Clarification on your advice “Nobody can get big and strong on 2500 calories”

[aweight]

Dear Mark, I’m 6’1”, 150 lbs, in my forties and just six months into weight training. Until not too long back, my weight used to be in the high 130s, which I inexplicably never felt was too skinny because it never seemed to come in the way of anything athletic I wanted to do.

Goal: to get to deadlifting 2x body weight and 1.5x squats for at least 5 reps, so if my weight continues to be 150 lbs, my 5RM goals would be 300 lbs and 225 lbs respectively. A few weeks back, I had worked up to 245 lbs and 182.5 lbs respectively before I got injured and have been forced to back off a bit, so I’m questioning my caloric intake.

Caloric intake: I was aggressively eating “hard” for my first 4 months making close to 2500 C, but for the last 2 months have switched back to eating just by hunger, but still close to 1gm/pound protein. Eating just by hunger usually makes me eat closer to 2000 C. Eating at least 2500 C every day makes me very full and is not easy for me.

Given my modest goal above, can I stay around 150 lbs eating just by hunger — which means around 2200 C — and accomplish it? I don’t mind getting bigger but am not looking necessarily to get big, just strong enough to lift 2x and squat 1.5x body weight a few times. Or is it folly to expect to work my way up to even that goal at not-even-2500 C while staying injury free?

Thank you in advance for your kindness and advice.

[Mark Rippetoe]

If you're not a troll, you're posting on the wrong board. Either way, NO.

[aweight]

Not a troll, and apologies for the wrong board. I’m new to this site.

Can you please explicitly clarify if your “NO” answer means you are saying I must eat more for my strength (but not necessarily bigness) goals?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Before you post: READ THIS

[francesco.decaro]

Dear Mark, I’m 6’1”, 150 lbs, in my forties and just six months into weight training. Until not too long back, my weight used to be in the high 130s, which I inexplicably never felt was too skinny because it never seemed to come in the way of anything athletic I wanted to do.

Goal: to get to deadlifting 2x body weight and 1.5x squats for at least 5 reps, so if my weight continues to be 150 lbs, my 5RM goals would be 300 lbs and 225 lbs respectively. A few weeks back, I had worked up to 245 lbs and 182.5 lbs respectively before I got injured and have been forced to back off a bit, so I’m questioning my caloric intake.

Caloric intake: I was aggressively eating “hard” for my first 4 months making close to 2500 C, but for the last 2 months have switched back to eating just by hunger, but still close to 1gm/pound protein. Eating just by hunger usually makes me eat closer to 2000 C. Eating at least 2500 C every day makes me very full and is not easy for me.

Given my modest goal above, can I stay around 150 lbs eating just by hunger — which means around 2200 C — and accomplish it? I don’t mind getting bigger but am not looking necessarily to get big, just strong enough to lift 2x and squat 1.5x body weight a few times. Or is it folly to expect to work my way up to even that goal at not-even-2500 C while staying injury free?

Thank you in advance for your kindness and advice.

Some people really get obsessed with numbers.
If you don't wanna get big then you're not going to get big, or strong, no matter how hard you try.
So the answer is, change your mind about this, stop obsessing over numbers, eat twice as much as you are doing now, do the Starting Strength program which you have not read yet, and get back to us in 3 months to tell us what happened.
If you don't wanna do it, stop worrying about it and have fun doing something else.

[Steven Kalin]

Not a troll, and apologies for the wrong board. I’m new to this site.

Can you please explicitly clarify if your “NO” answer means you are saying I must eat more for my strength (but not necessarily bigness) goals?

Dude, you can’t get strong without getting big. Some people I’ve met are pretty strong, in spite of being thin, but an increase in strength is accompanied by an increase in size.

[Mark Le Comte]

It would be easier to hit your goals by getting to 200lb with a 400lb deadlift and 300lb squat. Believe it or not, those are not even particularly large numbers. Trying to increase strength (and therefore muscle) without increasing weight (i.e. losing fat at the same time) is really tough, especially at 40.

A Clarification | Mark Rippetoe

Aim to do the full program and get to around 200lb, 400 dead, 300 squat. Then decide if you want to cut (a little) or get stronger still.

[Jovan Dragisic]

Why even lift weights if you won’t be benching more than two plates?

[anticausal]

I wonder where Peter Dinklage would get with 2500 cal/day.

[Chiaki Nitya]

Meanwhile I'm 3 inches shorter and literally twice as heavy as this dude and I often think I'm too small.