Not sure what direction I should be headed in

[Serialvandal]

I've been struggling with my weight for a long time, over 20 years now. I'm 40 years old, 6'4 and 260lbs. I feel like I'm obese but I look pretty normal with clothes on, so I guess you could say I'm skinny fat.

After years of program hopping, doing dumb programs and injuring myself, and getting very little progress with both strength and physique I decided to just do starting strength and finally at least get my lifts up in the hopes of being able to use that to help with my physique down the line.

For years I have been eating less than online calculations say I should to lose weight. 2800 calories, then 2500, then 2000, and recently I spent a month doing keto and eating about 1500 calories a day. I lost almost 20lbs doing keto, down to 230! I didn't celebrate because I heard that was most likely water weight. It was. Since upping my calories several weeks ago when I started the SS program my weight is back up to 260 again.

In SS it glances over calories and espouses the virtues of milk. Mentions a benchmark of 3500 calories unless your a skinny kid, then you could need a lot more. So I figured 3500 it is (I could be horribly wrong). I'm not a fan of eating so I have been doing gomad using whole milk, along with a moderate breakfast and dinner that is putting me squarely at 3500 calories a day. For the first time in awhile my lifts ARE going up and im hitting prs now and I think I have more room to improve too.

Am I on the right track or am I doing something wrong? I'm just really frustrated and to be quite honest, depressed.

[Robert Santana]

How much are you lifting? Macro breakdown?

You are 6'4" and probably just need get stronger and let your body composition sort itself out with training.

[Serialvandal]

My lifts aren't great as I decided to be more conservative at the start so I can ramp up.

My current working sets are
Bench 125 for 3x5
Press 90 for 3x5
Squat 165 for 3x5
Deadlift 175 for 3x5

I eat almost the same thing every day, and if something looks wrong it shouldn't be an issue for me to make an adjustment and fix the macros.

Macros are around
3500 calories
212 grams of protein
255 grams of carbs
186 grams of fat

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Robert Santana]

You were too conservative with your deadlift OR you are squatting high. I would cut the fat back and up the carbs and you'll see better results. Maybe 350 g/d of carbohydrates and 105 g/d of fat is a better ratio. That and get your deadlift up.