StrongLifts 5x5 and Low Carb Diet

Bigger Stronger Leaner
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Hi guys!

I am a 23 years old female and new to this. At the begging of July I started a low carb diet- 6 days of week of 20g carbs maximum then 1 normal day. With this I managed to loose about 12kg. Now I am at about 100kg at 176cm. I would like to get stronger and gain muscle while also continuing with the diet.

I just started Stronglifts 5x5 program and I want to continue with the reduction diet. My plan is to do the classical trainings A - Squat, Bench Press, Barbell Row and B - Squat, Overhead Press, Deadlift on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with cardio day on Saturday. For the cardio I am thinking of High Intensity Interval Training.

I am wondering if it is sustainable to do both the Stronglifts and the low carb diet, or if it is simply not compatible and I should focus on just one thing. What do you think?

Thanks :slight_smile:

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You are still new at this, so you could absolutely do multiple things (fat loss, strength and muscle gain) at the same time. BUT at some point, progress in either leaning out OR getting stronger/more muscular will stall.

When you get to this point, you will need to prioritize your goals, but I firmly believe you are on the right path now and should continue until it no longer works.

Welcome to the site!

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As long as you keep losing weight, all is good. As you get stronger you will be adding muscle, which burns more calories.

Can you post what kind of weight you are moving in the big lifts?

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Thanks for your reply. The weights are:
Squat: 35kg
Bench Press: 27,5kg
Barbell Row: 25kg
Overhead Press: 17,5kg
Deadlift: 25kg

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  • I don’t think the 5 x 5 volume is so high your diet is going to be an issue.

  • I agree with @Andrewgen_Receptors that you probably don’t have to pick just one horse, yet, but the time is coming. Similar thought with @RT_Nomad - as long as you’re progressing, you’re good.

  • The one thing I’d comment on here is about whether “low carb” is compatible. I don’t think it matters so much where your energetic macronutrient is coming from, as long as it’s sustainable for you. It’s more whether you can be “low calorie” and sustain your workload, which brings us back to the above points. Basically, a low carb diet is one avenue to reducing your calories (and one a lot of folks favor).

  • Most importantly - great work on the weight loss so far!

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IMO, track your rate of strength increase. If you are getting stronger and still dropping weight, stay the course. But like @Andrewgen_Receptors said, this will not last over time.

My initial thought is that I would like to see you be able to Squat 60kg for 5 reps using your current strategy.

Your first short term goal might be squat your body weight for 5 reps. Of course all you other lifts will also increase.

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Just adding link to my training log.

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This looks like a great combination of simplicity and effectiveness. I had a good experience on something similar. As long as you’re adding weight to the bar, stay with it. However, at some point you may find that five work sets is a lot to recover from. When I was doing 5x5, it counted the first two warm-up sets, so there were really three work sets. When you’re REALLY deadlifting close to your 5RM, and that 5RM gets up there, even three sets might be a lot. So, my DL day was 1x5 (not counting a lot of warm up) along with 3x5 of Pullups. The Press and Squat were still 3x5.

HIIT is the way to go for cardio. Use a different “apparatus” each time so as not to get used to a particular one. That is, since the goal is to get your heart rate up, if you are efficient at something, it takes more effort and time to get the result. Unlike if you’re trying to improve your 5K time by mostly running to get better at it, you’ll want to use the stepper, rower, exercycle, kettlebell swings, etc.

Bonne chance.

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Thanks for the reply and tips :slight_smile: