The 70's Big/Linear Progression Food Thread

[JLascek]

I've lurked on this forum for a while, and one topic that continues to come up pertains to gaining weight or continuing to linearly progress. The answer is the same from Rip, "Eat more, you fool."

I'll be honest, Rip gets enough stupid things to answer, so we my as well get a concise source to make it quite clear what you need to do in order to continue linearly progressing, or to get 70's big (link coming soon).

To begin, here is a piece that has been up on the wall in the Wichita Falls Athletic Club:

"So often readers will follow our articles month after month and will never get the point of what we are trying to put over. Actually, all they read it for is to be entertained and to hear that others have made big gains and that they can make them too if they try. They will take their workouts haphazardly. They will follow the diet advice in the same manner and then wonder why they don't gain. When we say you must work hard, we mean HARD. When we say you must use heavy weights, we mean HEAVY WEIGHTS. When we say you must push yourself, we mean you must DRIVE YOURSELF UNMERCIFULLY. When we say you must drink four quarts of milk, we do not mean two. When we ask you to eat more food, we mean more food, not a canary bird diet. If we tell you to eat five meals a day, we do not mean two skimpy ones per day. We know that many of you follow advice in this indifferent manner and you will not gain as long as you do. Let this be a turning point in your training. Make a resolution to go "all out" this coming year and become a superman."

--Peary Reader, Iron Man Magazine, 1958


In order to do this program (the Starting Strength linear progression), you need to realize eating is just as important as the actual training, if not more. If you haven't gleaned this from the forum yet, maybe you will as this thread progresses. Stay tuned.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You've lurked? Okay. But yes, nobody eats enough, pretty much.

[elVarouza]

You mean my half of a skinless chicken breast with 1/4 cup of rice for dinner isn't enough to get hayooge? Gentlemen, I am disturbed.

[Gatorade]

You've lurked? Okay. But yes, nobody eats enough, pretty much.

Well what is your definition of "enough"?

[kunnar]

I have seen also a lot of posts about "not eating enough", but sorry about stupid question, what it really means?

For example, i started SS program in January this year, my bodyweight was then 91 kg and my squat was 50 kg 3 sets of 5. In beginning of June my bodyweight was 89 kg, and squat was 127.5 kg 3 sets of 5. So i lost 2 kg of my bodyweight during SS, but in this time it did not occur to me at all that i was not "eating enough" because weights moved up and i recovered therefore well. Squat 127.5 kg 3x5 is huge success for me and i was very happy with results. Anyway now, after seeing lot of posts in this forum, i think that coach Rippetoe will say that i did not eat enough and what i did was thus not really SS program.

I am 183 cm (6 feet 0 inches) tall and my weight is still 89 kg, how fast should i gain weight (kg per month) and how much should my bodyweight be in the end, so i could say for sure that i am eating enough? Or perhaps, if one could get his squat, deadlift etc. weights up then he/she is already eating enough and bodyweight does not matter, perhaps i still did eat enough during my SS program?