Getting Stronger and Fatter

[dartdart]

Just ordered the PP2nd Edition and the SS DVD. I've been doing the program for 4 weeks now and going up fast. I'm 40, 25 years of fooling around in the gym, some crossfit, 22 years in military, etc. Squat 5x3 @ 102.5kg, DL 5x1 @ 150kg, Press 5x3 @ 55kg, Bench 5x3 @ 97.5kg, Cleans 5x3 @ 65kg. THE GOOD: Been increasing 2.5kg on all plus 5kg on DL every workout for three weeks. THE BAD: I have a weight standard to maintain, and a notoriously slow metabolism (my assessment, always been fighting to stay thin).

Rip, I've seen your "you're not following the program so I can't say" on many a post where it seems people are doing a small deviation (e.g., 'I only squat twice a week'). Well, I'm not drinking a GOMAD, but still gaining (weight and strength), and I am drinking quite a few glasses, maybe over 1L per day.

What is the best recommendation for gaining strength but not fat, or is that a byproduct of SS? I read the SS article where the kid gained 55 lbs in 3 mos and 24 lbs fat. He also was much thinner than I to begin. I am sitting on 206 lbs, 5'10" 38" waist, probably 25% BF (guess). Do you recommend to continue to up the calories and do cardio (prowler, etc)?

What are the best expectations for SS for someone with a lifetime of ingrained bad habits? After reading some other posts and your assessment of the 20 y/o novice, I kind of get the impression that SS may be more of a younger person's program. This post was extremely helpful htttp://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/archive/index.php/t-18717.html
but I don't have the PP2nd yet...

Thanks for your feedback, sorry for the long post.

[Corrie]

GOMAD is not a prerequisite for doing the program. It is only suggested for very underweight people who can afford to gain a lot of bodyweight fast.

The general wisdom is to eat enough to recover but not so much that you get fat. The hard part is finding out what that is for you.
Start tracking what you're eating and get a base level of 3500 calories or whatever you're comfortable with. Try to stick to high protein medium fat medium carb as much as you can and keep carbs low on your rest days. Watch how your bodyweight, waist size and lifts react and go from there.
You can even adjust your food throughout the week. If you had a really tough workout on wednesday and feel like you might not make your lifts on friday eat more. If you feel like everything went up easy that day in the gym you can afford to eat a bit less for the next recovery period.

It's not an exact science and a few weeks of trial and error will get you further than all the articles and science you can read.

You can also look into something like leangains which some people have success with.

[skipbeat]

"Quite a few glasses" and "1L of milk" does not compute to me. Are you taking shots of milk?

[veryhrm]

As already suggested above, "206 lbs, 5'10" 38" waist" => " probably 25% BF" sound like the right ballpark given your lifts, which means you're over 20% and thus more in the "clean up the carbs to get rid of the fluff" category than the eat for glory category. (as described in the "A Clarification" Article in Resources -> Articles -> Rip) That's doubly true if you know your body doesn't like to lose weight. Throwing in a prowler session on Saturdays is also an option.

Your sets x reps notation is also confusing. Around here it's usually "sets x reps". Regardless... PC's are supposed to be 5 sets of 3 don't know if that's just a transcription error or you're actually doing three of five.

And yeah, older people tend to stall out faster on the program because they (we ?!) don't have the same recovery ability of the 18yos, but since everything is going swimmingly, then don't worry about it.

Don't know what "lifetime of ingrained bad habits" refers to but if the program is working then apparently the program works for at least 1 person with said bad habits.

[dartdart]

Thanks for the feedback. I had sets and reps backwards for this forum. And yes, I was doing 3 sets of 5 of PCs. Thanks for the pointer to the clarification article. Lifetime of ingrained bad habits is the "on the traps quarter squat," etc.