Optimal Bodyweight Gain During NLP for Endurance Athlete

[servedonled]

Hi Robert! I am new to starting strength and want to ask you the best way to approach it for my specific goals.

I am 5”11 and 34 years old. I slimmed down over the last decade, from about 180 (~20-25% body fat) in 2012, to about 155 (~15% body fat) by 2015 using a combination of HITT and relatively aimless ad-hoc weight lifting routines. I then worked in developing countries where it was difficult to feed myself, and I got down to about 140-145 by 2015. I have remained there with 10% to 15% bodyfat depending on my activity level. Here is what I have done in my first two weeks of starting strength:

• Bodyweight: 144 (~15% body fat) is up to 149
• Nutrition: Around 3000-3250 calories per day, all clean food tracked in a very detailed excel spreadsheet that I programmed, 30% protein, 40% carbs, 30% fat (about 250g protein, 300g carbs, 90g fat a minimum). I don’t eat any wheat or refined sugar, and I don’t drink.
• Squat: 115 – 160 3 X 5
• Bench: 110 – 120 3 X 5
• Deadlift: 115 – 190 3 X 5
• Press: 65- 75 3X5

I have not yet added power cleans, but I do four sets of 3 chin-ups on Friday after my regular workout. Right now my only other physical activity is walking 30 mins to 90 minutes per day (some of this is a commute). Obviously, I am not very strong, but things are still progressing at the 3000-3250 calorie level. I have failed a couple of bench and deadlift sets, but have successfully completed them during the following workout.

My goal is to get stronger to protect my joints and tendons and improve at amateur tennis in the 30+ and 40+ age brackets over the next two decades. I am not interested in being a power-lifter, but it seems as if Starting Strength is being recommended to improve overall athletic performance. Optimal performance for a tennis player is around 12 to 16 percent body fat. So if I bulk, at some point I am going to have to run a deficit. Let’s say my goal is 175 lbs at 15 percent body fat, which is roughly what a professional tennis player would weigh around my height. I can see two ways of getting there:

Option 1: Approach my novice linear progression like a regular 18-25 year that is advised to eat 4500-6000 calories per day with GOMAD. Let’s say I do this and put on 60 percent muscle (which I saw in one of Rip’s articles) to 195 lbs and then cut to 175 lbs, something like this:

• Start 145 lbs at 15 percent body fat = 21.75 fat, 123.25 muscle
• Bulk (60% muscle) to 195 lbs at 22 percent body fat = 41.75 fat, 153.25 muscle
• Cut (70 % fat) to 175 lbs at 16 percent body fat = 27.75 fat, 147.25 muscle

This plan looks good, assuming I can put on 60 percent muscle and burn 70 percent fat, but those assumptions might not hold. If they do, I can see a rationale for GOMAD/4500+ calories and getting this done as fast as possible. My hesitancy is that a 20 pound cut sounds horrible. I’ve seen a lot of people and coaches write on this forum “you can lose fat later, it’s easy!” But a pound a week is a 500 calorie deficit every day for 20 weeks (5 months). As you can see from my history, I’ve cut weight before, and the idea of running that kind of deficit for nearly half a year seems like I wouldn’t be able to sustain it. I work a very intellectually challenging job, and the brain fog from that deficit day-after-day would make my work very difficult.

My first question is this: Is there something that I am missing about losing fat once you have more muscle? I understand that you can eat a larger absolute number of calories when your BMR increases with more muscle, but you still have to run the same deficit to lose weight. Does a 500 calorie per day deficit “feel” easier when you are more muscular?

Option 2: The specifics of this are a more difficult to calculate because I don’t know how much I can “beat” the 60 percent muscle 40 percent fat ratio during the bulk, but the idea is to keep eating 3000-3250 calories per day, only bumping the range up in 250 calorie increments if I stall on my lifts for more than two workouts in a row. My idea here is that bulking may take longer (as much as 25 to 50 percent longer) but it might allow me to put on more lean muscle with less fat, necessitating much less of a cut later. I might be able to bulk just to 185, which would only require a 10 week cut to get to my goal weight and bodyfat percentage.

My second question is which option you think makes most sense for my goals. I see pros and cons of each. But since eating in surplus is easy and allows much to function much better than eating in deficit, bulking for a longer amount of time and cutting for a shorter amount of time is what I am leaning towards. Thanks so much for your help!

[Robert Santana]

You are underweight, likely undertrained, and likely not doing the program in a variety of ways. You know this because you've read through this board.

[Jovan Dragisic]

This plan looks good, assuming I can put on 60 percent muscle and burn 70 percent fat, but those assumptions might not hold. If they do, I can see a rationale for GOMAD/4500+ calories and getting this done as fast as possible. My hesitancy is that a 20 pound cut sounds horrible. I’ve seen a lot of people and coaches write on this forum “you can lose fat later, it’s easy!” But a pound a week is a 500 calorie deficit every day for 20 weeks (5 months). As you can see from my history, I’ve cut weight before, and the idea of running that kind of deficit for nearly half a year seems like I wouldn’t be able to sustain it. I work a very intellectually challenging job, and the brain fog from that deficit day-after-day would make my work very difficult.

I lost about 20 pounds in a month and a half, but 250 to 230. I expect to get to like 200, because I am sick of food so I am doing a controlled demolition. I am responsible for tens of millions of euros every day - I mean actually responsible, because the people whose millions those are are mostly absolutely insane. I am 40, I started training at 37. My secret? I didn't start losing weight until I could pull 200 kg for a set of three (450 lbs or so). Just do the program and rm -rf your Excel sheet.

[servedonled]

I agree that I am underweight, which is why I am starting barbell training and eating a surplus. I am doing every aspect of the program, tracking my lifts and following the instructions in the starting strength app. I have also completely cut out cardio and training for tennis in order to support this goal in the short term. The part I am not yet doing is a massive surplus using GOMAD/4500+ calories per day, because I am unclear whether or not that is the best way to achieve my goal of 175 lbs at 15 percent body fat. Are you saying that you believe it is? In your experience, is it easier in terms of lethargy to cut ~20lbs (at 1lb/week) once you have greater lean mass?

Most of the advice that I see here would see me growing to 220 lbs at around 20-25 percent body fat, which isn't appropriate for my sport. The reason I am asking these questions is because I want to understand if GOMAD/option 1 is still appropriate for my slightly older age and my very very different weight and body composition goal.

I'm having a free DEXA done next month through a research study, so I should have a better understanding of my (approximately) baseline body composition.

[Robert Santana]

Are you training to support a sport or are you training because you want to grow muscle?

Percent body fat is really a shitty metric for novices because they are under muscled and under trained. I am 175 lb at around 13-15% body fat and I'm 2" shorter than you and lifting heavier weights. It took me years to achieve that and it involved periods of getting heavier, which meant gaining bodyfat. I tried it the other way and it seems to not work quite as well for reasons we don't fully understand beyond knowing that a surplus of calories creates an anabolic environment where everything grows...to a point of course. At a certain point you just gain more and more fat and that's where it's appropriate to come back down and repeat the cycle.

[servedonled]

Thanks for your responses Robert. Thanks also for your personal context.

To answer your question, I am primarily training to support my sport. I am not particularly motivated by aesthetics or being able to lift heavy things for its own sake. I was a decent junior tennis player, but got away from it as my education, career, and traveling internationally to do development work took precedence. Now that I have more time on my hands, I dove back into tennis training in the fall. I started with 1 hour on the court 2 days/week without a break, and after a month doubled that. After four months (in retrospect predictably...and stupidly) I ended up with a minor rotator cuff injury. It turns out I can't train tennis and perform like an 18 year old anymore. I started looking for a weight training program to hopefully build muscle to protect my joints and tendons for when I return to tennis training, and I found the SS app and then this forum.

After a third week of training and eating at 3000-3250 calories, I am up to 150 lbs. So my weekly weight gain is 1.5-2.5 pounds over the first three weeks of the program. I notice greater strength and also more fat around my midsection. Squat and DL are now at 5lb increments, but I still am doing 5lb increments on bench and press because I probably started slightly low.

I found another one of your articles that suggests 4000 calories for underweight men. I could add maybe a half gallon of 1% milk/day to hit that pretty reliably. Does that seem like a reasonable plan, or do you think I should I stay at 3000-3250?

[Robert Santana]

That sounds reasonable and I would expect some fat gain at this stage. Your deadlift should be going up faster than your squat though. I usually start new lifters on 15-20 lb jumps for the first 3 or so workouts because I start them light on day 1 to not wreck them while still ending up at a reasonable lead on the squat. Then from there you should be able to add 10 for a good while.

[servedonled]

Great! Thanks for your help, Robert. I greatly appreciate it. I'll give this plan a try for six to eight weeks and let you know how I progress.

[Robert Santana]

You are welcome. Keep me posted.