Yep, it's worked pretty effectively so far. I'd estimate that I'm down 30+ pounds of fat and have likely added 8 pounds of muscle over 4+ months of work. We'll see how it goes but I'm at about 34 inch waist right now. I'd love to get to 30. That is probably a few more months away though. If/when I get to around 30, I might look at doing a short bulk cycle just to have a little more muscle to help my metabolism in the future.
Wow, that's great progress, good for you!
One thing you can think about is stabilizing for a little bit. That will support further strength gains. You'll have more energy in the gym if you feel that you've lost some pep because of the diet. Then after a few months you can go back to it. If you're still motivated and crushing it with your diet you don't have to stop, by any means. But 4 months straight is a lot of work.
About deadlifts, your mileage may vary by body type as well as other things (like if you're on a diet or in a surplus). A lot of people get great results with a single hard set of 5 deadlifts. These people tend to be chunky thicc boiz. I always got more out of more volume, being a skinny guy. By volume I mean number of hard sets. The hard sets could be a hard set of 3, 5, anywhere up to about 8 reps for deadlifts.
However, when you're dieting, the role that strength training takes is sort of a supporting one. The point of doing strength training in a deficit is to give your body the signal to build muscle. Then, with a high protein intake, you supply your body with the substrate to repair itself. You just don't give it the energy to do so externally. So, if a single set of 5 is doing it for you, and keeps you from being miserable that might be something to think about. Instead of a high volume session that could break your will to live.
