Have I built any muscle at all?

[synnfusion]

Hi Jordan (and others), I'm 5 foot 10.5 and 186 pounds with a 510 pound deadlift, 375 pound squat (probably have 400 in me if I can learn to stay tight in the hole), 180x2 bench (I'm a shitty bencher, Andy has given me programming suggestions which are working) running HLM. According to the navy method I'm 25 percent body fat and I look it. Generally sloppy midsection, sizable love handles, 39 inch waist, don't look like I lift at all, etc. If you do the math I have about 140 pounds LBM and need to weigh 165 pounds to be 15 percent body fat. These are basically the same stats I had on day 1 so it seems as if I've built essentially NO MUSCLE AT ALL despite getting my squat to 315 pounds for 3 sets of 5, 500+ pound deadlift, etc. I'm not super bothered by it--my goals are strength which I'm getting, but I am curious why it still seems like I'm so under muscled. Thanks for your time.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

How much weight have you gained and how long have you been training? It kind of sounds like you're just looking at your upper body....

[synnfusion]

When I started (four years ago) I was 210 pounds (just fat), lost weight rapidly to about 165, and over the course of 2 or 3 years I yoyo dieted randomly and unpredictably ending up at about 185 pounds with the current lifts I have. Even though it's 4 years since I started the first 3 were mostly wasted due to ignorance on just how fast I could expect to get strong. Just looking at my upper body makes sense though. My hips, quads, etc are pretty thick but since I don't have any 'before' pics I really have no idea what they started out like. Probably skinny as hell.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

When I started (four years ago) I was 210 pounds (just fat), lost weight rapidly to about 165, and over the course of 2 or 3 years I yoyo dieted randomly and unpredictably ending up at about 185 pounds with the current lifts I have. Even though it's 4 years since I started the first 3 were mostly wasted due to ignorance on just how fast I could expect to get strong. Just looking at my upper body makes sense though. My hips, quads, etc are pretty thick but since I don't have any 'before' pics I really have no idea what they started out like. Probably skinny as hell.

You probably gained a little muscle everywhere, but not a ton because you've spent so much time in a caloric deficit.

[synnfusion]

That's probably it. I'd assumed that since my big lifts have gone up so much that I should expect muscle along with it but I know that muscle growth is not a perfect relationship with strength gains. Thanks!