I started lifting about six months ago. I was kind of underweight back then. I’m 5’7 and I weighed 140 lb. Fast fwd six months, I weigh about 175. Honestly not sure how that happened. I mean, I’m obviously hungrier so I’m eating more, but it’s definitely got me more in my stomach than pure muscle, so I know I’ve been overeating.
What can I do to get back to a healthy baseline weight wise without it affecting my lifts?
Thank you!
Hank
PS y’all always say on your QA podcasts that you’re here answering Qs all the time so I really need an answer on this one lol.
I started with Starting Strength and am currently doing the beginner 5-3-1 to see if it works for me. SS was way too fast and found myself really struggling.
My waist circumference, measured above my hip bones, is about 39 inches.
I don’t think body weight has as tight a relationship with strength performance as many - especially those promoting the program you previously ran- believe. Increases in muscle mass occur when people train for strength, but larger increases in muscle size don’t necessarily correlate with larger increases in strength.
I would not let waist circumference go over 35-37" tops during periods of weight gain. I’d be looking more towards 33-35" at your height and training experience.
I have concerns with both programs you’ve run so far, particularly the lack of autoregulation, lack of conditioning, lack of variation, etc. Would recommend the beginner prescription/template or similar.
The added conditioning should help, but you need to reign in the diet. I’d start with fixing what’s in the house with respect to high Calorie, processed foods, particularly those with added sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages.
I’d aim to start with 3 to 5 meals per day spread 3 to 5 hours apart, each with a palm-sized portion of lean protein, fist-sized portion of fruit and/or veg, and fist-sized portion of whole grain carbohydrates.
One q: I don’t have an issue with things like processed foods and sugary drinks they’ve never been a part of my diet. However, I just think I’m overeating. One thing that helps me is intermittent fasting, i.e only eating from 11-7. However that makes my 530am workout complicated (having a 2 year old and a 5 month old sorta limits my scheduling options). So I guess I’m asking:
Does my protein need to be consumed during/right after lifting to maximize gains or is that BS?
Will I be able to make progress lifting it if I’m only doing so while in a fasted state (except for maybe some electrolytes and black coffee)?
I’m not. I’ve done it in the past when I’ve gained weight on meds and it helped me. I want to restart it cause I know it helps me eat less, I’m just concerned with how it might affect my workouts (the fasting and lack of protein in proximity to lifting)
I would not be concerned about protein intake’s proximity to exercise, as taking the same amount of protein in over the course of 24 hours should yield the same net result. I’d be more concerned about habitually training fasted from an energy standpoint, though once you get used to it, it probably doesn’t matter either.
To be clear, I think intermittent fasting is fine if someone prefers it. I don’t think it works terribly well for most people, but I defer to people’s preferences.
Makes sense. It’s worked for me in the past so I guess I’ll try it again for a few weeks. Hopefully black coffee, electrolytes, and creatine can give me enough to lift while in a fasted state. Really just need to lose 15lb and then eat in a more mindful way.
Thanks for the note about protein proximity, that helps a ton with making my schedule.
Thanks for taking the time to help me here, really appreciate it!