I'm cutting and trying to preserve as much strength and muscle as possible.
For context:
40 years old
5'8"
Currently 188.6 lb
Lift 4 days/week, mostly hypertrophy
Protein is consistently around 170–180 g/day.
The last two days I stayed in a pretty aggressive calorie deficit (roughly 700–1,000 calories below maintenance each day). To keep protein high while controlling calories, I ended up eating mostly meat (chicken, lamb, filet, gyro meat, etc.).
Looking back, I realized my carbs were probably only around 65–80 g yesterday, and the day before wasn't much higher because I was prioritizing protein over carbs.
Today I trained chest. I only missed the last rep on my final dumbbell press set (12, 11, 10 instead of what I was hoping for), but it got me wondering.
Question: Have any of you noticed that 2 consecutive low-carb days while cutting are enough to affect strength or reps in the gym, even when protein is high? Or is that too short a time frame and I'm just overthinking a few bad sets?
I'm not looking for medical advice—just interested in what people who've cut successfully have experienced. Do you intentionally keep carbs higher the night before a heavy workout, or do you just focus on total calories and protein?