I am 45M/5'7'' @175lbs body weight. I am more or less at the end of my novice progression.
Tricky question so I will answer as clearly as possible. If you try to maintain your body weight then as long as the weight on the bar is going up your body composition will change. Once you are no longer a novice changes in strength become more of a function of muscular changes. That being said, "maintenance" eventually becomes "gain" because as you get stronger, your drive to eat increases, muscular body weight increases, and thus total body weight increases. You also end up looking differently too. So i think what you are really asking is how to gain muscle properly. My answer to that is: As long as the weight on the bar is going up you are headed in the right direction. I think far too many people focus on the weight on the scale versus the weight on the bar and the former is the worst proxy ever for changes in muscular body weight, with the latter being a more accurate proxy. Does this make sense?
Well explained. thanks a lot.