Waist is still up there (39") and so I have trimmed my calories by another 300/day. Wondering what your thoughts are on volume vs intensity when in a deficit in an attempt to minimize strength and LBM loss. As expected I’ve noticed that I have already lost some strength after 4 weeks (and 6 lbs bw loss) and find it harder to recover. My question is, should I focus on volume during the 3-6 months I plan on eating/training like this until I drop a few inches off the waist, or continue to lift at RPE 8-9 on all the lifts? I’m following the beginner prescription but have been adding sets (to squat, rows and presses) vs weight as I haven’t been able to put more weight on the bar while eating 500+ cals under maintenance. I want to progress on some front while losing weight, and I can handle extra sets. Would it be better to duplicate the workouts with my current numbers or drop weight and add volume? I’m a 44-yr old male, 180 lbs, Thanks in advance.
I don’t think there is any unique “weight loss specific” volume-intensity relationship.
I also wouldn’t expect strength loss while losing weight in most cases, especially in a 500kCal deficit.
It says you’re doing the Beginner Prescription that you’re modifying by adding sets, but I don’t think you’re a beginner, right?
Well, not a beginner in the sense that I am not new to barbell training…but after screwing around with a bunch of nonsense prior to my last exchange with you on the forums, you recommended just going back and running the beginner template until it stopped working…I took your advice and it’s helped tremendously and allowed me to start progressing in all the lifts again (and the different rep ranges also rekindled my desire to train…I was doing pretty much all 5s prior).
You recommend specific weight circumferences for males and despite my bodyweight staying fairly consistent and body composition improving, I still have a lot of fat around the midsection and waist has not come down (also had elevated blood pressure during my annual physical and was told to drop some lbs by my GP)…so instead of eating at maintenance as I had been doing, I chopped some calories in hopes of seeing a few inches come off my waist. Thankfully BP is normal again. I’m only about a month into this but I do indeed notice it’s more difficult to get through sets like the 10s on squats than it was 4 weeks and 6 pounds ago…could be other factors I suppose (sleep quality? Stress? all in my head? etc).
I’d like to maintain as much LBM/strength as possible while dropping enough weight to see my waist get down under 35" but am struggling to put more weight on the bar and thought volume would help me progress in some way (so adding sets vs more weight). But if you think this is foolish should I just keep trying to add weight to the bar even while in a deficit and push through the plateaus in other ways? FYI: another culprit could be that I kept protein intake the same (0.8-1g per lb/bw) while cutting out mostly carbs (I was eating twice as many carbs pre & post but created the deficit primarily by halving my oats pre and rice post portions)…I may have just answered my own stupid question. 
Anyway, thanks as always for the advice, and especially for telling me to abandon what I had been doing and move to your training philosophy with different rep ranges, etc. Stay safe in The Age of The 'Rona (and all these crazy CA wildfires that have surrounded your old hometown of Santa Cruz)! My car is covered in ash.