any egregious errors.

You should be able to press much more than that.

[John Grantham]

Is your rec for so many resets because of how low my numbers are now before starting to grind/fail, significant weight to lose, or both?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Is your rec for so many resets because of how low my numbers are now before starting to grind/fail, significant weight to lose, or both?

Both! I think that you should go a lot further on your LP and because you need to lose weight, we should try and train regularly for a little while first without too much fuss.