Not obese, but getting close and quickly

[ppineyro]

Hi Robert,

Love all your content and articles, thanks for all your help and all that you do!

Wondering where to go from a nutrition perspective. Started strength training 9 months ago, but crappy programs, inconsistent diet, etc. Began linear progression and eating to gain in April.

Here are my stats:
-33 y.o. male, 5'6", 180 lbs (up from 165 lbs since March), ~ 20% BF but honestly not sure (I use one of those scales that estimates bf%, could definitely be higher); added 6-8 lbs really fast, weight gain has stalled but still increasing 2-4 lbs per week
-Food: 3,000-3,3300 calories; 180 g protein; ~95 g fat; ~300 g carb
-Squat 235 x 5 x 5; DL 250 x 5 (low # due to reset for form correction; Press 95 x 5 x 5; Bench 150 x 5 x 5
-Sleep usually 7 hours per night but quality varies due to young kids, stress, etc

All the lifts have gone up every workout since April but bench is beginning to stall. Adding 2.5 lbs for each exercises except DL where I'm adding 5 lbs. Pretty conservative progression as I want to extend the timeline as long as possible.

Question: given these stats, should I continue to try to gain weight to facilitate growth/recovery and maximize gains, or is it time to pump the breaks, maybe maintain for a while as long as lifts continue?

Thanks for your input!

- Patrick

[Robert Santana]

I wouldn't gain more weight with those lifts being where they are at and your deadlift being artificially weak. Hold your current bodyweight, get your deadlift up over 300, then scale up again. Why are you doing 5 x 5?

[ppineyro]

Thanks so much for your response. Really appreciate it. I'll take down the fat slightly to get closer to maintenance levels, which is usually 2,700-2,900 for me.

To answer your question on why 5 x 5: Just impatience. I've never run a surplus before while strength training (stupid mistake) and figured I would progress as much as possible on 5 x 5 and then switch to 3 x 5 once progression stopped. That worked for the first 6 weeks or so, but recovery is being impacted, so I'm going to drop down to 3 x 5, especially with calories coming down to maintenance levels.

[Robert Santana]

The extra two sets are a lot of work especially on squats. When it's light it doesn't matter but when it's heavy it can be quite brutal.