RFL for skinny fat?

[lonestar_shawn]

Hi Jordan,
Thanks for all you do here - I just backed your ebook and I'm looking forward to it.

Stats:
Male, 39 y.o.
195 pounds, guessing 20% bf based on visual comparison of online pictures.
6'3" tall

Obviously I'm skinny-fat. I've tried the Starting Strength program for a few years and had setbacks due to recurring back injuries and other priorities (I really got into road cycling a few years back but I'm not doing that much now). Nutrition-wise I tried GOMAD for a while a few years back. Lately I my diet looks something like this:

Breakfast: Black coffee and granola bar
Workout
Post-Workout: whey shake
Lunch: chicken breast w/ side of rice and beans
Afternoon snack: binge on crackers, potato chips, pb+nutella sandwich, etc.
Supper: Pasta with sauce and meat, bread, broccoli
Dessert: ice cream or beer

Strength wise I was starting to stall on the regular SS workout at some pathetically light weights. 3 weeks back I switched to a daily workout and I've been surprised to add some decent gains where I was stalling before. Most recent work sets:
Squat: 235x3x5
BP: 145x3x5 (I suck at this - long skinny arms don't help.)
DL: 245x2x5
Press: 105x3x5

I don't have any particular athletic goals. I'm just trying to stay healthy as I get older, prevent back issues, offset my desk job lifestyle, and look good.

I've been reading skinny-fat opinions online a bunch lately. The issue is people like this tend to gain more fat than muscle on a bulk, and then lose more muscle than fat on a cut. Several things I've read lately make me think I need to get down to the low teens in body fat as soon as possible, and then I can work on gaining muscle intelligently from there. Is that the best approach for a skinny-fat and is RFL the best way to do that? Or is it better to get my eating in line and slowly work on body recomp?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

There's biggest issues I have here training wise is you've been "doing SS for a few years". You're either doing it or your not. If you cannot progress with the daily ordered progressions, then it's time for new programming.

The other thing is that your diet is pretty much junk and you're wondering why you're "skinny fat". It's really no surprise and if you ask people who either have body image issues or poor diet/training habits, i.e. the people giving the skinny fat opinions most likely, then the response is almost always going to be "cut bro, cut!".

What I think you should do is get on a good training program that you can make progress on, commit to eating 4-5x a day with meals centered around lean protein and single ingredient foods, adjust your carbs and fats as needed, and possibly do some HIIT 1-2x a week to improve your perceived "poor" nutrient partitioning. If you do this 90% of the time for the next 6 months you'll end up much stronger, better composed, and have better training and eating habits overall. Stop having ice cream and beer for dessert, binging on crackers, potato chips and nutella and stick to more meals like you're having for lunch. A sample might look like:

Monday:
Breakfast: Eggs, oats, bacon
Train
PWO-Whey + oats
Lunch: chicken + beans + rice
Dinner: fish + veggies
Before bed: Whey shake

[lonestar_shawn]

Hi Jordan,
Thanks for the quick response. This is great and is exactly what I wanted to hear. I'll be the first to admit that I haven't done a good job of "doing the program." I'm going to refocus my efforts and follow your suggestions for the next few months and see where I stand, but I'm excited. I like the fact that this looks like a solid long-term nutrition plan instead of a crash diet.

[lonestar_shawn]

Also, do you care to speculate why I wouldn't be able to make progress on a SS-style 3 day per week program, but I would do much better on an full body every day program (squat, bench, dl, press, chinups every day)? My hypothesis is that I'm so weak that I couldn't lift enough to generate a growth response lifting every other day, but the volume of lifting every day has been enough to generate a response.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Also, do you care to speculate why I wouldn't be able to make progress on a SS-style 3 day per week program, but I would do much better on an full body every day program (squat, bench, dl, press, chinups every day)? My hypothesis is that I'm so weak that I couldn't lift enough to generate a growth response lifting every other day, but the volume of lifting every day has been enough to generate a response.

I'm not sure what a "growth response" is, but I'd wager that you got some extra practice and technique work plus some added volume/ repeated bout effect might allow for some progression although this is not the normal experience.