Am I over-bulking on SS?

[Soda]

I've been wondering lately if I should just try and gently dial back on calories or if I need to go on a full fledged fat loss plan. I'm leaning towards the first option but some recent increases in weight has made me nervous.

I started out at the beginning of August weighing 215 at 6' 1" and very weak. I've since gotten up to work sets of SQ-250 (actually 280 but with form issues so I've reset) DL-335, OHP-120, BP-180. My waist has gone from 39 to 38 but then back up to about 41 now. It doesn't look absolutely terrible only because my upper body is also bigger. However, weight has increased up to 237 this morning, and I'm starting to feel uncomfortable with the amount of fat accumulation. I understand this is a touchy subject but in my late 30s I do have concerns that this is unhealthy. I assume many here have dealt with this and I'm just looking to hear general advice or how you handled it.

[kessg]

Follow this to set up your nutrition plan and you will be right as rain!

To Be A Beast
http://barbellmedicine.com/2012/07/29/584/

[veryhrm]

My take:

The "health" aspect is a non-issue. If you start losing fat now or gain another 20 lbs of fat and start losing it 3 months from now it'll be all the same in terms of your heart etc. (or ,to be somewhat more precise, there's no reason to believe that's not the case let alone a study to show it.)

Taking that off the table, it comes down to what your goals are. By your tone i assume they're not doing PLing and Strongman in the next couple of months.

You're prob too fat for general lifestyle / aesthetic reasons now and already have 6mo to a year of fat loss ahead of you to get under 20%bf (and pref lower). If you were at 300lbs squats making a run for 315 over the next month i'd say just stay the course and don't worry if you gain another 5lbs, 'cause what the heck. 3 plate squats. However, since that's not the case here, i'd just switch to fat loss so that you don't stay too fat for too long and/or stretch out your skin too much more.

Just "gently dialing back the calories" in the last third of the SS LP is a recipe for frustration. If you have it in you to closely measure your intake (maybe via some app like myfitnesspal or something) you could go w/ "case 3" of Jordan's article that kessg linked, but even then i don't know how well you can finish out SS the way it's meant to be on a caloric deficit.

If you're lucky, you do Jordan's fluffy program and the weight loss just happens and the weights keep going up and everything's great. OTOH, start thinking about intermediate programming to switch to if progress comes to a halt.

[Soda]

Wow a year... I didn't realize it might take that long. That's a long time of lifting while stalled, basically.

If I had to guess, based on pics and where I started, I think I probably am in the 23% to 25% BF range.

I have been trying to follow Jordan's recommendations and tracking cals but I overdid it slightly on the eating last month.

[BareSteel]

At your size, I'd wager than you probably have some LP left in you. Eat cleaner while still getting in high quality protein sources. Don't over-complicate this. I'd just caution you against making a drastic cut and finding that the bar suddenly feels a lot heavier.

I second veryhrm's suggestion to lay out a reasonable intermediate plan for when you're ready.

[Tom Narvaez]

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I am currently extremely biased in favor of the "don't get fat" camp. Although I am currently an SS Coach, my views are not generally representative or reflective of how most coaches think... particularly when it comes to this issue.

Your waist is over 40". In my opinion, you're way too fat. At your height, weight, and strength numbers, ~25%+ does seem about right. You probably have 30-40lbs to lose to get down to 15%. If you wanted to be legitimately lean, like six pack lean, you'd have to lose 40-50lbs. So yeah, veryhrm's estimates are fair particularly because most people are not capable of executing a long term diet without royally messing up a few weeks here and there.

Really though, this is your decision. It is about what you want to do. If you want to be lean(er), you'll have to diet eventually. You might as well do it now. There is no magic that occurs during your "first" linear progression that can never be recaptured. You can finish LP later just as you can finish it now.

If you commit yourself to a 9 month bulk, be prepared to commit yourself to the 9 month cut that surely has to follow.

[Dunk]

I think you have two options here lean out slowly and carry on gaining strength or lean out fast whilst sacrificing gains for the time being and then slowly build yourself back up. Both will probably get you to the same place in the same time frame and think I know which one your edging towards. Either way you need to be clever about this so you dont end up in a worse place. You need to get serious with tracking you macros. Start reading all you can from Jordan and Layne.

[Soda]

Thanks everyone for your input. What Tom has said really resonates with me. To be fair to SS, I was already too fat when I started out (I'd guess 22% BF @ 215#) so I haven't gone up too much percentage-wise but there is a threshold you cross where it becomes uncomfortable.

[Simon Rest]

I recommend this diet from Layne. takes some calculating, but is easy enough to follow. Just be aware you're individual maintenance calories may differ from his formula - I know mine did. But overall without any sacrifice I was able to get my lifts up while following this, and dropped body fat about 5-7%.

http://www.simplyshredded.com/layne-...ting-diet.html

[Manimal]

I agree with Tom, but i would like to add that I've always found it easier to refind strength lost than to make new gains. After 2 months of not lifting and a crash diet I came back to SS and regained all the strength I had lost in about 2 months.

I think management of BW is possible on SS, but if you are actually looking to drop some lbs then you should look at a less taxing program.