Originally Posted by
Geoff Bischoff
If this is addressed specifically elsewhere, I'm not finding it. There's much said in SS articles about eating (question 3 of the First Three Questions!), and nearly always the example is given of the young, underweight male. I'm male, not young, not really underweight, and I'm not sure what's realistic to expect, and what should be alarming (too little gain, too much) for my situation.
So far, here's the stats:
40-y-o male
Training: Weights for 10 years, mostly dumb bro-stuff, but I built a moderate base of strength anyway. Now: Doing SS NLP, just coming into week four: Starting weights: Squat 285, Bench 245, Deadlift 345, Press 157, current Working weights are Squat 295 (deloaded from 315 by a SSC for form fix), bench 255, press 140 (deloaded from 162 by a SSC for form fix), 365 deadlift (with recent 407 1RM PR).
Height: 71"
Weight: 193.0 at start of NLP, 199.2 yesterday. Difference between weigh-ins approx 24 days.
BF%: Unknown. My eyeball estimate is 12-18% (wide range, I know.)
I am noticing a very slight loss in definition (my "razorabs" are softer now) but I do feel stronger with more food intake, and I feel and look thicker in the chest and shoulders/quads and adductors, so I take that as evidence that I'm gaining muscle AND fat, as expected, though I have no data on how much of each. I also have nearly zero data on my macros, except that I eat whatever eggs I can, and am doing roughly HAGOMAD (Like GOMAD, but Half A Gallon).
I am okay with weight gain. The Army requires me to fulfill certain bodyfat requirements, but I could pick up another 20 lbs for sure, probably 30, and maybe even 40, and still be in compliance with regulation (provided that a decent percentage of the pickup is lean mass). My chief priority (beyond not getting booted from the Army for fatness) is maximizing strength gains by putting more weight on the bar.
My question as simple as I can get it: What's approximately "normal" for a 40-year-old athlete with decent genetics and a good hormonal profile, who is eating like he wants to grow and working the NLP like it's a second job? Even a ballpark will help, like, "X is too little; Y is too much," or whatever you've got.
Blessings and thanks;
G