Originally Posted by
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.