Am I still a newb?

[imak179]

Are "newbie gains" dependent on your strength level or how long you've been lifting? I lifted for about a year doing isolation exercises like an idiot, with a bad diet. I then did starting strength for 4 months with a better diet, but I was still not eating enough. I'm now redoing starting strength with a 1000 calorie surplus, and I'm intending on raising the surplus even more when I start to sense even the slightest slowing down of the bar. I don't care about fat gains anymore. I just wanna get big. I can worry about the fat later. Have I exhausted my "newb gains" by working out, albeit improperly, for about a year and a half? or do newb gains only stop after a certain strength level is reached?

[veryhrm]

You're clearly a noob since you're asking this question. As to whether you're still a "novice" in the SS sense... you claim you have read the book, it talks about that in the intro and in the Programming chapter.

You just restarted the program like 3 weeks ago according to your other posts. Stop obsessing and just do it for another month or two or three. Also, while it's good you're not going to think about abz this time... there's prob no need to get over 200lbs either unless there's a 350 squat to go with it. The bar is definitely going to "slow down"... the last say ... 1/3rd of LP is a grind no matter how much you eat but that's been addressed in your other threads at some length.