Originally Posted by
Tom Narvaez
Well, I hate to ruin a good shitposting thread by replying seriously but...
My advice to a novice on body weight would be very context dependent. Unlike The Program, you cannot simply give everyone the same recommendations. The advice for a skinny prospective HS athlete is very different than the chubby, middle-aged computer programmer who just wants improved quality of life.
Still, I encourage people to cut and bulk for the most part. Even novices. I don't think it makes any sense to fetishize the numbers that you finish LP with. It matters where you end up in the long run. For most people, there isn't a competitive season around the corner or anything like that. So, in my opinion, they don't really need to milk LP for everything it is worth as fast as they possibly can. Training is a long term commitment.
In my experience, you cannot "waste your LP". You can always redo simpler programming when you're in a surplus if you start out training in a deficit.
So, TL;DR:
I think skinny/underweight/lean novices should gain weight at an appropriate pace that optimizes the ratio of LBM to fat gained. I think fat novices should actually diet and begin their training in a caloric deficit.