Weight Loss and Strength: A 10-Week Experiment with Shelby Starnes and 5/3/1
By
Will Irby
For years, I’ve been told that you can’t expect to lose weight without losing
a ton of strength. Over and over that idea was pounded into my head. Yes, losing
significant amounts of body weight can impact strength, but that doesn’t
mean just because you decide to drop a few pounds, you’ll shrivel up and become
the weakest guy in the gym.
For the last five years, I’ve done nothing but train with the goal of getting
as big and as strong as possible. I’m six feet three inches, and I ate my way
from 220 lbs to 285 lbs. I had been training for many years before this, but
much of that training, while strength related, was focused more on passing
military PT tests than it was on building strength and size (my maximum body
weight when I was in the Navy was 215 lbs). Over the last five years, I had put
on a good amount of size and strength. However, not all of the size was “good
size.”
In February 2009, I had some blood work done and the results weren’t ideal.
The doctor told me to clean up my diet and drop some weight. With state and
national powerlifting meets coming up, that went in one ear and out the other. I
put up totals at both meets and tried to go right back into training, but I just
hit a brick wall as far as motivation and results. I was beat down. I went
through the motions for a while but finally decided I needed a change.
In September 2009, my wife and I welcomed our daughter into the world. I no
longer had the desire to go through 2–3-hour training sessions trying to get my
squat or bench up. So I enlisted the help of Shelby Starnes (http://www.troponinnutrition.com/shelby.htm)
to help me whip my body into shape. The goal was (and still is) to get as lean
as possible and maintain my strength levels as much as possible. I had also been
put on cholesterol medication that I wanted to stop taking.
I started working with Shelby on October 9, 2009. I was set up for a 12-week
progressive fat loss plan. The diet started with a basic carb rotation and
cardio plan. As the weeks progressed, Shelby adjusted the diet and cardio as
needed. (Currently, I’m at 70 minutes of cardio a day seven days a week.)
At the beginning of the diet, I decided to run a little experiment to measure
how my strength levels would be impacted by weight loss. I had used Jim
Wendler’s
5/3/1 program in the past for raw work and decided to use it as my
training template. It’s straightforward and easy to follow, and there have been
no shortage of success stories surrounding the program.
I keep a pretty thorough training log, so I track my numbers very regularly.
The 5/3/1 training actually started one week before I began the diet, and the
starting numbers below were all done in the 2–3 weeks leading up to starting the
diet. Over the course of 10 weeks, I lost 30 lbs, going from approximately 275
lbs down to 245 lbs. I used the basic accessory work outlined in the book and
kept my training maxes exactly the same for the entire three cycles that I ran.
I did add in rest-pause work after the main lift to get a bit more work in
because my rep out sets started to suffer just a bit toward the end.
I did a lot of superset work and drop sets. My goal for training was to
always get done lifting in under an hour, so I kept my rest periods short and
kept moving. Basically, if you want to know everything I did, buy the
5/3/1 book
written by the world famous Jim Wendler.
It’s worth every penny (and it’s not even that many pennies).
The starting lifts are numbers that were actually completed in the gym. They
aren’t perceived maxes or numbers bumped up because of how easy a lighter lift
may have been. They aren’t calculated maxes. These lifts were done prior to
starting.
Here’s how the numbers were impacted:
Starting lifts
Squat: 500 lbs (To be fair, this wasn’t a “max effort.” However, it was the
heaviest raw squat I attempted.)
Bench: 425 lbs
Deadlift: 525 lbs (same scenario as the squat)
Military: 215 lbs
Ending 30 lbs lighter
Squat: 500 lbs (This was much harder but I got it. I also hit 430 X 7 three
weeks ago, which was an all-time PR regardless of body weight.)
Bench: 385 lbs (I was fully expecting the drop in my bench.)
Deadlift: 550 lbs (This is an all-time raw PR, regardless of body weight.)
Military: 225 lbs
So if we calculate a make shift “total” of these lifts, my starting number at
275 lbs in body weight is 1665 lbs for all four lifts. My ending number at 30
lbs lighter is 1660 lbs for all four lifts. That equates to a total difference
of 0.3 percent. By my calculation, a drop in body weight of 30 lbs plus a drop
in total weight lifted of 0.3 percent means that I maintained my strength levels
overall. In fact, I would argue that I got stronger through the whole process.
Another benefit that came about through this process of working with Shelby
was the improvement in my blood work. My cholesterol and triglyceride levels had
gotten a bit high (nature was working against me because my father has
notoriously high cholesterol and triglyceride levels). As I mentioned above, my
doctor saw fit to place me on some medication for this problem. I stopped taking
that medication about three weeks before my “ending” labs were drawn, so the
results were from the combination of diet and cardio. There is no other
plausible explanation for it.
Here’s how my blood work played out:
Starting numbers (labs taken about a month before I began working with
Shelby)
Cholesterol: 210
Triglycerides: 280
Labs just taken after nine weeks working with Shelby
Cholesterol: 146
Triglycerides: 136
My cholesterol dropped 64 points, and my triglycerides dropped 144 points.
That’s a huge improvement, and this was actually one of my big goals for this
diet cycle.
So as it stands now, I’m no longer under the impression that you have to
gain copious amounts of body weight to get strong. Yes, gaining body weight
may allow you to add pounds to your total more quickly, but at what cost? Life
outside of the gym had gotten pretty miserable. I could throw on all types of
gear and have great training sessions but walking across the parking lot at work
left me winded and in need of a long nap.
The improved quality of life has been worth the effort in and of itself. The
physique changes are an added benefit. I’m not done with my physique goals
though. My first round with Shelby ends in two weeks, but I’ve already signed up
to continue working with him for another 12 weeks so that I can achieve my
physique goals. As all of us usually are, I was a bit fatter than I thought I
was starting out. This is easy to do because it isn’t hard to look in the mirror
and justify what you see. But take your shirt off and snap a few pictures and
look at yourself objectively, and you will probably find that you have a bit
more work to do than you originally thought. I still have a ways to go to get to
where I want to be, but I’m on my way and I don’t plan to stop until I get
there.
As Jim Wendler would say, get “north of vag” and stay there. Seriously,
anybody can do this.
Will Irby is a normal guy with a normal job and a normal life who enjoys
lifting weights. He is not employed in the “fitness” industry and does not train
clients. He has totaled 1830 lbs in the 275-lb weight class, which in the big
picture isn’t very impressive, but he is pleased with his progress. He has a
wife and three month old at home and a great job where people think he is weird
for doing anything athletic in his spare time. He is busy, just like you, but he
doesn’t make excuses as to why he can’t. He just figures out how he can.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength
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and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
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