Losing inches from waist but wanting to get stronger

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’m a 5’1 female that weighs around 121 pounds. Above my belly button, my waist measurement is 29 inches and at the belly button, the measurement is borderline 32 inches. Overall, I have a “top heavy”, apple shaped appearance with broad shoulders. I’m starting the 8 week version of the Bridge after leaving Starting Strength. What I’ve noticed after Starting Stength is that since I have upped my calories, I have gained a bit of muscle but I have also developed more “love handles” and abdominal fat. I still unfortunately have that skinny fat look despite lifting heavier. I have a passion for getting stronger and lifting more weight on the Squat, Bench, and Deadlift but my body fat percentage looks high compared to my weight, which concerns me since I want to be able to build muscle and not get more fat.

  1. Would you recommend for me to lower my calories?
  2. What type of cardio should I incorporate on my GPP day- HIIT or LISS?
  3. Should I still follow the template of the Bridge with 1 GPP day for each week, or should I do more?

Thank you very much.

2

Emma,

Thanks for the post and I hope you’re doing well.

  1. If you want to lose body fat, that would be my recommendation.
  2. Either is fine- one isn’t reliably better than the other.
  3. I think if you haven’t been doing a bunch of conditioning previously, starting out at one day a week is the way I’d go. If you’ve previously been doing more than that, I would start with the 2 sessions of GPP introduced near the end of the Bridge template.
1 Like
3

Thank you for the response.
Overall would the caloric deficit affect my lifts in any way (such as getting weaker)? I would still like to lift heavy.

4

I would expect you to get stronger if the programming is appropriate for you. I don’t think that losing weight- particularly in folks who are not underweight- directly inhibits strength gains.

A fun anecdote:

Recently I saw a case where a male, mid 30’s, obese per BMI (>35) and waist circumference (>40") was unable to add weight to his squat from a training session 48 hrs prior. In his notes he detailed that over the past month or so he had lost 4lbs. The coach noted his form was good and the client reported normal sleep and environmental factors. It was determined by senior staff that the failure to add weight to the client’s squat was due to the weight loss, not the programming.

I would disagree with this interpretation and point out that a failure of the client to demonstrate improved performance in a given time frame is, by definition, a function of inappropriate programming.