If one can maintain strength levels while dieting, once the return to their pre diet bodyweight, or close to it, they should be stronger than before right?

For example I'm floating around 102kg at the moment and hitting PR's all over the place. I've put on a couple of kg in the last month so I attribute that to having a significant role, in addition to over hauling my training.

I'll be going down to 95/96kg so I can compete at 90kg (18 hour weigh in) so if I can even maintain my strength levels (i actually expect them to increase), when I come off the diet and bulk back up I should add a load of muscle and probably a bit of fat. Assuming this leaves me close to 102kg again, my strength should improve greatly due to increased leverages right?

Yeah that sounds pretty good, actually. I find that its almost impossible for me not to lose strength when dieting, but it seems to all come back with a little more when i get back to my usual weight.

I'm not that strong, but in my experience fat loss and dieting (as long as it's nothing crazy) impacts strength a LOT less than most people say.

The weight loss usually affected my squat and bench due to the gear fitting differently. Deadlift stayed about the same.

There's nothing better than swelling up bigger than you were before and crushing training PR's as you go.

Bloat on, my friend, bloat on...

Depends how long you take to diet down to 95kg, what amount of that loss of weight is muscle and fat etc. If you're just losing water/glycogen and a small amount of fat then once you replenish all your stores you should be of a similar strength, but remember your gear won't be fitting the same after losing 10kg of weight.

The bulk will depend on your diet, you're bodies been at 100+kg before so I wouldn't think it would take that long to get back up there. If you eat lots and eat clean then I see no reason why you wouldn't be stronger.

After reading the title of the thread, I was expecting some serious retardedness.

I am disappointed not to find any.

It's definitely doable.

I'm not at your level (you've seen my squat and deadlift lol).

In January I dropped down from 180-185lbs to 160lbs (stabilized at 165lbs) in about 10 weeks.

***Note: I did it because I was having problems with my sciatic nerve and I figured that the bit of gut I had wasn't helping. Turns out I was right.***

Less than 4 weeks after I finished I hit 30lbs PRs in the squat and deadlift. Again, I'm not at your level, but there is now reason you need to lose strength.

Just a couple more thoughts.

1. Do it as early as possible so you have time to adjust. This will give you time limit any gear issues (I don't know anything about that, but I'm sure others can give you ideas).

2. Your not dieting for a bodybuilding show, so remember this dropping weight shit is easy. You shouldn't care where it come off or even if it looks like it's coming off. Your only concerned with the scale. (Just make sure your not dehydrating yourself.)

3. Preparation is key when cutting weight. Never be wondering what to do with your next meal, always have at least a day in advance planned.

4. In my experience high protein is the key.

I haven't checked your log lately, are you going to be keeping a log of sorts?

I've only had to cut weight a few times. But keep the work volume down when cutting, you'll need all the gas you have in the tank for your absolute heaviest weights. Skipping the middle sets helped me keep most of my (albeit small) strength when I dropped from 175 to 153 in a month.

just my $0.02

i weighed 305 pounds a little bit over a year ago , i got down to 258 pounds my legs lost alot of strength but my bench still went up and back then i trained like a BB . i gained the weight back when i moved back to california i didnt have a gym membership and i got lazy. i went up to 290 and right now im at 267-270 and i begun to train with the standard template in early march my deadlifts and squats are at 410 and 425.i want to get down to 230. i think it's possible for me to progess while losing weight.

I'm not really specifically talking about strength come competition day. The heaviest I've ever competed at was 98kg, I should hit the platform around that weight anyway (probably get my bodyweight back to 95-96 and then an extra 2kg bloat).

I was really thinking about what would happen when I went from 96kg back to 102ish kg 5 or 6 months down the road....

Tis a good discussion so far!!

i cut weight for wrestling an had no problems...strength was just as good.

reloaded with creatine, gatorade and pedialyte

not sure how that helps.

the increase is weight should help you bench/squat do to your levers changing and decreased ROM

Hanley, I'll be interested to know your 'cutting' regime (mainly carb depletion & dehydration?)along with your method to put the weight back in 18 hrs.

Do you have various sets of lifting gear? I mean training at 102kg and lifting at 95-98 must make SQ suit & BP shirt fit completely differently.

I'd also be interested to find out what really happens, i.e. when theory becomes empirical results.
Keep strong.

I've done this a couple times. A year and a half ago I was up to 240 and decided I got too fat. I dropped down over the course of a year to 205 and didn't lose any significant strength. Now I am back to around 215-220 and much stronger than I was at 240.

As long as you can maintain your strength as you drop down, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to get even stronger when you gain again.

My recent experience is with dropping 15lbs in 10 days to make weight for my first competition. It was a 24 hr weigh-in.

Went from 195 to 180 to sitting back at 197 today (week and a half out of my meet). I expected to get a little bit of rebound, wasn't sure how much.

Comparing my gym lifts to my competition lifts, my strength was down slightly. However, I was also anxious for it being my first meet. Now, having put the weight back on, my lifts have improved somewhat in the gym.



All that said I think I fit into your theory, Hanley.