Squat and Deadlift progression on LP

[Michael Wolf]

About the 3 questions, I could probably be eating more, although I'm not eating too little, calories and protein wise. I've been a bit overweight for quite some time and last year I was finally able to get consistent with my diet and started to lean down, slowly but consistently, so now I'm trying to not go overboard with my eating and gain a bunch of fat. I've increased my calories for the NLP, I started with 77.5kg and I'm now with 79.7kg, and by the looks of it very little fat added, what makes me think I'm not under-eating.
Thanks!

If you started your LP in January and have gained all of 2 kg, then yes, you're eating too little. Much too little. That amount of weight gain is barely more than the normal daily fluctuation that someone your size would expect without any gain at all. I'm somewhat willing to let you play the psychological former fat guy card and not push back too hard, but even very conservatively, you probably should have gained about 4-5kg by now. Rip would demand much more.

So you are not eating enough, and that is likely the primary issue causing you to have to adjust programming too soon. You want to avoid getting fat? Of course, so does almost everyone. Gaining 5kg over 10 weeks, while lifting hard and heavy, will not make you fat.

Not trying to pretend to be Wolfe or Rip here, but from the video you look on the lighter side and are already resetting at relatively light weight on the bar.

Also, have you posted your DL videos to the technique forum?

Yes, exactly.

[Marcelo de Lima Marcolin]

Hey Wolf,

I really appreciate the sincerity. Maybe that's what I needed to hear, after so many years of being bothered by some extra fat and always thinking I needed to lose it. I was not trying to play some card and sound like it was an excuse, I was sincerely thinking that my weight trending up meant I was not eating so little. Despite not doing the main barbell lifts over the last years and not following a specific program, I have built some muscle mass, so I did not start completely untrained and that's why I didn't expect to gain weight fast. I see guys lighter than me lifting heavier all the time on the internet, so I didn't think my weight was the cause for me to stall right now.

About my technique, I did post form checks for my deadlift and squat and I'm working on it.

Thanks for the wake-up call. I'll boost my food intake and see how it goes.

[Michael Wolf]

It is certainly possible, even probable, that you don't need to gain weight as fast as a rank novice with no lifting experience. And you'll notice that I didn't suggest you do that. If we were to take a roughly average guy who takes his squat from 95 to 225 in the first 10 weeks of his LP, I'd expect 20-25 lbs of weight gain to be about what I want to see on average. In your case I suggested 10, instead of the 4 you actually have gained, but which I pointed out isn't really even enough for us to know for sure it's not more of a daily fluctuation thing, unless you have a ton of data points and a trendline. And even if you do, it's just too little for your stage in the game.

In short, you're welcome and go adjust your calories up. Don't do anything crazy. Don't add 1500 cals a day. Bump up 300-500 for starters and see what happens after 2 weeks.

[Marcelo de Lima Marcolin]

Hey Wolf,

I thought it would be nice to give an update. I ramped up my calories, mainly from carbs, and my lifts passed my previous plateau and kept going. My weight gain rate increased and I was at 83kg yesterday morning (an almost all time high for me, but with considerably less fat). My last numbers for fives were 128kg for the squat and 142kg for the deadlift.

Unfortunately I had a laparoscopic cholecystectomy due to a gallstone, and will be out of action for some time. I thought it would be fun to test some heavy singles before the surgery, and ended up with a 146kg squat, 111kg bench and 156kg deadlift (could probably be more if tested on a different day than the squat, bui it was nice). It was a nice experience and your advice was certainly very helpful, thanks!