Am I Eating Enough?

[LeapingLeibniz]

I'm 5'6", about 205 lbs, and I've been on starting strength for a few months (with a break of a couple weeks in the middle because of school schedule)... anyway, I've been eating 4500 calories a day, but a couple days ago I stalled on my lifts. My squat for that workout was 205, overhead press was 120, and deadlift was supposed to be 225 but I felt so beat up after the squats and presses that I just did a warm up set of 135 and 175 and left out the working set. I have been getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night. My question is, for a guy my height are these numbers indicative that I might be done with the linear phase, or are my lifts still low enough that the probable cause of stalling on this workout is that I need to eat more? Thanks!

[veryhrm]

You have likely been eating too much. At your height you probably went through the 20%bf level at which it is recommended to cut back on the calories / "clean up your carbs" to avoid carrying around excess non-functional weight ... sometime in the 165-170lbs range! So yeah... you prob want to get down to something in the 3000 range... that's not exactly "cutting" but you don't really want your weight to go higher (and if it went down it wouldn't be so bad).

Anyway, the last 1/3rd of LP it's normal to feel pretty terrible, i think. As long as you're making the reps w/ decent form, just push through. If you miss reps (or they are particularly ugly)... do them again the next time. A stall is missing reps at the same weight 3 times in a row...
Also make sure you are taking enough rest between sets.

If you're always really beat up, then start thinking about doing "advanced novice" program w/ the light squats on Wednesday, but considering i don't think you've even stalled and reset it's prob too early for that. Get a copy of Practical Programming it will be useful in figuring out how to think about your next steps.

[LeapingLeibniz]

I upped it to 5200 calories a day yesterday and today and tomorrow I'm going to give that same workout another shot (205 squat, 120 press, 225 deadlift) and if I can make it through that and the workout after, I'll keep going with the 5200, but if I can't make the lifts again, I'm gonna switch to another scheme or something... I 100% believe that if I dropped to 3000 calories a day and tried to take that bar off the rack for squatting, I'd make it half way down before collapsing and being crushed to death, lol. I wasn't able to make it past a 175 squat until I upped my diet to 4000+

Oh also my rest between sets is 2 minutes. Should that be enough?

[Josiah Moye]

You should not be struggling with those numbers. Get your form checked. How old are you? How fat are you? I like the enthusiasm though.

[veryhrm]

I upped it to 5200 calories a day yesterday and today and tomorrow I'm going to give that same workout another shot (205 squat, 120 press, 225 deadlift) and if I can make it through that and the workout after, I'll keep going with the 5200, but if I can't make the lifts again, I'm gonna switch to another scheme or something... I 100% believe that if I dropped to 3000 calories a day and tried to take that bar off the rack for squatting, I'd make it half way down before collapsing and being crushed to death, lol. I wasn't able to make it past a 175 squat until I upped my diet to 4000+

Oh also my rest between sets is 2 minutes. Should that be enough?

First off, no, 2 minutes between sets is likely not enough. Take enough so that you feel recovered. You could take 4 - 5 minutes or even 7. 10 would prob be too much at those weights.

As to your proposed caloric intake... do whatever you think is best, but you're very likely already over 30%bf. It may be fine depending on your goals and your life, but it's certainly not necessary to squat 210lbs. Don't come back in a few months complaining that SS made you fat and ruined your life and why didn't someone tell you to not do GOMAD.

Have you read the "Clarification" article? Resources-> Articles -> Rip -> "A Clarification"

[Michele Knaub]

P

[LeapingLeibniz]

I have read the article, and if it's true that I'm eating too much and I need to cut back on the carbs, then I must be done with the linear phase because I'm telling you, if I cut calories by any significant amount, my lifts are not going to keep going up. And you were right, I'm between 25 and 30% bf. I don't think I'm above 30% but it's possible, although I was 31% a year ago and I feel very sure that I'm significantly less fat now than I was then. Anyway... I have a workout planned in 6 hours so I guess I'll know then. I can try, of course, to cut calories a little bit and increase rest times, but I'm still not optimistic about this.

Also I'm short, so I don't know how this should affect anything.

[LeapingLeibniz]

I'm 24 and somewhere in the upper 20's in bf%.

[galensjp01]

Rest times...sounds like nutrition and sleep are fine. I thought I was stalling and I simply upped my rest time from 3 minutes to 5-6 minutes (based on the advice of SS people) and was able to push through much easier.

[LeapingLeibniz]

Rest times...sounds like nutrition and sleep are fine. I thought I was stalling and I simply upped my rest time from 3 minutes to 5-6 minutes (based on the advice of SS people) and was able to push through much easier.

Hmm, okay I'm gonna bump my rest times up to 5 minutes for working sets. I hope it works because I still want to be stronger! A PR deadlift of 220 is better than what I started at (135) but I want more strength! Believe it or not my grades in school have gone up since lifting cause I'm not so physically uncomfortable all the time cause my back can actually support my body now. Mean Ol' Mr. Gravity aint so mean these days, but I still have a lot of progress I want to make.