Setting Realistic Goals for Myself

[tlewis3348]

My wife and I just talked about my lifting goals (particularly, in regards to the impact on our budget).

First, here's where I'm currently at:

Age: 37 yrs
Height: 5 ft 6 in
Bodyweight: 170 lbs
Deadlift: 335 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 280 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 170 lbs for 3x5
Press: 110 lbs for 3x5

I can also do 3 sets of 7 or 8 chin-ups with 30 lbs added to my waste.

Second, according to this article (link), some good long term goals are as follows:

Press x 1 bw
Bench x 1.5 bw
Squat x 2.5 bw
Deadlift x 3 bw

Assuming Rippetoe's often referenced standard of squatting 405, it would seem that (in theory) translates to approximately the following:

Bodyweight: 162 lbs
Deadlift: 486 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 405 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 243 lbs for 3x5
Press: 162 lbs for 3x5

Alternatively, here are the goals suggested by Grant here (YouTube link):

Deadlift: 405 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 315-365 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 225 lbs for 3x5
Press: 135-185 lbs for 3x5

Anyhow, obviously my goals are dependent on my desired outcome, which I'm having some difficulty defining in concrete terms. Namely, I want to maximize my long term health while staying within our budget. The budget restriction seems to be the primary limitation at this point. There's a few reasons for that:

1. Dietary: We're currently spending about $150/mo. on protein (Costco [link] sells 5.64lb bags for $64+tax each), which essentially translates to consuming ~180g of protein per day plus whatever I get from the food my wife cooks.
2. Clothing: I currently wear medium size shirts and 32-30 pants, and my pants are starting to feel like "skinny jeans" (which is definitely not desirable), and depending on how much they have shrunk, a couple of my shirts are feeling a little tight in the arms.
3. Equipment: The maximum I can put on the bar right now is 395 lbs.

Now, due to the various dietary, clothing, and equipment demands on our budget, my wife is wanting me to consider a more limited goal than I was originally planning. From her perspective, she's seeing a massive improvement over my fitness level when we got married 13 years ago and I was barely 140 lbs and untrained.

My question is therefore twofold:

1. If cost were not a concern, what would realistic goals for a 5'6" guy who's not interested in lifting competitively be, and is there a means of estimating what size clothes that guy would be wearing?
2. If I wanted to keep my current shirt size and decrease my protein intake to 120g (from protein powder), what would realistic goals look like?

[Jason Donaldson]

TL;DR version: The Outcome or The Process? | Mark Rippetoe

The NLP working the way it does, and personal genetics and anthropometry having the effect they do, it makes little sense to set weight goals, especially early on. You're better off aiming for getting as strong as you can by following the program as closely as you can for as long as you can.

If cost were not a concern, what would realistic goals for a 5'6" guy who's not interested in lifting competitively be, and is there a means of estimating what size clothes that guy would be wearing?

What you really want is the size clothes a specific 5'6" guy who's not interested in lifting competitively will wear, namely you. Different from where you are now, if you keep going. Beyond that, it's hard to say. I wear trousers in slightly lower waist size than before I trained, but to accommodate my hips and thighs now, instead of my gut. I wear bigger shirts, but to accommodate my chest and shoulders instead of my gut. You may be similar, or maybe not. It happens gradually, though, so you'll have time to adapt.

If I wanted to keep my current shirt size and decrease my protein intake to 120g (from protein powder), what would realistic goals look like?

Something around this, I'd guess:

Height: 5 ft 6 in
Bodyweight: 170 lbs
Deadlift: 335 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 280 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 170 lbs for 3x5
Press: 110 lbs for 3x5

[Maybach]

You need to get a better job or a better wife.

20 g of protein for a dollar isn't the cheapest, but it doesn't get THAT much cheaper. Milk gallons and canned chicken breast work out to be something close to 30 grams per dollar.

You won't be able to progress on 150 grams of protein a day. Sorry.

[tlewis3348]

You need to get a better job or a better wife.

20 g of protein for a dollar isn't the cheapest, but it doesn't get THAT much cheaper. Milk gallons and canned chicken breast work out to be something close to 30 grams per dollar.

You won't be able to progress on 150 grams of protein a day. Sorry.

You need to get a better personality or get a better life. Also, learn to not insult people's wives.

Also, your math is bad: 5.64 lbs (i.e., 2.56 kg) at $64 translates to 40 g per dollar, not 20.

Finally, while we're identifying errors, I said I'm consuming 180 g of protein per day, not 150. And with the additional protein consumed as part of my normal meals, the total protein is likely approaching 250 g per day, though I don't track it.

The NLP working the way it does, and personal genetics and anthropometry having the effect they do, it makes little sense to set weight goals, especially early on.

Thanks for the info.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The Outcome or The Process? | Mark Rippetoe

[Jason Donaldson]

Also, your math is bad: 5.64 lbs (i.e., 2.56 kg) at $64 translates to 40 g per dollar, not 20.

Finally, while we're identifying errors, I said I'm consuming 180 g of protein per day, not 150. And with the additional protein consumed as part of my normal meals, the total protein is likely approaching 250 g per day, though I don't track it.

In the interest of clarity, a couple things are getting muddled in this discussion.

First, it sounds like you're telling us how much protein you're getting from just protein powder, at least in some contexts. It really helps to keep track of all sources, since real food protein can vary considerably. What I do is keep running, written track throughout my day, to make sure that I hit my protein needs, using whey protein isolate as necessary to round that out. This takes planning and focus, to avoid having to down a ton of whey isolate right before bed, which disrupts my sleep. Some days I manage to use very little, some days I take a lot, especially when disruptions happen.

The second thing is this: grams of protein powder is not the same as grams of protein in the powder. Your link to Costco doesn't work for me, but from your description, I'm guessing it's something like their "Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey Protein Powder, Extreme Milk Chocolate, 5.64 lbs". According to that product's nutritional info, a 32g scoop has 24g of protein, so only 3/4 of the weight is actually protein. By comparison, the Now unflavored whey isolate I use has 25g of protein per 28g scoop, for a much higher yield. This is because it is just whey isolate and a little sunflower lecithin - no modified food starch, no maltodextrin, no flavorings, no sucralose or acesulfame K... You may find a different product more cost effective, not to mention more precise for adding just protein to your intake.

[Maybach]

You need to get a better personality or get a better life. Also, learn to not insult people's wives.

Also, your math is bad: 5.64 lbs (i.e., 2.56 kg) at $64 translates to 40 g per dollar, not 20.

Finally, while we're identifying errors, I said I'm consuming 180 g of protein per day, not 150. And with the additional protein consumed as part of my normal meals, the total protein is likely approaching 250 g per day, though I don't track it.

The protein in that much ON whey is indeed closer to 30g/ a dollar. But this isn't good news for you.

You said you wanted to decrease your protein consumption to 120 g. If you're not getting a lot from other, hopefully cheaper sources, that's not enough.

If you aren't going to spend any more money on this, the only goal you actually have any chance of achieving is a 395 deadlift.

If you don't want to get any bigger and stronger, like tlewis said, you won't.

[Griffin727]

My wife and I just talked about my lifting goals (particularly, in regards to the impact on our budget).

First, here's where I'm currently at:

Age: 37 yrs
Height: 5 ft 6 in
Bodyweight: 170 lbs
Deadlift: 335 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 280 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 170 lbs for 3x5
Press: 110 lbs for 3x5

I can also do 3 sets of 7 or 8 chin-ups with 30 lbs added to my waste.

Second, according to this article (link), some good long term goals are as follows:



Assuming Rippetoe's often referenced standard of squatting 405, it would seem that (in theory) translates to approximately the following:

Bodyweight: 162 lbs
Deadlift: 486 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 405 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 243 lbs for 3x5
Press: 162 lbs for 3x5

Alternatively, here are the goals suggested by Grant here (YouTube link):

Deadlift: 405 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 315-365 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 225 lbs for 3x5
Press: 135-185 lbs for 3x5

Anyhow, obviously my goals are dependent on my desired outcome, which I'm having some difficulty defining in concrete terms. Namely, I want to maximize my long term health while staying within our budget. The budget restriction seems to be the primary limitation at this point. There's a few reasons for that:

1. Dietary: We're currently spending about $150/mo. on protein (Costco [link] sells 5.64lb bags for $64+tax each), which essentially translates to consuming ~180g of protein per day plus whatever I get from the food my wife cooks.
2. Clothing: I currently wear medium size shirts and 32-30 pants, and my pants are starting to feel like "skinny jeans" (which is definitely not desirable), and depending on how much they have shrunk, a couple of my shirts are feeling a little tight in the arms.
3. Equipment: The maximum I can put on the bar right now is 395 lbs.

Now, due to the various dietary, clothing, and equipment demands on our budget, my wife is wanting me to consider a more limited goal than I was originally planning. From her perspective, she's seeing a massive improvement over my fitness level when we got married 13 years ago and I was barely 140 lbs and untrained.

My question is therefore twofold:

1. If cost were not a concern, what would realistic goals for a 5'6" guy who's not interested in lifting competitively be, and is there a means of estimating what size clothes that guy would be wearing?
2. If I wanted to keep my current shirt size and decrease my protein intake to 120g (from protein powder), what would realistic goals look like?

You are thinking to hard into this. Buy a tub of protien and eat meat with dinner, eat beans, eat cheese, drink milk. I have bullshitted a diet for a long time and made pretty good progess. Did it take me longer then it need to, yeah probably. As long as you are getting really full at night on real food and training hard and gaining some weight you will do these numbers bellow in time.
Bench 250
Squat 365
Deadlift 405
Press 155
Things may get a little harder from here. These numbers are not absolute, but somthing any healthy man with normal genetics can do in at most 2 to 3 year half assing it. Now if you want a 405 bench and 600 squat, yeah everything will have to be dialed in. So yeah grants video is pretty spot on for my experance. Mind you I did start lifting pretty young.

[TommyGun]

You need to get a better job or a better wife.

20 g of protein for a dollar isn't the cheapest, but it doesn't get THAT much cheaper. Milk gallons and canned chicken breast work out to be something close to 30 grams per dollar.

You won't be able to progress on 150 grams of protein a day. Sorry.

Ha! This is why I go to the forum, for the no nonsense truth.

To the OP, I've been married a long time and if I may offer some unsolicited advice: tell her its important to you. Then pause, no more words necessary. I am sure you accommodate her bat shit crazy things, she can yield a little on this. Good luck buddy, you'll figure it out

[Sturw]

My wife and I just talked about my lifting goals (particularly, in regards to the impact on our budget).

First, here's where I'm currently at:

Age: 37 yrs
Height: 5 ft 6 in
Bodyweight: 170 lbs
Deadlift: 335 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 280 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 170 lbs for 3x5
Press: 110 lbs for 3x5

I can also do 3 sets of 7 or 8 chin-ups with 30 lbs added to my waste.

Second, according to this article (link), some good long term goals are as follows:



Assuming Rippetoe's often referenced standard of squatting 405, it would seem that (in theory) translates to approximately the following:

Bodyweight: 162 lbs
Deadlift: 486 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 405 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 243 lbs for 3x5
Press: 162 lbs for 3x5

Alternatively, here are the goals suggested by Grant here (YouTube link):

Deadlift: 405 lbs for 1x5
Squat: 315-365 lbs for 3x5
Bench: 225 lbs for 3x5
Press: 135-185 lbs for 3x5

Anyhow, obviously my goals are dependent on my desired outcome, which I'm having some difficulty defining in concrete terms. Namely, I want to maximize my long term health while staying within our budget. The budget restriction seems to be the primary limitation at this point. There's a few reasons for that:

1. Dietary: We're currently spending about $150/mo. on protein (Costco [link] sells 5.64lb bags for $64+tax each), which essentially translates to consuming ~180g of protein per day plus whatever I get from the food my wife cooks.
2. Clothing: I currently wear medium size shirts and 32-30 pants, and my pants are starting to feel like "skinny jeans" (which is definitely not desirable), and depending on how much they have shrunk, a couple of my shirts are feeling a little tight in the arms.
3. Equipment: The maximum I can put on the bar right now is 395 lbs.

Now, due to the various dietary, clothing, and equipment demands on our budget, my wife is wanting me to consider a more limited goal than I was originally planning. From her perspective, she's seeing a massive improvement over my fitness level when we got married 13 years ago and I was barely 140 lbs and untrained.

My question is therefore twofold:

1. If cost were not a concern, what would realistic goals for a 5'6" guy who's not interested in lifting competitively be, and is there a means of estimating what size clothes that guy would be wearing?
2. If I wanted to keep my current shirt size and decrease my protein intake to 120g (from protein powder), what would realistic goals look like?

Get drunk on a regular basis and cry loudly at night about not getting to be the person you want to be. Then maybe your wife will let you eat protein. You can actually practice the valsava manouver when building up the pressure to exert loud sobbing noises. Just stay real tight in the belly and follow through with intent.