Why does cutting lower strength?

[Josh]

Hi Everyone,

A friend of mine was telling me a couple nights ago how he's been doing tabata thrusters and suggested I try them because they're really good for burning fat. I told him I wouldn't want to burn any fat yet since I am still bulking and trying to get stronger. He and another friend didn't understand why I would want to actually keep some of my bodyfat (I'm probably around 12%.) I didn't have any facts to back up my claims, but I was trying to tell them if I burned off more of my bodyfat, I'd get weaker and not be able to lift as much. Is that true, or am I mistaken? If it's true, I'd like to actually know why and be able to explain it to them.

Thanks,
Josh

[C-money]

Cause usually to burn fat you have to be in a calorie deficit (this doesnt apply with AAS in some cases).. And when youre in a calorie deficit over a long period of time you can lose muscle mass ... Thus getting weaker.. there more factors aswell but this is the main reason

[steve_d]

mass moves mass.

Even if you hold onto every single ounce of muscle, you will still be weaker if you weigh less. Some lifts hurt more then others. My deadlift is affected the least, and my bench the most. Everyone is different as well - although, pound for pound I am usually stronger the leaner I am. Then at a certain point, I am too lean to get out of bed without taking a few thermogenics let alone try to do some squats.

[Praetorian]

There are several reasons why cutting ends up in a loss of strength. If you are on decent diet your muscle loss will be very minimal thus this reason is probably the most cited but the least to worry about. The main reasons are lack of energy ie much less carbohydrate and overall calories and lack of leverage...ie loss of water due to lowered carb intake. This initial strength loss however will slow to a halt once the body adapts to the carb levels and lowered water retention. Your strenght should stabalize from there and may increase as well.
P

[Josh]

Thanks, everyone.

[tiramisu]

.... and if you have a really really big belly it lowers the distance on your bench. :)

[Rhinobolt10]

There are several reasons why cutting ends up in a loss of strength. If you are on decent diet your muscle loss will be very minimal thus this reason is probably the most cited but the least to worry about. The main reasons are lack of energy ie much less carbohydrate and overall calories and lack of leverage...ie loss of water due to lowered carb intake. This initial strength loss however will slow to a halt once the body adapts to the carb levels and lowered water retention. Your strenght should stabalize from there and may increase as well.
P

I agree with this a lot. I've gone down from 240 to 215 in the last 20 weeks or so, while regularily competing in strongman for quite a bit of it. We just did things really slow, and made sure we used good food choices, but I never really felt weaker, and lately I've been smashing PR's at a lower bodyweight.

Benching has been pretty tough, but I think that's been more from a few injuries I picked up at strongman, and I'm planning on hitting some pretty decent PR's in that one too in the coming weeks.

I think just having patience and not trying to go all out at the start is the best way to retain strength and even hit some PR's while dieting.

[cog]

Many years ago the Russiand did a study on leg strength which indicated that some added fat increased strength.Mechanical advantage apparently.

[Rhinobolt10]

yeah, a big gut will help u get out of the hole.. but it's not neccesary to go crazy about it i think

[swolegantor]

You should of just hit your friend in the face for saying "tabata thrusters" and just gone on with living.