Getting a tad too fat now...

[gance]

I've been doing the basic SS program and things are going well. I've been eating over maintenance and over 2 months I've gained about 10 pounds, by my guess I'd say maybe 50/50 fat/muscle. I'm 180 pounds 5'8, and I'd say about 23-25% body fat "maybe" (this is hard to judge) What I can tell is that my clothes are getting a bit too tight and I'm getting too pudgy for my own taste. I don't want to have to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe.

I'd like to lose weight, but I don't want to do anything stupid either. My plan for now is to maybe try to drop about 15 pounds by eating under maintenance to lose weight, but continue the SS program to maintain the muscle I have (and maybe if lucky increase strength still a bit in the process while practicing form)

Mark, am I being an idiot by doing this now? Is it possible to continue my SS routine to maintain my gains while I drop some fat?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Had you done the program correctly, I doubt you'd have put on this much bodyfat.

[gance]

This is my first time, and I'm still new at lifting so I guess I messed up a bit... my situation now is, "What should I do to remedy this situation." Then I can make some corrections to make sure I do the program more correctly.

[BreezerD]

I think he's saying he was already fat... having gained 10lb, even if it's all bodyfat he's only gained like 3%bf.

[DOM]

Had you done the program correctly, I doubt you'd have put on this much bodyfat.

Mark, what makes you say this?

I feel I did it correctly, I didn't add anything in, I didn't leave anything out,
ate as much as i needed to recover and be able to add weight to the bar at the next session.
My diet consisted of meat, eggs, milk, nuts, veg and some fruit.
I went from 70kg to 90kg at 5'7, but with a 40" waist.

I know it's hard to say without knowing someone or seeing them train, but do you think i did something wrong, because I really don't know what I could have done to keep adding weight to the bar, without the fat gain.

[JKuhlmann]

i moved into my 'fat guy pants' after 6 wks.....186lbs to 211 (as of last monday)...body fat from @10%- 17%.

but......my squat went from 185x5, to 250x5.....so its all good as far as i'm concerned

[JLascek]

by eating under maintenance to lose weight

I don't know what that means, but it most definitely isn't going to be conducive to doing the linear progression.

Furthermore, what is your background on guessing and obtaining body fat percentages? My experience has been that when people guess a percentage without such experience, they are wrong. This means that your "own taste" for pudginess is subjective, and more than likely irrelevant.

But now I'm just bitching about a pet peeve.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Most young men who do the program correctly add mostly muscle mass during the program. Gance didn't tell us how strong he had gotten, and this is important information.

[gance]

I'm not all that strong really, but my squat has gone from 115 pounds with poor form. To 157.5 pounds with much better form in about 2 months.

[Penhaligon]

It isn't my own experience that very much extra bodyfat comes along for the ride. I've been doing SS since mid-January and have gone from 75kg to 82kg. I don't feel I've put on much extra bodyfat and all my lifts have gone through the roof. Not sure if this is a useful point of reference, but I'm 32 and 5ft 9.5. Weight is still going on both me and the bar nicely.