At what point do you tell someone they've put on enough weight?

[Justinnnnnn]

Hi Rip, I'm an ex-skinny guy, 185cm (6ft2) up from 72kg's untrained to 96kg today (211 lbs). Approx 16-20% BF, 29y/o. My lifts are:

Squat: 110kg
DL: 120kg
Bench: 85kg
Press: 60kg

As you can see, the lifts are pretty low for someone of my size. Am I at the point yet where you'd recommend eating for weight maintenance rather than continuing to gain weight? I feel like at this weight I still have a lot of progress to make on my lifts and with my current diet i'm still gaining 2kg/month.

I'm not concerned with "abz" or being ripped, it's more of practical and financial reasons i'd be open to eating less.

If I should still be gaining, at what point do you normally recommend people go down to a maintenance level diet? I know you pretty much always tell people to gain more weight, but surely there's a point where you'd recommend letting the lift numbers catch up to the scale numbers, relatively speaking. Thanks!

[Mark Rippetoe]

At 6'2' and 211 with these lifts, I'd say you have more of a training/programming problem than a diet situation.

[Justinnnnnn]

Well it's because I only started SS recently, before that was more bodybuilding focus i.e. growth over strength. Only been on SS for about 2 months. Thats why I was saying I feel like I'm muscular enough right now to accomodate much more strength progress, without needing to eat to grow.

Since your answer seemed to imply that I'm correct in my assumption, I might go ahead and adjust the diet to keep the growth down for a while so the strength can catch up, if you agree that sounds like a decent plan? Thanks again

[Mark Rippetoe]

At 6'2" you're not a monster at 211, and a 4% range of bodyfat is significant. You've been on the program 2 months, your progress has been good for that time, and now you're going to change the program that seems to be working just fine. Your call.

[Steve Hill]

At 6'2' and 211 with these lifts, I'd say you have more of a training/programming problem than a diet situation.

That also depends on whether his diet was meat / milk / eggs / veggies / fruits / etc or cake, potato chips, coca-cola and ho-hos.

[kpoff]

@Justin, I am also 6'2 and weigh some where between 220-230 depending on how much I ate/shit before I weigh myself. I generally consider myself to be underweight for my size considering I have the goal of moving significantly more weight than I am currently. Having longer levers means you have the ability to accomadate more body weight comfortably then someone shorter then you....which can be good and bad. Bad because you need to gain more weight than the average person and your long levers force you to do more work to move the bar, but ultimately you have the ability to produce more torque.

[RobCor]

Hi Rip, I'm an ex-skinny guy, 185cm (6ft2) up from 72kg's untrained to 96kg today (211 lbs). Approx 16-20% BF, 29y/o. My lifts are:

Squat: 110kg
DL: 120kg
Bench: 85kg
Press: 60kg

As you can see, the lifts are pretty low for someone of my size. Am I at the point yet where you'd recommend eating for weight maintenance rather than continuing to gain weight? I feel like at this weight I still have a lot of progress to make on my lifts and with my current diet i'm still gaining 2kg/month.

I'm not concerned with "abz" or being ripped, it's more of practical and financial reasons i'd be open to eating less.

If I should still be gaining, at what point do you normally recommend people go down to a maintenance level diet? I know you pretty much always tell people to gain more weight, but surely there's a point where you'd recommend letting the lift numbers catch up to the scale numbers, relatively speaking. Thanks!

Justin, my answer to your title would be: "When they're happy with their lifts." It's an individual thing. This board has a much higher standard for "strong" than the general population, so you need to decide for yourself what you want. It doesn't sound like you're that satisfied. That said, sometimes things like finances and other responsibilities may have to be prioritized over getting strong.

I do have to say though, putting on 52.6lbs and having those lifts makes me a little curious about your training. What weight were your first work sets at?

I looked for a log of yours and found a form check from March, where you squatted 100kg for something like 8 reps. Why are you only squatting 110kg now?

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

I'm monster light at 6' 240.

[Domjo54]

I feel compelled to point out that 185 cm is not 6'2". Between 6'0" and 6'1".

That being said, I doubt Rip's advice will change much.

[Justinnnnnn]

Justin, my answer to your title would be: "When they're happy with their lifts." It's an individual thing. This board has a much higher standard for "strong" than the general population, so you need to decide for yourself what you want. It doesn't sound like you're that satisfied. That said, sometimes things like finances and other responsibilities may have to be prioritized over getting strong.

I do have to say though, putting on 52.6lbs and having those lifts makes me a little curious about your training. What weight were your first work sets at?

I looked for a log of yours and found a form check from March, where you squatted 100kg for something like 8 reps. Why are you only squatting 110kg now?

Thanks for the response. I've been trying to work through multiple back injuries/complaints which have really held back my squatting. I think it's all fixed up now though, so hopefully I won't have to reset my squat for any reason for a while

Domjo: you are correct. Now I don't know which it is, it's been a while since I took my height. Damn, now I need to find a tape measure

Kpoff: thanks for the reassurance. Do you have an idea of your own lean body mass? I know it's taboo to be concerned about bodyfat on this board, but I'd be interested in yours if you know it?