I have been training hard for the past two years diligently and have gotten some pretty decent results. I ran strength and hypertrophy blocks alternating, and I gained a lot of strength and muscle. I just turned 26, and at 6 foot 1.5 inches I weigh 265lbs. A bodyfat machine at the gym said I am 22.5% bodyfat, however I expect I am closer to 30%. I got my press to 255, Bench to 375, Deadlift over 600 finally, and my squat which was always my worst lift is approaching 500. I can also do ten chinups at this weight. However, my waist is 40.2" measured right below the bellybutton. Arms are in the 17’s flexed. Now, these numbers for a dude who weighs 220 would be pretty damn strong (not world class but strong). However for a guy who is 265, I feel that I should be stronger. Now, that being said I have NEVER dialed in my nutrition. I drink too much beer, and I eat a lot of junk food. There is no way I am even CLOSE on a daily basis to hitting the macros protein-wise that I know I should be. My ultimate goal is not to be a competitive powerlifter or be a world-class guy, but just to be healthy, strong and “jacked.” My ideal physique (like many here I am sure) is to try and achieve something close to the way Jordan looks. I also have lifetime goals of benching 405 (this is the biggest goal of mine), squatting 600, deadlifting 700 and potentially getting a 300lb press. So realistically I am about 45lbs away from my press goal, 30lbs away from my bench goal, 100 or so lbs away from my squat goal and 90lbs away from my deadlift goal. Now, I realize I have amassed quite a bit of fat from the weight I have gained and my poor diet. I want to start doing this thing right and see where it can take me. I understand that this is not only not healthy for me to be carrying around this much bodyfat, but that if I managed to get my bodyfat down to say 15%, and hit those numbers I would call it a success. I have been told that those numbers are achievable for a guy who is 220-230 and that I should focus on becoming a lean and efficient 230 as opposed to a semi-kinda strong 265 and unhealthy.
My plan is to continue training as usual (about to run the 12 week strength 4 day with 2 gpp slots), but to get my nutrition in order, clean my diet up, hit my macros, and see if I can’t start to look better while continuing to increase my strength. I understand that since I am not eating to “bulk up,” that I cannot expect to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. I am okay with that AS LONG as I can continue to get stronger. I just hate the idea of working hard to get my numbers up only to see the strength start to plummet as I lose weight. I have listened to your podcasts and I heard that you guys believe one can lose weight, get a smaller waist, and still get stronger given that their nutrition is in order. My thought process is that going from ZERO nutrition to “something” all else being equal, must yield some sort of progress. For now the plan is to eat healthy, single ingredient foods, hit 275g protein, 396g carbs and 129g fats, hit 3,880 calories a day. Do you think that, given my goals to lose fat, continue getting stronger and healthier, this would be a good place to start?